Mooring is considered one of the most dangerous operations carried out on board a ship. Failure of the mooring lines can result in severe consequences. That is why choosing the right mooring lines and mooring tails is very important for users.

Many years manufacturers and users didn’t have a common set of purchasing and testing procedures. All the stakeholders used to have different specification while choosing mooring lines. For example, purchasers could specify an MBL based on shipyard’s specifications without determining other requirements, for example mooring line or tail assembly type, material and construction, rotation characteristics. This led to purchase of mooring lines and tails that were not appropriate for the intended use.

The Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) issued Mooring Equipment Guidelines (4th edition 2018, MEG-4) that should be the basis for users mooring policy. The document contains guidelines for all aspects of mooring in user daily mooring activities and can answer to the following questions: How to select a line or tail for your activities? Which factors influence mooring line performance? What are the inspection criteria? When should a mooring line be discarded?

OCIMF has undertaken a major revision of the MEG taking into account best mooring technologies and practices, aiming to reduce the number of accidents to seafarers and terminal staff during mooring and unmooring operations.

How to purchase mooring lines and tails

The guidance on purchasing of mooring lines and mooring tails in MEG-4 has been enhanced as compared to previous version MEG-3. In MEG-4 more parameters for purchasing lines were added. All the parameters can be found in Appendix B of “Guidelines for the purchasing and testing of mooring lines and tails”.

List of mooring lines and mooring equipment suppliers

To ensure that both users and manufacturers understand the use and retirement plan of the mooring line or tails requested, users are recommended to communicate with mooring line manufacturers throughout the purchasing process. It’s very important to always send the Acquisition Form to the manufacturer or supplier along with the inquiry in order to identify the required parameters of the mooring line requested.

This acquisition form allows the user to provide information about their mooring line or tail requirements so that the manufacturer can then propose mooring lines or tails of the correct dimensions and appropriate performance. For lines and for tails separately.

Mooring line acquisition form should contain the following information:

• Ship name
• Prospective place and date of delivery
• Ship design MBL
• Length
• Number of lines
• Reason to order: new build, existing ship re-outfitting, existing ship re-outfitting (changing wire to fibre), scheduled line replacement, replacement due to line failure
• Fabrication requirements (details of eye sizes / termination and chafe protection)
• Supporting information

Mooring tail acquisition form should contain the following information:

• Ship name
• Ship design MBL
• Tail Design Break Force (ship design MBL + 25%)
• Length
• Number of tails
• Assembly type
• Tail material and construction
• Sheltered dynamic stiffness
• Exposed dynamic stiffness
• Main mooring line material / construction
• Required mooring tail rotation characteristics
• Reason to order: new build, existing ship re-outfitting, existing ship re-outfitting (changing wire to fibre), scheduled line replacement, replacement due to line failure
• Fabrication requirements (details of eye sizes / termination and chafe protection)
• Supporting information

The following purchasing process is recommended by MEG-4:

1. The manufacturer’s data sheets for the relevant product are reviewed by user and completed mooring line or tail acquisition form is sent to manufacturer.
2. Manufacturer proposes mooring lines or tails to the user’s requirements according to the MEG-4 guidelines, using the mooring line or tail proposal form and base design certificate.
3. The received proposals from different manufacturers are reviewed and comparted by user talking into account the information supplied.
4. Mooring line or tail is selected by user and order is placed to manufacturer.
5. Manufacturer produce the selected mooring lines (or tails) to meet the chosen user’s requirements, e.g. length, diameter, assembly, etc. Manufacturer issues a mooring line (or tail) certificate for each line (or tail).
6. Mooring lines or tails are received and placed into service.

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