Amended SOLAS rules to come into force in 2024

The new rules and guidance require that mooring equipment, including mooring lines, on all SOLAS ships, shall be inspected and maintained in a suitable condition for their intended purposes.

Lloyd’s Register (LR) notes that surveyors will begin verifying that the maintenance and inspection procedures comply with the amended rules from 1 January 2024 for initial surveys for newbuildings, as well as for Cargo Ship Safety Construction surveys and Passenger Ship Safety surveys.

LR advises that shipowners and ship managers should establish the following onboard maintenance and inspection procedures:

• Procedures for mooring operations, inspection and maintenance of mooring equipment, including mooring lines.
• Procedures to allow the identification and control of mooring lines, tails and associated attachments.
• Periodic inspection of mooring lines, mooring line tails and associated attachments as part of the onboard maintenance plan or equivalent maintenance management system.
• Manufacturersʹ criteria for replacement of mooring lines should be available.
• Records of the original design concept, equipment, arrangements and specifications should be available on board.

LR recommends that companies review their procedures, records and forms to ensure the above items have been properly addressed, while designers and shipbuilders should ensure the supplied documentation provides sufficient information (e.g. technical data, maintenance manuals, mooring rope specification and certificates) to support owners in developing their maintenance and inspection procedures.

Options for older vessels

Vessels built before 2007 were not required to have a original design concept to support the development of the new SOLAS maintenance and inspection requirements.

For vessels lacking an appropriate design concept, the following options are available:

• The original design concept could be a mooring arrangement plan or any document that specifies mooring specifications at the time of the ship’s construction.
• Alternatively, owners may establish the original design concept, including MBLSD (Ship Design Minimum Breaking Load) for mooring based on the safe working load of mooring equipment provided on board.
• If the vessel neither has any mooring documentation nor any safe working load marking on fittings, owners are advised to check the strength of mooring equipment and their supporting hull structure based on MSC.1/Circ.1175/Rev.1 (or rules applied at the time of construction, such as IACS Recommendation 10). Owners should also determine MBLSD based on actual capacity of the equipment and their supporting hull structure on board. In this case, calculations should be submitted to Lloyd’s Register (LR) for appraisal.

On a consultancy basis, LR may also support owners carrying out calculations to determine the MBLSD for establishing the original design concept, based on the owner’s available information. These calculations are carried out independently of any subsequent plan appraisal.