How are Commercial Ships Tougher?

Commercial ships are a world apart from recreational yachts. They contend with tougher requirements, and they need far more safety features. But what are those differences? How is the commercial ship safer?
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References
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[@k9killer221]

That's why the smart money buys a commercial ship like an OSV/PSV and then converts it into a yacht with extra accommodations and luxury.

[@shaider1982]

Russian oligarch's yachts that almost are like mini Amphibious assault ships probably are made like commercial ships from the start.

[@bernardkealey6449]

LYC/PYC for anything over 24m or 500GT have a lot of this built in.

[@alwaystinkering7710]

There are a few YT channels featuring people converting small commercial boats like tugs and trawlers and you get to see the guts of theses kinds of boats. Even ones built a few decades ago are no comparison to pleasure boats, and that's just the hulls! The fact that they are still useful after decades and sometimes even sunk like Brupeg shows how tough commercial hulls are.

[@shaider1982]

I think this is the reason why Houti antiship missiles (which are smaller than something like a harpoon) damages but not sink mechant ships. They are tough by design.

[@JennySusanti-u1q]

Thanks nick for another great video. Have a look the artic silk road where the russians are building ice class ships and niclear powered ice breaker which dont need refueling.

[@Bari_Khan_CEng_CMarEng]

I feel the engineering system redundancy, diversity and resilience of commercial shipping is also because nation states don't appreciate tankers snapping in half, and container ships tearing themselves to pieces, and tons of cargo and bunker oils killing marine life and effecting communities! I am sure all yachties and marina users wouldn't appreciate mass damage to their environment and livelihoods! P.s. I am a port state control officer. Also, great series of videos, really enjoyable to watch!

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

Well said. I think we often forget the scale of damage that commercial ships can create. With commercial ships, it only takes one ship disaster to ruin a coastline and nearby environment for years to come.

[@JennySusanti-u1q]

Hi Nick. How do iceclass vessels break ice and what happens to the nuclear reactor when it is decommissioned?

[@akcarlos]

how much of this is because the commercial ships are larger and have more stresses on them and yachts can have more simple systems that are easier to repair.?

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

As far as the structure goes, I would estimate 35% of the added strength is due to their larger size. If you built a yacht at the same size, that yacht would still need to contend with the same problems of larger size. But that yacht could theoretically still be lighter than a commercial ship, because it was not designed to handle rough weather. Practically speaking, when yachts get that large, we design them to the same structural standards as commercial ships. As for the marine systems onboard, I agree that large part of the cost for commercial ships is their more complex systems. All the redundancy, extra pipes, and extra valves adds a lot. But I don't think the systems are more complex due to the size of the ship. In theory, I could make a giant freighter with just one fuel tank and a single pipe running from that tank to the engine. It would run just fine (until it needed maintenance). So the extra costs on the marine systems has to do with the extra capability, not the larger size.

[@cf453]

This really reinforces the Shipping-As-Infrastructure idea. Your median municipal sewage pump station is designed with triplex pumps and a backup generator. Uptime and endurance are everything.

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

Shipping-As-Infrastructure. I like that. Excellent term. And very true. If we remember the Ever Given incident, we saw how quickly the world stopped when the infrastructure of shipping broke down.

[@cf453]

@@DatawaveMarineSolutions I think I may have come across the notion during the news coverage of the Port of Los Angeles pandemic back-up, although the Ever Given is another great example. I think there's a secondary indicator in what appears to be a very rigorous, and generally well-founded regulatory environment. What do I know? I'm just a land surveying tech that works dirtside. ;) Anyway, thanks for the informative content.

[@carlthor91]

Thanks for that one. I have only known of one sailing yacht built to Canadian commercial ship standards. I look at how thin the aluminum on most yachts is, and shudder. Best wishes from the far North.

[@JyttesTrailCamera]

'Yacht vs commercial ship' is neither a correct nor a fair comparison. What you are actually talking about is 'smaller pleasure vessels, usually built of plastic' vs 'commercial ships AND properly built larger yachts, usually steel hulled'.

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

True, I was grouping the properly built larger yachts in with the commercial ships. As you said, those yachts are often built to the exact same standards as commercial ships.

[@JyttesTrailCamera]

@@DatawaveMarineSolutions Thanks. Emphasis here is of course on 'properly built' (I say as I'm watching 44m Aria SF burning to the waterline) 🙄. As with any other product, cheap (or, I should say, money spent in the wrong places) almost always means 'less safe'. I enjoy your videos very much. I'm no engineer, but even I can get my head around most of your explanations. Has helped me a lot to understand more about yachts.

