Autoanchor
A revolutionary mooring system designed by a Christchurch company offers ship owners and port operators improved safety, productivity and turn-around times.
The Moormaster™ 400 system
(Click to enlarge)
It’s a near certainty that the invention of mooring systems followed hard on the heels of the invention of the boat. Craft of all sizes and types have always been moored with ropes, and they still are. Everything from coracles and canoes to super tankers and aircraft carriers are still lashed to their berths; the bigger the vessel the bigger the ropes and the greater the number of them. It is a laborious job – it can take more than an hour to bring a vessel alongside and lash it to wharf – and an inherently dangerous one.
In 1985 Peter Montgomery was working as a deck officer on a ship when a member of his crew was killed when a mooring line snapped. He figured there had to be a better way of doing things and he set about finding it. Twenty one years on, the automated mooring system developed by his company, Mooring Systems Ltd (MSL), looks set to revolutionise the maritime industry.
