The Isle of Man ship registry, issued a notice, whose purpose is to advise shipowners, operators, managers and Masters of Isle of Man registered ships of information in respect of Port State Control activities.
Namely, the Ship Registry wishes informed that there were two particular inspection incidents where the deficiencies which were revealed, led to two separate detentions during 2017 and the Ship Registry advise of the outcomes and lessons learnt.
In the first deficiency, a ship’s means of escape and clear width of all stairways in accommodation, were reported to be less than 700mm. The gap between the handrails was actually recorded as 650mm.
According to the FSS Code stairways and corridors used as means of escape must not be less than 700 mm in clear width and should have a handrail on one side. Stairways and corridors with a clear width of 1,800 mm and over shall have handrails on both sides. “Clear width” is considered the distance between the handrail and the bulkhead on the other side or between the handrails.
As a result of the inspection, the ship removed the bulkhead handrail and increased the clear width beyond the minimum 700mm to 750mm.
In the second deficiency, the means of escape and the insulation of escape trunk of a bulk carrier were incomplete on both sides in the engine room.
The deficiency gave emphasis on the port and starboard void spaces surrounding the escape trunking in the aft part of the machinery space. The void spaces are accessible through a lightening hole either side of the trunking. The area could only be checked by accessing the lightening holes through the stringers between the E/R Floor and E/R 3rd Deck. Once inside the void space a close up inspection of the trunk sides inside was able to determine the extent of the deficiency. The trunking bulkhead had a substantial section of missing fire insulation in each respective void space. That the PSCO went directly to this area during the inspection indicated a known fault in this class of ship.
However, for such built escape trunks in the aft part of the machinery spaces, ship operators are advised to investigate their ships to ensure there is no missing “A60” fire insulation.