[@jackmccrary2614]

@@DatawaveMarineSolutionsFirst, thanks for your series of great videos. I've learned a great deal from watching them. You provide tons of great information, but I think this video is a bit off. If you'll pardon the pun, you lump all small yachts into the same boat. I feel like what you are really describing are the day sailors and coastal boats. Proper purpose-built blue water cruisers and exploration yachts incorporate most if not all of the safety systems you attributed to commercial vessels because the need for self-rescue is a very real scenario. They also typically have a higher duty cycle than day sailors and coastal boats though admittedly probably closer to 50/50 usage than 90+ percent time at sea. Some might argue that even coastal boats are built closer to the commercial duty cycle standard since so many are used in charter service where the only change from an private owner's configuration is a larger number of smaller cabins in the same volume.

[@akcarlos]

I just realised when you say yacht you are talking about a small inshore motorboat rather than a sailing yacht which is what a yacht is known as in my country.

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

I mean the sailing yachts as well. Offshore sailing yachts are built stronger than a small inshore motorboat. But they are still not the same as a commercial ship standard.

[@akcarlos]

@@DatawaveMarineSolutions then I respectfully submit that you might be overstating your case. sailing yachts that are travelling oversea need to be self sufficient but because they are smaller the systems are smaller. They have two independent means of propulsion and usually the primary method are sails .

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

@@akcarlos That is a good point. I admit that I went for a generalization in this video to convey some of the major differences. But true, there are always exceptions.

[@BoomVang]

In a superyacht channel, they talk about some having enough bedrooms/capacity to almost be bumped to commercial standards. I will botch the terminology and measuring standards here, but it seemed like they have dilemmas like to add one more bedroom say for the wife's hairdresser it will cost $100M upgrade of the whole ship. Or else bump an important officer from his stateroom near the bridge to a daybed and use of shared bunks.

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

That's interesting. Most standards I know regulate based on the number of people onboard, not beds. But beds may be how they count the people capacity of the yacht. I suspect they are bumping up against the 12 Pax rule. International law says that you can have up to 12 paying passengers onboard and still be classified as a charter yacht. But at number 13, you are a passenger ship and need to meet commercial standards. Superyachts use this rule to create massive ships with large crews and only 12 paying passengers. Then they are just a charter yacht. That situation with the wife's hairdresser may be a little more complicated. It would completely depend on the details.

[@R.Floman63]

You always hear Bering Yachts bragging that they are built to commercial standards and with steel hulls, are they really built to those specs?. I am also curious, are commercial regulations on watertight integrity and compartmentation also the basis for some military and coast guard vessel design specs?

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

I can't say about Bering yachts. It takes a lot more than simple steel construction to build to commercial standards. To answer this properly, I would need access to a lot of confidential information that Bering Yachts is not likely to share. As to watertight integrity on military ships. In theory, the USCG and military ships are built to a higher standard of damage survival than commercial ships. In theory, you can damage more compartments on a military ship, and it will still survive. In practice . . . more variability. Damage survival is the law for commercial ships. Most commercial ships consistently show the same survival ability because we all follow the same laws. USCG and Military ships don't have to follow those laws. They have their own rulebook. Most times that rulebook is better. Sometimes, it can be worse.

[@andreaspoppe3124]

So it seams commercial ship follow somehow the same rules like commercial aircraft design. Like: Why you do not gold for structural parts? Because its bad material properties! Thanks for showing us the other side of the screen!

[@dragoncam93]

Why don't yachts use non flammable furniture? Is it that luxury furniture includes flammable components such as wood? Or do you mean that they typically have a lower flammability rating for lack of a better term. Generally most modern furniture is burn resistant. ...is it the case that in commercial ships everything is actually burnproof?

[@DatawaveMarineSolutions]

I admit that most of these furnishing are generally classified as "burn resistant" on a commercial ship. The exact flammable requirements vary with the testing method and regulatory body. But as an example, much of the furniture is made from metal (steel or aluminum), which takes a LOT of effort to combust. Yachts usually use some form of plywood for their furniture. It can be a sandwich panel with a veneer of plywood, but either way, there is usually a combination of resin and wood involved. Ships only use plastics or metal that were coated in paint patterns to look like wood. The yachts stick with real wood because real wood looks much better. I have very little sense of aesthetics, and even I can see that. The fiberglass resin is another issue of flammability in yachts. The hull and many furniture surfaces of the yacht will be coated with resin, as a long term preservative. You can get resins that are fire resistant, but those resins cost much more and are much weaker.