DNV issued regulatory update to remind that SOLAS II-I Reg. 3-8 “Towing and mooring equipment” as amended by MSC.102, enters into force on 1 January 2024. Thus, ship managers and operators should consider early compliance with the new safe mooring requirements, especially for vessels which are scheduled to dry dock before 2024.
DNV informs that to reduce serious and fatal accidents related to the handling of mooring lines or equipment used for mooring operation, the MSC introduced new requirements on the design, inspection, and maintenance of mooring equipment (lines).
The two guidelines on safe mooring are:
- The MSC.1/Circ.1619, Guidelines on the design of mooring arrangements and the selection of appropriate mooring equipment and fittings for safe mooring, which will affect new buildings
- The MSC.1/Circ.1620, Guidelines for inspection and maintenance of mooring equipment including lines, which will be a retroactive requirement and will therefore affect existing vessels.
The latter guideline, MSC.1/Circ.1620, includes procedures for mooring operation, inspection and maintenance of mooring equipment and lines, identifying worn-out lines and tails, and replacement of mooring lines and tails. All ships need to comply with the retroactive statutory requirements, and DNV has issued RRs (retroactive requirement) for all ships.
The RRs will affect existing ships, but the biggest impact will be for vessels built before 2007, since the approval of the associated hull support foundation of mooring fitting was not required at that time, and assignment of mooring fitting was probably not reviewed.
…DNV notes.
A list of the typical issues detected:
Applicable for all ships
- Mooring operation procedure, inspection and maintenance plan were not available on board.
- Wrong setting of mooring winch brake holding strength.
- Selecting higher minimum breaking load (MBL) of mooring rope for replacement.
Applicable for ships built before 2007
- The MBL of the mooring line was not in accordance with the recommended values in the corresponding approved equipment number in IACS Rec. 10; in many cases, a higher MBL rope was used.
- The marked safe working load (SWL) of the mooring fitting was not consistent with the MBL of the mooring ropes.#
- The hull support foundation of the mooring fitting did not have sufficient capacity to withstand the design load or marked SWL.
