Page 45 - CHIRP Annual Digest 2017

CHIRP Annual Digest 2017

7. DECK OPERATIONS

This sections begins with a report did in the past. ‘Keep it simple’ is of links to useful articles, and we
of a crew undertaking a potentially generally good advice. have devoted the Insight article in
hazardous operation without using this section to the topic of anchoring.
the appropriate personal protective We also have a short report involving This is another extremely important
equipment, in almost total contra- an officer who did not know the differ- article brimming with good advice,
vention of the guidance contained in ence between the rendering point of and I suspect even the most experi-
the Code of Safe Working Practices a winch and the brake holding capac- enced seafarers will learn something
for Merchant Seafarers (COSWP). In ity – something which should have of value when they read it.
the words of the Maritime Advisory been covered in his familiarisation
Board they showed ‘complete lack of training when he joined the vessel. The next report describes crew mem-
awareness of self-preservation’. Another report tells us what hap- bers working overside. They were wear-
ing life jackets and using inertia-wire
The COSWP has been around for pened when an anchor winch failed safety lines, but the life jackets were
many years, and there is no excuse while a ship was heaving aweigh in of an unsuitable design and there was
for such a miserable approach to worsening weather. Fortunately there no sensible place to attach the safety
personal safety, but I wonder if the was a spare motor on board and the lines. Another case of poor design,
Code itself is partly to blame? When Master managed to hold the ves- this time coupled with the inappropri-
I first went to sea the Code was a sel using the engines whilst it was ate selection of protective equipment.
small book written in simple lan- changed – an operation which took
guage with lots of clear illustrations. several hours. The report gives the Finally, we hear about a vessel
It was easy to read and frequently impression that the crew were thor- unmooring, and what happened
consulted. The latest version is oughly professional and prevented a when the officer in charge was
much more complicated, full of potentially serious situation from get- distracted from his duty of moni-
regulatory mumbo-jumbo, and is not ting much worse. Nonetheless, there toring the whole operation. For-
a book I would ever willingly study. seems to be a lack of awareness in tunately, in this case there were
Perhaps modern crews, particularly many quarters about anchoring, par- no serious consequences, but it
those for whom the Code is written ticularly the design parameters of the only takes a moment for a routine
in a foreign language, cannot be equipment and how it will withstand operation to go wrong if you let your
motivated to consult it in the way we bad weather, so we include a number attention wander.

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