A number of fatalities and serious injuries have occurred across the maritime industry due to parting of mooring lines. Our loss prevention poster highlights the fact that the first line ashore has the highest potential to snap given the level of load it can experience to steady a moving vessel.
In most mooring operations, the first lines are required to get and hold the vessel in position until the remaining mooring lines are sent ashore and vessel is safely moored. This could lead to the first lines, usually the fore and aft spring lines, experiencing significant loads. Without any load or tension indicators the crew operating the winch may not come to know if the line has been tensioned beyond its breaking load. This makes the first lines highly susceptible to part and snap back causing a tragic incident.
While the bridge team would focus on positioning of the vessel, it is the responsibility of the mooring crew to fully understand the associated risks and communicate these back to the bridge team. The safety of the mooring operations rests predominantly with the mooring crew and how well all the risks are communicated and understood within the team and with the bridge team.
Are you snap-safe?
Use of worn mooring lines, overtightening of the brakes, or sudden movements of the ship are some of the main reasons for ropes straining beyond their breaking limits and parting. Parting of tensioned mooring lines has been associated with some of the worst human injuries, and loss of life registered in Gard’s claims portfolio.
The victims are usually the crew handling the line, the winch operator and/or the supervising officer. A parting line has the potential to flex the whole distance from the place where it parts to the place where it is attached. A typical example can be found in this investigation report by the Swedish Accident Investigation Branch.
During the pre-mooring tool box talks, crew members should discuss not only the hazards of snap-back but also potential snap-back zones. Depending on the mooring pattern, the configuration of these unsafe areas can change. It is therefore not recommended to mark these zones on decks as it may give the seafarer standing outside the painted zones a false sense of security. Code of Safe Working Practices (2015 edition, Amendment 4) recommends that “a bird’s eye view of the mooring deck arrangement is produced to identify danger areas” and that “the whole mooring deck may be considered a danger zone.” Crew members are also recommended to look out for each other and if a fellow crew member is standing in a potentially unsafe area, then they should be warned.
Additional Material to be used as Case study for onboard safety meeting: Case study no. 21: Mooring operations
Source: Guard P&I