Port State Control Detentions News

Lloyd's Register (LR) and the UK P&I Club have released a Life-Saving Appliances pocket checklist app to help ensure that ship personnel are trained in how to inspect, maintain and operate life-saving equipment, and that equipment is ready for use at all times. The app also includes a list of common deficiencies to help ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and help reduce the risk of port state control detentions. The full series of six pocket checklist apps, consisting of: ILO MLC, ISM & ISPS, Marine Fire Safety, Marine Pollution Prevention Port State Inspections, and now Life-Saving Appliances, are all available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

As Roberto P. Cazzulo, RINA, steps down as the Chairman of the IACS Council, Maritime Reporter caught up with him to discuss the current state and future direction of global class. Given your experience, aside from the creation of IACS, what has been the most important change to the way in which “class” has conducted its business in the past 20 years? In my view, it is the Quality System Certification Scheme (QSCS) adopted by IACS in 1991. Quality is a pillar for IACS. The scheme…

Lloyd’s Register and the UK P&I Club have updated the ILO MLC smartphone app and launched a new ISM & ISPS pocket checklist app. Both apps are free and are available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. In a fully paperless operation, the apps enable ships’ crews and their managers to view necessary legislative and regulatory requirements, save multiple checklists, check off completed activities, add essential notes and send the completed checklists via email. Lloyd’s Register and the UK P&I Club have analyzed ISM, ISPS and ILO MLC reported deficiencies found by Port State Control.

Recent port state control detentions (particularly in Australian waters) have revealed numerous cases of damaged and inoperable ballast tank air pipe heads. The air pipe heads were of the automatic float type, from different manufacturers and used by different new construction shipyards. Investigation showed that all the air pipe heads had been damaged by being subjected to continuous overflow of the ballast tanks for ballast water exchange – a function for which they were not designed or intended to be used.

The Coast Guard detained the motor vessel Great Success, Tuesday,  requiring the vessel remain in Longview, Wash., until numerous safety violations are corrected by the ship’s crew. Port State Control officers from Coast Guard Sector Columbia River’s Marine Safety Unit in Portland, Ore., discovered the discrepancies during routine inspections of the 553-foot Hong Kong-flagged vessel in Kalama, Wash., Monday and Longview on Tuesday. Most safety discrepancies were related to fire danger and included excessive oil and oily water mixture in the bilges…

Captain Anthony Lloyd, Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard National Maritime Center. Captain Anthony Lloyd is the Commanding Officer of the National Maritime Center (NMC). He assumed that position in September of 2010 after serving three years as the Coast Guard’s Program Manager for marine environmental response. The nationally-focused Officer in Charge of Marine Inspection (OCMI) tasked with implementing the Coast Guard’s Mariner Credentialing Program, the NMC, and the 20 field units under Lloyd’s direct control…

Modern electronic navigation systems have the potential to improve vessel navigation safety and ruce accidents. The potential of these new systems is unlikely to be realiz, however, if the officers keeping the navigation watch are not fully train and properly qualifi in their use. Thus, fully realizing the potential in electronic navigation will require improv training, a wider spectrum of knowlge across the industry and better procures by vessel owners and managers to assess qualification and proper use. At the same time, as incidents relat to the use of AIS or ECDIS occur, courts are putting owners and managers on notice that such training and monitoring is requir to avoid or limit their liability for accidents.

Modern electronic navigation systems have the potential to improve vessel navigation safety and ruce accidents. The potential of these new systems is unlikely to be realiz, however, if the officers keeping the navigation watch are not fully train and properly qualifi in their use. Thus, fully realizing the potential in electronic navigation will require improv training, a wider spectrum of knowlge across the industry and better procures by vessel owners and managers to assess qualification and proper use. At the same time, as incidents relat to the use of AIS or ECDIS occur, courts are putting owners and managers on notice that such training and monitoring is requir to avoid or limit their liability for accidents.

2003. By June 30, 2004 some 32,389 documents had been issued by the Maritime Administration, comprising 3,651 officer certificates of competency, 7,157 seafarer identification record books (SIRBs) and 21,581 special qualification certificates (SQCs). The rise in the volume of crew paperwork highlights not only the current growth of the Marshall Islands flag fleet, which has expanded by 23 percent in tonnage terms, reaching 22 million gross tons in the second quarter of 2004, but also the increased vigilance the Maritime Administration is giving to the issue of seafarer documentation. ³We believe that prevention is better than cure,² states Capt. Robert A. Fay, Vice President, Seafarers¹ Documentation with International Registries, Inc.

Far from getting any easier, management of tankers is certain to get more complex, said Bob Bishop, Chief Operating Officer of V.Ships Shipmanagement, speaking at the Tanker Operator Conference in London this week. With increased regulation and burgeoning media scrutiny on behalf of a cynical public, risks will be greater and risk management will be ever more crucial he said. While Bishop anticipated a gradual increase in third party management outsourcing from the current 15 percent of the world’s tanker fleet, he emphasized that Managers will need to do more to demonstrate control, performance and value to clients in order to win new business .

The U.S. Coast Guard has released its List of Detained Vessels