9.5 Is there a policy in place for the testing of winch brakes and are the results recorded?

Observation : All 12 mooring winches / drums were not marked with a proper device on the lever to achieve the brake holding capacity. It was observed that the vessel used plastic cable ties on the levers of all winches, which were easily moveable by hand. All mooring winches need to be fitted with a device that can be used to mark the tested rendering point. Please refer to attached photographs, which give a couple of examples. As per MEG 7.4.5.6 figure 7.8 we cannot use a double-nut type locking arrangement on the band brake tightening screws of the mooring winches to indicate the rendering point. OCIMF Mooring Equipment Guidelines is very specific (MEG 7.4.5.6, page 152) stating that, placing locking nuts on the threaded end is not acceptable due to safety reasons. Comment from the Company: We also now cannot mark the rendering points with a cable tie, jubilee clip or similar. This needs to be achieved by a proper device, such as indicated in the attached photographs.