MOORING LINES & EQUIPMENTS HANDLING MANUAL 2010/03/21 M/V NSS HONESTY Chief Officer K.Nakamoto INTRODUCTION When handling mooring lines & equipments, there is a big possibility of occurring serious incident In misery case, killing not only persons in operation, but also others who are shore worker, tug crew & your mates And the fail of operation will fail into critical condition In the worst case, our ship will be damaged seriously and in not sea service Hence, I recommend to all deck officers and crews that how to keep you, your mates, persons whom it concerned & ship in safe on this manual GENERAL The mooring order will decide by master at first and order to responsible officer on deck The responsible officer is chief officer in forward station and nd officer in aft station Hence, all crew members who are under command should be follow these responsible officers However, when you are feeling or finding out doubt, dangerousness which responsible officers not found or misunderstandings, not hesitate to suggest to officers For the purpose of above, all crew members should be familiar and understand procedures & basic knowledge of these In generally, 95% or more of incident will be caused by human error I convince that we can avoid serious incident by reducing human errors Regarding commanding in station, some crew who is not responsible officer makes hand or any other signals in mooring operation and other duty Theses behaviors are most dangerous case Normally, when responsible officer order to crew, he considers all of situation and follows his plan Such a selfish judgment and signal is not following his plan in almost case Hence, when you feel it is necessary to another action, not make signals or order directly, but suggest responsible officer at first HANDLING TUG-LINE Handling Tug-Line is one of most dangerous work on board due to heaviness, larger diameter and high tension of tug line Hence, pay maximum attention to so Procedure of taking Tug-Line Confirm to master regarding location where taking Tug-Line by responsible officer Prepared stopper and messenger rope S/B warping end or air capstan *Even laden condition, the heaviness of Tug-Line is changed by diameter of it Especially, tugs generally are using heavy lines at the port not in Japan and sometimes using wires Hence, even it seems not using them, should be S/B them Contact with Tug and it is coming near closely and confirm tug is ready for sending line & in co-operation Sending messenger rope to tug crew and confirm connect tug’s line correctly Start heaving up lines (Ref Dia-1) Dia-1 How to take a line on warping end When take a line on warping end, take from up to down Never take from down to up to prevent an incident injuring line operator when cut the line The line tension is so tight that the cut rope make easily to damage operator when cut 　And in using warping end, rope is taken on it 3-4 rounds from inside to outside To prevent to cut rope, never turn round messenger rope so tightly on it Normally, ship’s bollards are arranged to lead the line to center of warping end At first, rope should be lead to center of bollard and turn round 3-4 times and not set rounding to so tight When start heaving, keep little slacking & slipping condition on warping end and heaving up If it becomes impossible to heave up, then, you add rounding count on warping end one by one However, keep slightly slacking & slipping condition The reason for above, if turn rounding so much tight on warping end, the force of heaving up lines is directly on the rope and easily cut it It is the best way to heave up line with slacking & slipping condition for releasing force on rope Hence, in an idealistic, heaving up lines with messenger ropes little slipping on warping end by slacking a little When passing Tug-Lines eye at outside bollard, responsible officer order to hands to stop heaving and take stopper Responsible officer should confirm the stopper is fixing line effectively Responsible officer order to hands to slack line Hands take eye at outside bollard and set eye end touch to bollard & its bottom (Ref Dia-2) Dia-2 How to take Tug-Line on bollard? Bollard is designed regular load (called “SAFE WORKING LOAD”; S.W.L.) when using the line touch to bottom If not so, there is a possibility to be damaged bollard in using Responsible officer order to take off the stopper 10 When Tug-Line set on normal condition, officer send signal to Tug boat with crossing hand to be understood “Made fast Tug-Line” for them 11 Coil down Tug’s messenger rope on deck to sending back easily in letting go Procedure of let Tug-Line goes Contact with tug boat to come near closely and confirm slacking line & in cooperation Take Tug-Line’s messenger rope tightly Incase of heavy line, using warping end or air capstan Heaving Tug-Line’s messenger