Determining ships’ safe under keel clearance in the region
The national agencies responsible for navigation safety issues in the coastal countries of the Baltic Sea have met in Copenhagen to consider and amend draft guidelines for determining ships’ safe under keel clearance in the region.
Definitions of a ships safe under keel clearance, or the depth of water where a particular ship should normally operate, is ultimately at the responsibility of the master, even if several shipowners have company policies defining the safe depth of water.
The purpose of the draft Baltic Sea guidelines under preparation by the HELCOM expert group is to provide the Contracting governments, masters, navigating officers and companies operating in the region with a joint framework, to effectively ensure that a ship maintains sufficient safe under keel clearance and safe draught during its whole intended voyage, also in areas with restricted depth.
The draft guidelines on under keel clearance aim to enhance the efficiency of other measures on safety of navigation such as International Maritime Organization (IMO) routeing measures and recent re-surveys of main ship routes by the Hydrographic agencies of the Baltic Sea coastal countries. Based on the outcome, the meeting will decide on further work on the draft document.
Since 1970s, several routeing measures in the Baltic Sea, established based on the 1974 Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), have been drafted and discussed within HELCOM, including its experts groups responsible for routeing and safety of navigation.
Other issues to be considered by the Meeting include the outcome of the latest HELCOM annual report on ship accidents in the Baltic Sea in 2013, as well as the standing agenda point on recent regional developments around planned and existing IMO routeing measures.
The fifth meeting of the HELCOM expert group on safety of navigation (HELCOM SAFE NAV) will be chaired by Carsten Glenn Jensen, Denmark.
Source: HELCOM
