17 October 2024

This notice applies to all shipbuilders, ship repairers, shipowners, ship operators, harbour authorities, masters, skippers, officers and crew of merchant ships, yachts (motor and sail), and fishing vessels.

It provides guidance on the safe installation, inspection, maintenance and use of anchoring, mooring, towing and hauling equipment and emphasises the importance of seeking expert advice on its repair and maintenance. 

It also advises that risk assessments which cover the use of mooring equipment and operations should take full account of the potential dangers of unusual or non-standard mooring arrangements, bights in mooring warps and where snagged mooring lines could suddenly release under tension. Dangerously weighted heaving lines must not be used.

All seafarers involved in anchoring, mooring or towing operations should have additional instruction on the specific equipment and mooring configurations used on the vessel.

Operations such as anchoring, mooring, towing and hauling, including trawling operations, impose great loads on ropes, warps, gear and equipment. The circumstances of some accidents show that greater emphasis should be given to considering the safety aspects of mooring and towing systems as a whole rather than the individual safety aspects of component parts.

These systems should incorporate the safety of windlasses, winches, bollards and fairleads, including their construction and their attachment to a vessel’s structure. Risk assessment and control measures should also consider the shoreside mooring equipment when berthed, with particular attention given to the consequences of a line snagging on a shoreside structure, such as a fender, and then suddenly releasing and coming under tension.

A link to the full document can be found here.

British Marine members can obtain more advice by emailing technical@britishmarine.co.uk