Regulators have taken the safe mooring of ships to task, but ports need to increase their engagement with the issue, Richard Brough reports.
Ships get ever larger but mooring arrangements ashore remain pretty much the same. It seems strange to still be tying up vessels weighing in excess of 500,000 tonnes with small diameter synthetic mooring lines.
Testament to this is the large number of fatalities and serious injuries caused by breaking lines, the most recent occurring in the US last month. The International Cargo Handling Coordination Association (ICHCA) undertook a survey of this issue a few years ago and the figures were quite alarming.
No wonder then that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), through its Ship Design and Construction (SDC) sub-committee, has been working for a number of years on revised Guidelines on the design of mooring arrangements and the selection of appropriate mooring equipment and fittings for safe mooring.
The work is currently in Correspondence Group stage to finalise the wording of the Guidelines ready for the next session of SDC in January 2019. This complex piece of work has engaged the minds of naval architects and NGOs such as ICHCA, all working towards some significant alterations to the way mooring lines are handled on board vessels, for example with one rope per fixed drum.
However, the Guidelines do not really address the shore side of arrangements, which ICHCA has been keen to point out. Also, they do not refer to alternative systems such as vacuum or magnetic automatic mooring systems for which installation numbers are increasing, especially in berths where tidal surges and weather effects can make it almost impossible to load and discharge vessels.
The IMO’s Facilitation and Legal committee has also developed Guidelines on the Training of Mooring Personnel which covers both ship and shore side staff.
Co-incidentally, the Oil Companies International Marine Forum is launching the fourth edition of its comprehensive Mooring Equipment Guidelines, viewed by many as the industry ‘bible’.
What is absolutely clear is that these continuing efforts must contribute to the reduction in serious incidents, and ports and terminals also need to ensure that their mooring arrangements, bollard capacity, fenders and so on are keeping pace with the increase in vessel size.
Richard Brough is technical adviser and observer at ICHCA (www.ichca.com).