rope to remove off Tug-Line’s eye from bollard Take stopper correctly & confirmed by officer in good condition Officer order to slack messenger rope After enough slacking, Officer order to remove off Tug-Line’s eye from bollard After removed eye, set messenger rope turning round on inner bollard In case of heavy Tug-Line, set or rounds with adjusting situation Set messenger rope tightly to prevent runaway Tug-Line when remove stopper Officer confirmed all condition of above If in good, Order to remove stopper 10 Start slacking Tug-line with officer’s order hand should keep messenger rope tightly and slacking slowly with breaking by friction between bollard and turned round messenger rope *There is a possibility to runaway Tug-Line strongly and quickly in case of heavy Tug-Line Hence, Not only other hands, but also even commanding officer & messenger rope handling crew should keep safety distance from line 11 Officer confirms slacking condition Even in case of Tug-Line reach to sea surface, reach to Tug’s on deck or Tug have enough length from below the line point, Officer should not order to let Tug-Line goes freely falling without Tug’s order Even Tug’s order coming, however officer judged there is a possibility of incident, never let go 12 When officer confirms above, order to messenger rope handling crew to let go messenger rope for free falling However, before order, keep safe distance from rope for officer & messenger rope handling crew Messenger rope handling crew never removes turning round on bollard Dia-3 Forecasted Danger Area when Messenger rope let goes Un-duty crew is never located in vicinity of line How to arrange tug line when takes it with warping-end? When takes tug line with warping end, I have already recommended yet, takes messenger rope on center of warping end and rounding from inner to outer side For that purpose, you should consider line arrangement with the location of warping-end, bollard & chock Dia-6 Arrangement of messenger rope With warping end In Dia-6, the arrangement of black line is lead messenger rope to center of warping end & it is normal & safety arrangement But, on another red line, rope is lead to off center of warping end In this case, during heaving messenger rope by warping-end, there is a big possibility to jam rope on warping end or come off from it However, it is not means that using bollard every time Because, in case of using bollard, the friction between bollard & rope The friction will damage to rope slightly Even same weight of rope, if using bollard too much, possibility to cut the rope by friction effect will increase one by one If you can take messenger rope from chock directly, it is better for safety to choice this way This is also the same for hawser arrangement in case using head/stern lines as breast line How to take stopper? This (Dia-8) is the procedure of how to take stopper Fig-1 Fig-2 Fig-3 Fig-4 Fig-1 Fig-2 Fig-3 Fig-4 Put stopper rope on Tug-Line and round to down anti-clockwise Turn round stopper rope to inside of stopper rope direction Turn round one or more Making tight & fixing When takes stopper, you should also consider the position as follows; (Dia-7) The meaning of this location arrangement is commanding officer can confirm stopper line effect easily The mistakes in this operation will cause a serious incident easily Hence, Confirms stopper is set effectively not only stopper handling crew, but also commanding officer If commanding officer locates behind of stopper handling crew, officer can not confirm the situation of stopper made fast in correct method or not due to hiding knots by crew’s body Dia-7 Stopper operation arrangement Slack slowly even stopper takes correctly After takes stopper and commanding officer confirms it is correctly, He will ordered warping-end handling crew to slack line But, in this situation, mooring winch handler never slack line by winch operation The correct method is slacking with loosing ropes on warpingend And the warping-end handling crew also not slacking so quickly The reason why not is in that time, the stopper has not confirmed certainly correct yet Even the way to take stopper is correctly and confirmed, if the line is too heavy to fix by stopper, the stopper can not fix tug-line In this case, the stopper will be broken and tug line will runaway with hitting some structures, of course stopper handling crew and in his vicinity crew Hence, when slacking, at first, slacking slowly and confirm the effect of stopper After confirmed, you can come off the messenger rope from warping-end If slacking by winch operation, even well handling crew operates, slacking too much quick to confirm Hence, follow above procedure when slacking Special notice for Tug *When tug in service, especially pull the ship by lines, Tug-Line’s tension is maximum high and have