57 Ships Detained during Rest Campaign
The Paris, Indian Ocean and Black Sea MoUs have released preliminary results for their Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on STCW hours of rest which jointly resulted in 57 ships being detained.
The CIC was carried out between 1 September and 30 November 2014.
During the campaign, member authorities of the Indian Ocean MoU carried out inspections of 1623 ships covering 63 flags resulting in 35 ships being detained. In total, 174 ships were found with 246 deficiencies as a result of the campaign.
The most significant deficiencies found were:
1. lack of correctly recorded records related to hours of rest (8.34 percent);
2. non-compliance with the STCW requirements of rest periods for all watchkeeping personnel including the weekly requirements of rest (2.14 percent); and
3. with respect to the records indicating that a bridge lookout is being maintained (1.74 percent).
Australia carried out the most inspections (837) representing 66.5 percent of the total inspections with 13 detentions (1.6 percent) followed by India (160) inspections representing 12.7 percent with 11 detentions (6.9 percent).
The Black Sea MoU detained six ships during the course of the CIC. The most notable non-conformities observed were lack of correctly recorded records related hours of rest (7.33 percent), followed by lack of watch schedule posted in an accessible area (1.75 percent) and endorsement of the daily hours of rest records for each watch keeper (1.48 percent).
During the course of the campaign six member authorities carried out a total of 1,146 inspections. Five of the ships detained for CIC-related deficiencies were general cargo/multipurpose ships.
The results of the campaigns will be further analyzed and findings will be presented to the 16th meeting of the Port State Control Committee in April 2015, after which the report will be submitted to the IMO.
Paris MoU reports that 16 ships (14 percent of detentions during CIC) were detained over the three month period as a direct result of the CIC for deficiencies related to hours of rest. Main areas of concern are hours of rest not being recorded properly and watchkeeping personnel without sufficient rest.
The CIC questionnaire was completed during 4,041 inspections. A total of 912 CIC-related deficiencies were recorded and 16 ships (14 percent of the detentions) were detained as a direct result of the CIC during the three month period.
Secretary General Richard Schiferli expressed serious concerns: “Insufficient rest of watchkeeping personnel has already caused several incidents over the past years. It may be the cause of fatigue, which can have major consequences for safety and the environment. 2 watch systems are particularly vulnerable in this respect”.
11 (70 percent) of the detained ships were general cargo/multipurpose ships, three (19 percent) were bulk carriers.
Analysis of the recorded deficiencies shows that most deficiencies relate to hours of rest not being recorded correctly in 449 cases (11 percent), watchkeeping personnel did not have sufficient rest in 203 cases (5 percent) and bridge lookout not maintained in 101 cases (3 percent). A total of 21 inspections revealed that the manning level was not in accordance with the Minimum Safe Manning Document.
The flag with the highest number of CIC-topic related detentions was Moldova with three CIC-topic related detentions. The inspections showed that a total of 1,268 ships were operating with a two watch system for the navigational watch and 13 of these ships were detained.