Ebook: Shipping Innovation

There were not many textbooks on shipping available for the students in the early 1990s. That is why we decided to write SHIPPING in 1996. One year earlier, Niko Wijnolst had published DESIGN INNOVATION IN SHIPPING, based on work at the Delft University of Technology. The two books taken together offered a comprehensive insight and overview into the dynamics of global shipping and maritime innovation.

Although the core of the books held its value, we decided to make an update of the two books and merge them into one new textbook SHIPPING INNOVATION destined for a broad spectre of maritime students and professionals. We also added some substantial new parts and invited a few colleagues to contribute. We are convinced that the current textbook offers a one-stop-shopping to those students and professionals who wish to get acquainted with the multifaceted aspects of global shipping and its everlasting innovation dynamics.

The book has 30 chapters, of which the vast majority is written by us. For some subjects we have used the expertise of other colleagues. These are:

• Kai Levander, naval architect with Aker Yards, Finland, who contributed two insightful studies on the mission-based design process of a Panamax containership and a ro-ro vessel (Chapters 23 and 24);

• Anders Sjöbris, marine engineer/consultant with Lloyd's Register – Fairplay, Gothenburg, who has been a pioneer on the environmental aspects of shipping since the beginning of the 1980s in Sweden, and who contributes a chapter on sustainable shipping and innovation (Chapter 26);

• Eelco van Rietbergen and Clemens van der Nat, marine engineers/naval architects in the Netherlands, contribute an innovation case-study on the revolutionary design of a ballast-free ship (Chapter 27).

Apart from these contributions, we used material from earlier books, and material based on projects developed with students at the Delft University of Technology over the period 1988–2000. In that context we would like to mention:

• Jan Inge Jenssen: Chapter 20 – Innovation and maritime clusters;

• Erik Jakobsen: Chapter 21 – The Norwegian maritime cluster;

• Mogens Schrøder Bech: Chapter 21 – The Danish maritime cluster;

• Remko van der Lugt: Chapter 25 – Forest products ship case-study.

• Ernst Vossnack†: Chapter 28 – Chemical tanker case-study;

• Marco Scholtens, François Bello, Marieke Boer: Chapter 29 – Malacca-max containership case-studies;

Writing a text is one thing, but making it into a book is something else. We like to thank Frans Waals for his valuable work turning the manuscript into an attractive textbook and for adding valuable knowledge and comments.

We are very pleased that we have undertaken this task and – most of all – that we have finished it in a reasonable time. We do hope that you enjoy the end result and we welcome your comments and suggestions.

We have used a lot of visual material in the book, which we have attempted to trace back to its original publication. In some instances we were not able to do that. We apologise for that and we excuse ourselves if we have not mentioned the sources. We do hope that the authors of this textbook for students, which is not a commercial venture in the first place, could be forgiven for this omission.

Finally, we should like to thank Euromed Management for its support to this challenging project without which this book would not have seen the light of day.

Niko Wijnolst, Rotterdam, Niko.Wijnolst@euromed-management.com

Tor Wergeland, Copenhagen, Tor@Wergeland.dk

November 2008