New regulation & guidelines for safe mooring operations needs much more work says SDC5
Overview
The SDC sub-committee, dealing with technical and operational matters related to design, construction, fire protection and equipment of ships, and mobile units covered by IMO instruments, recommended to continue their work on the development of more safe mooring operations for all ships, as well as proceed on the second generation intact stability framework.
Mooring operation
SDC 5 continued its work on safe mooring operations for all ships and proposed a revision of SOLAS Regulation II-1/3-8 on towing and mooring equipment so as to ensure mooring equipment as well as lines are inspected and maintained in a condition suitable for their intended purpose.
SDC 5 decided to introduce the “human centred design” concept to be applied when designing mooring platforms and equipment.
During the meeting, the sub-committee started the work on guidelines for safe mooring operations and recommended to re-establish a correspondence group in order to finalise the work before MSC 101 in the spring of 2019. BIMCO will continue its work in the correspondence group.
Finalisation of second generation intact stability criteria
SDC 5 had extensive discussions on the way forward for a new generation of intact stability criteria. The development has taken longer than expected and the calculation methodology seems to be far more complicated than foreseen. When faced with the question as to whether more experience was required before further development was undertaken, the SDC5 decided it was important to continue the work.
The main development challenge is the selection of a standardised method for calculating certain values used in the criteria. Most inconsistencies are directly or indirectly caused by using different mathematical models for the vulnerability criteria.
The outcome of the discussions supported a continuation of the ongoing work, allowing more time to gain experience with the new requirements and the calculations before presenting the second generation intact stability criteria. SDC recommended to re-establish the correspondence group, under new terms of reference, to consider all the new information. However, in order to speed up the process, an intersessional working group may be necessary before SDC 6 in 2019. BIMCO will monitor the development of the second intact stability criteria.
Other business
Based on an IACS submission, the sub-committee agreed to correct a number of inconsistencies regarding the Enhanced Survey Programme (ESP) Code text including all the footnotes. The decision was taken to continue the intersessional work under the lead of IACS.
On the review on SOLAS chapter II-1 to ensure consistency with regards to watertight integrity, a submission by Norway listed a number of inconsistencies between the calculation method and the regulation in SOLAS. A correspondence group was re-established to continue the work.
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