serious risk of cutting line Hence, ALL MEMBERS should be cleared out from Tug-Line during in operation *When start heaving up line, if feel Tug-Line is so heavy that you can not handling in present way, you not hesitate to change method to use warping end or others anytime If you will be delay for taking Tug-Line with changing method, you should report to master ASAP *In Brazilian or European port, sometimes use ship’s line as Tug-Line HANDLING MOORING LINE The mooring of ship is the most critical mission on board Because any other duty on board, ex Cargo work, Maintenance & others is will be carried out on condition in safety mooring By the way, on the operation in mooring & un-mooring is also one of most risky situation for ship Hence, all members should be carried out quickly & certainly However, it is not means that we will carry out mooring operation with cutting safety margin We should understand the basic knowledge and maneuvering equipments correctly and keep safety in operation certainly by ourselves The essence of safety for mooring operation Keep your body in safety zone In generally, the most risky position during operation is extension point of tighten mooring line Hence, during operation in making fast line, all members should not be located on there Located with considering to rely your signature to operator & to observe line condition in same time It seems it is disagree with chapter-1, commanding officer should order to winch operator with observing & confirming line and shore condition (Ref Dia-4) In Dia4, this is a sample for aft spring line Dia-4 Location for Aft Spring Line If commanding officer is located at Pos-2, even that is extension line of spring line, it is possible to observe both of lines & operator At Pos-2, it is impossible Hence, in case of line slacking, should command at Pos-2 Just before tighten, shift to Pos-1 is better way for commanding As like such an example, all hands should be consider the situation of all and consider again regarding position be located Never disengage crutch with out breaking Even officer orders “Disengage crutch”, Operator should confirm that the break is in tight condition effectively In case of lines are tight, disengage crutch operation will cause the line runaway strongly & it will be a serious incident sometimes Hence, Operator should be confirming himself again and not so, not hesitate to report to officer Do not make tight before made fast order At final stage of mooring operation, the ship’s position will be adjusted with little by little But in that time, if lines are so tight, the tension of line disturbs them Hence, you should never tight up lines until master ordered made fast or tight up lines Never heaving in tightly when shore line man handling or stay in vicinity of shore bit of lines When heaving in lines for made fast, there is a risk to cutting line However, when cut the line, if shore line handler stay in vicinity or in service, it have a great possibility that cut line will cause a serious damage for them Hence, even coming order to made fast, at first, confirm shore bit condition & cleared out When engage crutch, touch the crutch position on effectively engage before breaking off To prevent cause an impact when breaking off, operator should set the crutch in touching condition with heaving operation KEEPING MOORING CONDITION (MOORING LINE WATCH IN PORT) The theory of mooring In an idealistic theory, ship’s mooring position never changes during berthing because berth arrival position is considered with Loader/Un-loader traveling distance, gangway position, ship’s length, other ship’s berthing schedule, mooring arrangements & which it concerned all I have already told in last chapter, the mooring of ship is the most critical mission on board for to be success other all missions Hence, I tell regarding how to keep safety mooring with key words as follows; *Longer is more tightly in Head/Stern Lines In general, when hawser is in tightening condition, the hawser will extend its self However, the extending capacity is up to length of hawser using Of course, the capacity of long hawser for extension is greater than short one Normally, the longest line in port is outer Head/Stern Line Hence, it is common sense for us to be tightening up these longer lines in first priority And it is just fitting for next chapter “Outer is more tightly” *Outer is more tightly Normally, ship’s movement for longitudinally direction will be controlled by Head line & Stern line and Spring line And Horizontal movement will be controlled by Breast line However, due to angle of shore and line, Head & Stern line also control horizontal movement In this case, the control force of outer lines is greater than inner one Hence, in case of adjusting line tension in port, set more tightly for outer lines than