CIC Results on safety of Navigation in Black Sea MoU

The Black Sea MoU released the report on the CIC on Safety on Navigation, including ECDIS, completed on November 30, 2017

From 01 September 2017 to 30 November 2017, the Black Sea MoU carried out a Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) onSafety of Navigation throughout the region.

The campaign involved all member States of the Black Sea MoU and was conducted in conjunction with the Tokyo MOU, Paris MOU and other MOUs. The aim of the campaign was to check the conformity of safety regulations for ships, the overall status of the vessel’s navigation safety and the competency of crew involved innavigation operations.

The Report documents the results of the Concentrated InspectionCampaign (CIC) on Safety of Navigation, including ECDIS, which was carried out by six (6) Black Sea MoU Member Authorities.

The results

During the campaign, a total of 983 inspections were carried out with the CIC questionnaire involving 983 individual ships. Of this quantity 59 ships were detained with 21 (35.6%) detentions being within the CIC scope. This means that in 21 cases the navigationsystems are not meeting SOLAS requirements and had deficiencies, which were serious enough to detain the ship, resulting in a CIC-topic related detention rate of 2.14%.

A total of 180 questionnaires had at least a non-compliance to a requirement, resulting 18.3% of CIC inspections. 

The overall average of non-conformities was 2.68%.

The most notable non-conformities

7.6% Lack of exhibition of navigation/signal lights in accordance with the requirements of COLREG72

6.2% Lack of passage plan covering the whole voyage

2.9% Ship’s VDR/SVDR not record data fully

It has been observed that ships younger than 15 years age performing relatively well with 566 (58.58%) inspections with only two (2) CIC topic related detentions.

Older ships, particularly those 30 years and older, show reason for concern with majority of detentions 11 (52.4%) and 98 (40.0%) non-conformities, although subjecting one fourth of inspections 241 (24.5%).

High CIC topic related detention rate, CIC inspections with non-conformities, unfavourable results to the questions mentioned above raise concern on the industry level of compliance to the SOLAS Chapter V and in particular on the overall status of the vessel’snavigation safety.

Alert on detainable deficiencies

Following a recent Port State Control (PSC) inspections in all (MOU)s, seven deficiencies have been imposed that resulted in the detention of the vessels. We wish to draw attention to these detainable deficiencies to avoid re-occurrence

Emergency equipment for 2-way communication

The battery of the emergency equipment for 2-way communicationwas found expired. Ship Owners/ Managers / Operators are reminded on the requirements of the emergency equipment.

The equipment should be portable and capable of being used foron-scene communication between survival craft, between survival craft and ship and between survival craft and rescue unit. It may also be used for on-board communications when capable of operatingon appropriate frequencies.

The equipment should:

 be capable of being operated by unskilled personnel;

 be capable of being operated by personnel wearing gloves as specified for immersion suits in regulation 33 of chapter III of 1974 SOLAS Convention;

 be capable of single-handed operation except for channel selection;

 withstand drops on to a hard surface from a height of 1 m;

 be watertight to a depth of 1 m for at least 5 min;

 maintain watertightness when subjected to a thermal shock of 45°C under conditions of immersion;

 not be unduly affected by seawater, or oil, or both;

 have no sharp projections which could damage survival craft;

 be of small size and light weight;

 be capable of operating in the ambient noise level likely to be encountered on board ships or in survival craft;

 have provisions for its attachment to the clothing of the user;

 be resistant to deterioration by prolonged exposure to sunlight; and

 be either of a highly visible yellow/orange colour or marked with a surrounding yellow/orange marking strip.

The source of energy should be integrated in the equipment and may be replaceable. In addition, provision may be made to operate the equipment using an external source of electrical energy.

Equipment for which the source of energy is intended to be user-replaceable should be provided with a dedicated primary battery for use in the event of a distress situation. This battery should be equipped with a non-replaceable seal to indicate that it has not been used.

The primary battery should have sufficient capacity to ensure 8-hour operation at its highest rated power with a duty cycle of 1:9. This duty cycle is defined as 6-second transmission, 6-second receptionabove squelch opening level and 48-second reception below squelch opening level.

Line-throwing appliances

During the PSC inspection it was noted that the line-throwing appliances were found expired.

A line-throwing appliance complying with the requirements of section 7.1 of the LSA Code shall be provided.

Every line-throwing appliance shall:

 be capable of throwing a line with reasonable accuracy;

 include not less than four projectiles each capable of carrying the line at least 230 m in calm weather;