The Swedish Club suggests vessel operators to always look to the long term, when deciding what type of engines to install across the fleet. Latest statistics from the Club show that vessels propelled by medium/high speed engines have a claims frequency 2.5 times higher than slow speed engines, with an average claims cost close to $650,000.
Swedish Club’s ‘Main Engine Damage’ says that a vessel will experience one and two incidences of main engine damage during its life time. Considering the costly consequences for ship owners and their hull insurers, it is important to identify the main causes of this damage and examine how these can be prevented.
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The report says that bulkers and tankers perform the best when it comes to claims cost, as they have slow speed engines. On the other hand, passenger vessels/ferries have the highest frequency of main engine claims. These ships generally have multiple medium speed engine installations. The same is also true for Ro-ro vessels.
Peter Stålberg, Senior Technical Advisor, mentioned:
When there is a choice to be made between a slow speed engine and a medium/high speed engine, the Club’s experience demonstrates that the slow speed engine is the safer option, when you balance the space saving advantages of the medium/high speed engine against the increased costs of running the vessel in its lifetime. In addition, not only is the claims frequency of medium/high speed engines higher, but they also have a disproportionate claims cost (43%) in relation to insured vessels (28%).
As for the causes of damage, lubrication failure is the most expensive and most frequent of damage, followed by incorrect maintenance and repairs.
See more details in the PDF herebelow
