16 Ships Detained on Hours of Rest Deficiencies in Paris MoU

Preliminary results from the Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on STCW Hours of Rest, carried out between September 1 and November 30, 2014, in the Paris MoU region show that 16 ships were detained as a direct result of the CIC for deficiencies related to hours of rest.

Main areas of concern are hours of rest not being recorded properly and watchkeeping personnel without sufficient rest.

The CIC questionnaire was completed during 4,041 inspections. A total of 912 CIC-related deficiencies were recorded and 16 ships (14% of the detentions) were detained as a direct result of the CIC during the 3 month period.

Paris MoU Secretary General Richard Schiferli said “Insufficient rest of watchkeeping personnel has already caused several incidents over the past years. It may be the cause of fatigue, which can have major consequences for safety and the environment. 2 watch systems are particularly vulnerable in this respect.”

During the campaign most inspections concerned general cargo/multi-purpose ships with 1,207 (30%) inspections, followed by bulk carriers with 948 (23%) inspections, container ships with 407 (11%) inspections, chemical tankers with 375 (9%) inspections and oil tankers with 325 (8%) inspections.

11 (70%) of the detained ships were general cargo/multipurpose ships, 3 (19%) were bulk carriers, 1 container ship and 1 other ship type.

Analysis of the recorded deficiencies shows that most deficiencies relate to hours of rest not being recorded correctly in 449 cases (11%), watchkeeping personnel did not have sufficient rest in 203 cases (5%) and bridge lookout not maintained in 101 cases (3%). A total of 21 inspections revealed that the manning level was not in accordance with the Minimum Safe Manning Document.

The flag with the highest number of CIC-topic related detentions was Moldova with 3 CIC-topic related detentions.

The inspections showed that a total of 1268 ships were operating with a 2 watch system for the navigational watch and 13 of these ships were detained.

The CIC was a joint campaign with the Tokyo MoU.