Safe Mooring Guidelines

The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) in its 102nd session made amendments to SOLAS II-I Reg. 3-8 “Towing and mooring equipment” entering into force on 1st January 2024. Basis of this, two new guidelines have been created, namely MSC.1/Circ.1619 and MSC.1/Circ.1620 and the revised guidance on shipboard towing and mooring equipment (MSC.1/Circ.1175/Rev.1) which shall enter into force on 1st January 2024. This revised guidance does not supersede the already existing guidance MSC.1/Circ.1175 which remains applicable to ships constructed on or after 1st January 2007 but before 1st January 2024.

WHAT DO WE DO

We help the ship owner to ensure safe mooring guidelines compliance on board vessel with respect to the aforementioned guidelines. Upon receiving the existing vessel drawings and maker details we shall be checking vessel compliance.

APPLICABILITY

Basis of the new guidelines, the following typical issues may be occurring in the existing vessel like requirements of mooring operation procedure, inspection and maintenance plan, wrong setting of mooring winch brake holding strength & selecting higher minimum breaking load (MBL) of mooring rope for replacement etc. For ships built before 2007, expected changes are the MBL of the mooring line may not be in accordance with the recommended values in the corresponding approved equipment number in IACS Rec. 10; i.e. in many cases, a higher MBL rope was used, the marked safe working load (SWL) of the mooring fitting may not be consistent with the MBL of the mooring ropes & the hull support foundation of the mooring fitting may not have sufficient capacity to withstand the design load or marked SWL.

WHAT THE CLIENT CAN EXPECT

We offer following services to clients for preparing documents related to amended requirements in MSC.1/Circ.1175/Rev.1 and the two corresponding new guidelines MSC.1/Circ.1619 and 1620.

• Providing services related to anchoring/mooring equipment selection
• Optimized mooring line selection based on MBL
• Revised Mooring Arrangement
• Strength analysis of anchoring/mooring equipment and deck fitting seating
• Under deck structural arrangement of deck equipment and fittings

Advantages

• Selection of appropriate mooring equipment & fittings for safe mooring.
• Early compliance with new mooring guideline requirements.