Mooring Line Failure - MAIB Report

Mooring rope failure whilst under load can result in serious or fatal injury to crew and /or personnel ashore, and the Club has recently encountered a number of such incidents that have given rise to substantial claims. Risk Alerts 07 and 08 issued in December 2009 highlighted various risk issues associated with mooring in relation to Safe Mooring Practice and Mooring Line Care and Maintenance.

The UK Marine Accidents Investigation Branch (MAIB) has just published the report that can be found in the link below concerning the failure of a high-modulus polyethylene (HMPE)  jacketed  mooring line onboard a large LNG carrier that occurred well below its certificated minimum breaking load causing a serious head injury to one of the ship’s officers.  This MAIB safety report, published courtesy of the MAIB and Crown Copyright, highlights the diminution of the rope’s strength that can be arise as the result of the fibres, that are concealed by the jacketing, becoming “kinked” as the result of the rope passing around bollards and fairleads of a diameter less than the minimum recommended by the rope’s manufacturers.

Click here to read the full MAIB report