Ship without Control Room

[Leopard]

Hi,
I have a query about ECR (Engine Control Room). Is it mandatory for a vessel? In a vessel I have an Engine Room and a Generator Room. The machinery will be controlled remotely from the Wheel House.

Do I still need a separate control room? I would like to exclude the control room since two means of escape is required for such a room and arranging such things make the vessel congested.

If if I keep controlling equipment in generator room, without creating a separate control room ,is it okay?

 

[bajansailor]

Even with your machinery being controlled remotely from the wheelhouse (how much actual 'control' will the wheelhouse have?), will there be a requirement for the engine room in your vessel to be manned by personnel working at least day shifts (and unmanned at night) - or even with watch keepers working around the clock?
If so, then your engineers are not going to be very happy with you if you do not give them an air conditioned control room.

Also, what do the Rules say?
How big is your vessel (including dimensions and GRT), and what type is she?
And what are the engines and generators shown in your drawing above?

 

[Leopard]

Even with your machinery being controlled remotely from the wheelhouse (how much actual 'control' will the wheelhouse have?), will there be a requirement for the engine room in your vessel to be manned by personnel working at least day shifts (and unmanned at night) - or even with watch keepers working around the clock?
If so, then your engineers are not going to be very happy with you if you do not give them an air conditioned control room.

Also, what do the Rules say?
How big is your vessel (including dimensions and GRT), and what type is she?
And what are the engines and generators shown in your drawing above?

The vessel is around 75m. It's a passenger vessel with landing crafts. Engine and Generators are diesel type.

Can I use the generator room as also a control room?

Do you think air condition might not work well due to heat generated from Generators? What's the common practice in this case?

 

[jehardiman]

The vessel is around 75m. It's a passenger vessel with landing crafts. Engine and Generators are diesel type.

Oh yeah, you need a manned control room...

Can I use the generator room as also a control room?

Only if you are happy with the operators dying a horrible death if the generator has a fire.

Do you think air condition might not work well due to heat generated from Generators? What's the common practice in this case?

See my comment above, a manned space is to control issues in the unmanned space. Don't build failures into the system.

 

[TANSL]

@Leopard, every closed compartment, which can be visited by the crew, must have two emergency exits located at the extreme points of the compartment. Even double bottom tanks, if they exist, must have two entrances / exits. With this, from the security point of view, you can apply the option that you like the most. Another issue is that the size of the compartment, from the point of view of stability, has the correct volume.

 

[jehardiman]

@Leopard, every closed compartment, which can be visited by the crew, must have two emergency exits located at the extreme points of the compartment. Even double bottom tanks, if they exist, must have two entrances / exits. With this, from the security point of view, you can apply the option that you like the most. Another issue is that the size of the compartment, from the point of view of stability, has the correct volume.

TANSL has a point and maybe we should define some terms. A compartment is a water tight volume required for the buoyant integrity of the vessel. A space is a non-watertight, non-fire/fume boundary volume inside a compartment. A room is generally a non-watertight but generally fire/fume boundary volume inside a compartment.

Take for example the last generator compartments I designed for a self-sustaining testing barge. Each generator was housed in its own compartment in the deck house separated by two redundant compartments for pumps and compressors and a centerline passageway to the aft deck. When you entered the fwd end of the compartment from the deckhouse through an out opening WT door, you entered the control room which was sound and fume isolated from the generator space by an in opening non-WT door. The second exit from the compartment was at the aft end of the compartment through an out opening WT door onto the aft deck. Activation of the fire suppression system was both local to the control room and remote inside the deckhouse. The generators were split to allow maintenance and to run the fire main in case of a fire in one of the generator rooms. Whether you need this type of redundancy depends on your damage control plan, but generally you need a room or space in the generator/main propulsion compartment that allows conversation/watch keeping/decision making to occur.