inner ones *Do not tight up Spring so much Spring lines are normally use along with ship’s hull Hence, when ship moving longitudinally direction, received force on them is so much that easily cut them In generally, the force of ship’s movement to longitudinally direction is mainly controlled by head Stern Lines Hence, Spring lines are not tighten up more than both of head & Stern Lines *Breast lines are not effectively in case of high freeboard condition Breast lines are one of important lines to keep ship position horizontally However, it is up to the situation (Ref Dia-5) In Dia-5, it is compare the situation between high & low freeboard condition The force on line (Red arrow) is same on both of conditions However, the force to keeping ship in horizontal direction (Blue arrow) is differing in both of conditions so much It happens depend on the angle of line Hence, in case of highly freeboard condition, it is no meaning to tight up breast line so much But it will damage Breast lines easily So, it is necessary to judge that Breast is effectively or not in each situation before tight up them Dia-5 Compare breast condition *Do not tight up breast alone I recommended that Breast is effectively in laden condition in last chapter However, if tightening up the breast line in fwd or aft alone when the other line is not in effective condition, the ship will leave from berth in opposite side due to strength of breast line because of unbalanced tension between fore & aft Breast line is the main line to keep ship alongside to berth for horizontal direction Hence, if sets tighten in unbalanced condition, ship is easily left from berth one side To prevent such an incident, it is desirable to adjust fore & aft breast line in same time to same tension If not to so, before adjusting breast lines, set head & stern line tightly, especially outer lines, then adjusted breast lines carefully *Pay much Attention for tide, current and trim Incase of loading cargo, normally, mid-ship draft going deeper & deeper and in case of un-loading is opposite However, due to plan of loading/discharging, fore & aft draft changed variously at times Especially in loading port, Chief Officer planed to take trim around 5-6m by the stern to discharging & stripping ballast In case of above, fore draft is quickly changed and the tension of fore lines will be tighten up also quickly If not take care about in this condition, in worst case, cut our lines due to over force Hence, duty officer should make a caution for deck crew regarding trim change in every sequence, before high tide or low tide, especially strong current port like Ponta da Madeira in Brazil & others *Incase of leaving from berth, never heaving up alone When you find that ship condition leaving from berth due to strong current, wind or any factors, at first, should report to duty officer ASAP And Duty officer also should report to master ASAP However, for countermeasure of this situation, not try to heave in lines alone In generally, the relations of force power of mooring equipments are as follows; Hawser Strength > Winch Breaking Force > Force of heaving by winch The right way in such a situation, set breaking tightly and endure to leave ship from berth until master order *Vacuum effect of ships This is one of ship’s motions If a vessel sailing in vicinity of other vessel, these vessels make a force vacuuming each other In case of berthing, if another vessel entering or leaving from/to in vicinity berth and passing our off shore side, our vessel, even in berthing, happen a force to leaving from berth This effect force is depending on each ship size In actually, vessel berthed in port cut her lines by this effect Hence, In case of duty officer find a large vessel passing off shore side of our ship, at first, order to on deck to confirm all lines tight up correctly & effectively and keep watch ship’s movement carefully Thanks for reading until here, at finally, I send you my opinion… The safe is not trade-off of speed!!! Thanks/Regards By Keith K Nakamoto Chief Officer of NSS HONESTY 1st April 2010 Rev.3 Special Thanks for Master of M/V NSS HONESTY Capt M Nozaki, Boatswain of M/V NSS HONESTY Pham Trong Dai And ALL Crews on M/V NSS HONESTY  ... stopper is set effectively not only stopper handling crew, but also commanding officer If commanding officer locates behind of stopper handling crew, officer can not confirm the situation of stopper... hesitate to change method to use warping end or others anytime If you will be delay for taking Tug-Line with changing method, you should report to master ASAP *In Brazilian or European port, sometimes... However, it is not means that we will carry out mooring operation with cutting safety margin We should understand the basic knowledge and maneuvering equipments correctly and keep safety in operation