Polar Code

While wearing one of my other hats, as Senior Vice President of The Nautical Institute and member of The Institute’s NGO delegation to IMO, I am very much focused on the Polar Code as it progresses through it’s latest re-incarnation. As soon as I disembark RV Mirai in Yokohama, I fly to London to participate in the IMO MEPC discussions related to the Polar Code. My involvement goes back many years however, to the mid 1990’s when I was part of the team the developed the first proposal for Ice Navigator requirements for inclusion in the first attempt at a Polar Code.

For many months now, those of us with interests in Polar shipping have been awaiting the news on the selection of shippers and exporters for Russia’s ambitious Yamal LNG project.  On 15 July the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced Russia had granted LNG export rights.  The same week Arctic LNGC construction contracts have been signed

It feels a tad ironic that I left London behind this morning clear and crisp and now sit in Vancouver, heavily shrouded in fog.  Sherlock Holmes would love it that irony.  The only fog I saw in London this past week was the fog of fatigue from the delegates in the Polar Code Working group. 

It is nearing the end of day two at IMO.   As is normal for this organization, sessions are usually marathon runs, as committees, sub-committees and working groups attempt to meet their various goals and remits. 

I am off to London in the next few hours to attend IMO SDC 1 Sub-committee on Ship Design and Construction.   This is the first meeting under the re-engineered sub-committee structure.  There has been somewhat of a streamlining achieved with the previous number of sub-committees reduced to 7 from 9.  

My participation will be within the Working Group on Development of a Mandatory Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code) as a member of the Nautical Institute’s NGO delegation.

During next week’s SDC1 my focus will be on Ice Navigator requirements and standards; however, much more will be discussed. Some of the diverse subjects to be covered include: