Located on the banks of the Shing Mun River, the rowing club of the Hong Kong Sports Institute(HKSI) is a member of the World Rowing Federation, and the sport is booming in South-East Asia. The HKSI chose the French company Poralu Marine and its high-end expertise in constructing competition facilities to design and build a one-of-a-kind floating structure specifically for rowing.
Built using floating docks designed specifically with the needs of rowing in mind, this Olympic-quality facility meets the highest international standards.
The design accounts for the site’s major technical constraints, which posed a real challenge. The most significant of which are a quay rising over 3 meters above water level and restrictions on having any structure in direct contact or resting directly on the quay. Poralu Marine’s engineering teams designed an 8-meter-wide access gangway that is supported at the same level as the quay by a pre-fabricated metal structure. The engineers also worked closely with a contractor to design a customized piling system to ensure proper alignment despite the fact that the river bed is not flat and permanent piling was not allowed.
Poralu Marine’s facilities are designed for high-level water sports and meet the highest performance standards. For the HKSI project, Poralu Marine used its low-freeboard dock technology for the launching pontoon, which ensures athletes’ safety thanks to the rounded shape and the polyethylene edge protection. The docks are fitted with 100% recyclable Ecostyle decking with a non-slip surface. 
The facility is movable if needed, and has been designed to withstand the extreme weather conditions that the region sometimes experiences. The entire structure has been designed to be accessible at all tidal levels, maximizing the time available for training.
Poralu Marine’s expertise makes it the partner of choice for major international sporting events. This unique and innovative project for the Hong Kong Sports Institute represents a new and prestigious step for Poralu Marine following on from successful partnerships as part of the London Olympics(2012) and Singapore Youth Olympics(2010) as well as a range of other events such as the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the 2019 World Urban Games in Budapest, Hungary.
More recently, Poralu Marine was awarded the contract for the 2024 Paris Olympics, making the Group the official equipment supplier for the dinghy, keelboat and catamaran events in Paris and Marseille.
With this new rowing dock, the Hong Kong Sports Institute is now capable of hosting major international competitions with safe access to the water for all levels of ability.
DNV has joined a working group on methanol bunkering, managed by the Standards Development Organisation at Singapore Chemical Industry Council(SCIC-SDO), the classification society announced at Singapore Maritime Week. The multi-stakeholder working group will develop a Technical Reference(TR) for methanol bunkering for Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub.
The SCIC, appointed as the Standards Development Organisation by Enterprise Singapore, formed the “Working Group on Standard Development for Methanol Bunkering”, in consultation with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore(MPA). The working group, which includes government agencies, bunker suppliers, bunker craft operators, engine manufacturers, testing and certification bodies, shipowners and operators, terminal operators, as well as classification societies such as DNV, will be developing a Technical Reference(TR) for methanol bunkering for Singapore.
The TR will cover custody transfer requirements(quantity and quality) for the delivery of methanol as a bunker fuel. It will examine all aspects of bunkering, from the bunker tanker to the receiving vessels, examining the operational and safety requirements for methanol bunkering, as well as crew training and competency.
The announcement of the development of the TR comes alongside record-breaking orders for vessels capable of using alternative fuels. DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight(AFI) platform, which tracks orders and bunkering locations for alternative fuels, logged orders for 35 methanol fuelled vessels in 2022 – more than the 26 vessels currently in operation. Likewise for LNG, the most popular alternative fuel to date, the newbuilding orders in 2021 and 2022 will more than double the fleet in service upon delivery.
DNV was the first classification society to release a notation covering every aspect of using low flashpoint fuels, including safe design, fire safety, control and monitoring. It has regularly built on these recommendations, including the Alternative Fuels for Containerships document, which was recently updated with a new chapter covering methanol and aims to provide neutral, fact-based, and scientifically sound decision support for newbuilding projects in the segment. Currently more than 70% of the 25 methanol powered vessels operating are with DNV.