During the IMO Ship Design and Construction (SDC), held on 22-23 January 2018, amendments to SOLAS Regulation II-1/3-8 and supporting guidelines for safe mooring operations were discussed among other issues. The Sub-Committee agreed to these draft amendments, with a view to submission to MSC 101 for approval. The draft amendments will be forwarded to MSC once the various Guidelines have been finalized.
In particular, OCIMF submitted a comment paper to SDC 5 that recommended the revised SOLAS regulation includes mooring lines and the term Human Centred Design. The paper was co-sponsored by Antigua and Barbuda, Liberia, Panama, Marshal Islands, ICS, BIMCO, ICHCA, INTERTANKO, SIGTTO and Nautical Institute.
The OCIMF position is that mooring lines are an integral part of the mooring system and that mooring system design should be centred around the safety of the personnel involved in mooring operations. OCIMF would like both of these to be reflected in SOLAS.
OCIMF also participated in the working group developing the draft revised SOLAS regulation II-1/3-8 and supporting guidelines and recommended that the new guidelines take into account new guidance from the upcoming fourth edition of the Mooring Equipment Guidelines.
The sub-committee agreed in principle to include a reference to mooring lines in the draft revised SOLAS regulation. It was considered that there is a need to recognize mooring lines as an integral part of the mooring system on board in the draft SOLAS regulation II-1/3-8 to ensure that the design of mooring arrangements, equipment and fittings takes into account the strength, material and diameter of the mooring lines, which are expected to be used during the normal operation of the ship.
Therefore, it established a correspondence group to consider issues such as assessment and verification during surveys, use of the term human centred design and its definition, and further development of the guidelines on safe mooring operations.Considering that the related draft new guidelines are focusing on the design of the mooring arrangements and the selection of appropriate mooring equipment, which provide protection to related personnel, it has been decided to introduce the term “applying a human-centred design approach”.
“Human-centred design means an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, and usability, knowledge and techniques.”
As discussed, the term “including lines” should be directly reflected in the draft revised SOLAS regulation II-1/3-8 and should apply to new ships only.
Sticking to MSC’s decision, SDC 5 agreed that ships of less than 3,000 GT should, in a non-mandatory way, comply with either the requirements for ships of 3,000 GT and above as far as reasonably practicable, or with applicable national standards of the Administration which provide an equivalent level of safety.
Moreover, it was agreed to include a new paragraph 9 in the draft revised SOLAS regulation II-1/3-8 with regard to inspection and maintenance of mooring equipment for all ships including existing ships regardless of date of construction. This inspection and maintenance does not refer to the annual survey required by chapter I of the SOLAS Convention, which should be clearly reflected in the guidelines.
The scope of the draft new guidelines is limited to the design of mooring arrangements and the selection of mooring equipment. In this context, the title of the guidelines has been modified as Guidelines on the design of safe mooring arrangements and the selection of appropriate mooring equipment and fittings for safe mooring.
