11-2015

MOORING TRAININGS
SUMMARY OF DEFICIENCIES, BAD PRACTICES, OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE
WEAKNESSES, OBSERVED BY THE FNC/CMO TRAINERS AND ONBOARD STAFF REMARKS:

1/ Harbor deck fittings SWL lower than the Minimum Breaking Load (MBL) of the ship’s towing
line which is not complying with SOLAS regulation (minimum legal is 75 tons).

2/ Winches are designed for mooring line with characteristics stronger than line in use (diameter 78
mm with MBL of 120 tons) resulting that the magnetic brake capacity of combined windlass is
higher than 60% of line MBL maximum value/load allowed for normal mooring operation.

3/ During sea passage lines on winches protected from sunray by tarpaulin but not rinsed with fresh
water as recommended

4/ Spare lines stored directly on deck - Lines polluted by paint

5/ Snap back zone identifications not fully compliant with Bridge card 092 requirements.
Not properly marked in the pedestal rollers and universal rollers vicinity

6/ Winches working drums in poor condition rollers on fairleads found rusty and difficult to rotate mainly
due to lack of grease
7/ Manual brake band linkages on winches found without grease nipples and therefore not properly
greased (a guarantee claim should be issued).

8/ Manual brake clearances adjusting screws not set properly (clearance over 10 mm for a
maximum allowed of 2 mm) – ONE OF THE ROOT CAUSES FOR LOSING ANCHORS DURING
DROPPING OPS

9/ To avoid having bell crank not being parallel, which strongly reduces the efficiency of the manual
brake holding power, pipes similar to the one shown below fitted in the lower part of the bell cranks
have been prepared and paused
10/ Excessive clearance between the sliding dogs and gaps of the fixed half of the dog clutch.
With such large gap, more than 30 mm, the shocks on the gear’s teeth and magnetic brake disc are
too big and might result with rapid material damage/winch malfunction

11/ Safety pins on clutch levers cannot be put in place

12/ Guiding rope used for ropes housekeeping on storage drums fixed in a wrong way/device/place

13/ Rope guide horns to long – to be shortened as shown below in order to avoid rope handler injuries

14/ Chain stoppers for tug’s wire line not on board

15/ Forward station mooring lines rub on the hull or fairlead frame if shore bollard choice is not
proper, what leads to abnormal wear and damage of the lines by abrasion effect. Aft and
forward stations due to a bad design of universal fairlead spring lines, if too short, can rub off
stiffeners what leads to fast line damage (guarantee claim should be issued)

16/ During sea passages lines stored under load which is damaging the lines, the winch
magnetic brakes and the rollers

17/ Dead ends of strands on many splices are too long therefore dangerous for crew members at the
time of the manipulations

18/ Splices made on Dyneema lines not made according good practice recommended by Bexco.
Lines found with torn strands – Line itself twisted
19/ Mooring lines eyes have no protective sockets – lines exposed to faster abrasion damage

20/ Working/tension drums have only 2 turns (instead of 10 or full first layer)

21/ Spring lines on forward station with angle in relation to the horizontal superior to 45° what means
that less of 65% the total load applied to the line is useful to prevent the ship to move forward (useful
strength by line was equal to : 30 tons x cos 50 x 20% ≈ 4 tons)

Spring lines given ashore too short therefore having lower elongation capacity by elasticity and lower
capacity to absorb normal longitudinal light movement of the ship
22/ Forward/aft stations all head/stern lines fast on a single shore bollard with a risk of overload of
that one (shore bollard SWL = 220 tons).

4 stern lines put on the same shore bollard without any information about its SWL

23/ - “Bridge 091” recorded in Bell Book only

- Bridge card 091 reported as completed whereas material had not been tested, without any control of
the winches working condition and with the stoppers on the anchor’s chains,
- No briefing by the mooring station leader prior starting mooring operation
- Station not properly prepared before arrival. Mooring station slippery due frozen snow on deck
- Officer does not keep permanently in sight seaman or lines which are in movement and do not
use hand signals to give instructions to the winch operator
- PPE not properly worn (use of non-appropriate gloves for the team)
- Lack of mooring station leader appropriate management (ie. deck hand standing in the dangerous
area like between pedestal roller and fairlead line, within snap back zone, during the use of warping
drum end rope handler standing on the wrong and dangerous side …).

- English language not used all the time among all the mooring station team
- Lines manipulated two by two even when winch operator and officer in charge cannot keep deck
hands in sight
 - Officer stands on non-dedicated platform to control lines on quay side (hand rails should be added)

- Winch operator’s blind sector not covered/reported by other mooring team members
Good and systematic use of a relay man to give orders to the winch operator shown below

- No rope cutting device available on mooring station

24/ - Tug’s line had been made fast on second post of the twin bollard
- Tug’s line had been turned on the bollard without being stop

- Messenger line poor/wrong handling (messenger line lost, poor control of the speed, Tug’s line
heaved up while passing over two mooring lines due to poor preparation of the messenger line)
 - Synthetic tug’s line with a chain stopper

- Tug’s line made fast on the bollard without being stopped

- The use of the single bollard (SWL 77 tons) bay 42 had been required by the tug master but these
device are not fitted with capstan. Mooring team must heave on tug’s line by hand what is risky and
dangerous especially when the ship is empty so with a free board higher than 13 meters

MASTER’S/CMO’s RECOMMENDATIONS / REMARKS:

1/ IMO “Mooring and Anchoring Ships Vol 1 & 2” missing in the official SMS ship’s library – SSEMS dept
2/ Mooring booklet has to be up dated with at least following items:
- Good practices for Dyneema® line usage (tails, minimum turns on tension drum, splicing).
- Usage of chain wire stopper demonstration/training
- Snap zone “tiger mark” painting to show coil phenomenon around the rollers
- Towing operation: recommended usage of the first post of twin bollard instead of the second as
drawn on the TOWING BOOKLET – SSEMS dept
- Provide at least one (1) brake test kit for every class of ships – Technical Dept.

- Solution has to be found so that the new paint applied by the ship’s crew on the winches tension
drums and rollers hang correctly (special paint quality, etc) – Technical dept + ship
- Safe Working Load (SWL) of mooring deck fittings is 74 tons (for an EN requirement equal to 74
tons) and lower than the Minimum Breaking Load (MBL) of the towing lines.
NB and/or Technical Dept. should make sure that fittings/ropes onboard match regarding
SWL/MLB
- Towing fittings: bollard must be at a sufficient distance from the fairlead to be able to properly
stop the line (minimum 3m) – NB dept. should pay attention for future orders

- Take in consideration the need for the officers and for the winch operators to keep in sight all the
mooring station - NB dept. should pay attention for future orders mooring stations design

- Towing line: chock fairleads and bollards must be at the same height to be sure that tug’s line
under load stay close of the base of the bollard bitts

NB dept. should pay attention for future orders mooring stations design
- The absence of chocks in the corners on aft station is strongly damaging for a good use of tugs.

NB dept. should pay attention for future orders mooring stations design