How is your business preparing for MEG4?

Leading maritime ropes supplier, Lankhorst Ropes, announces its new Mooring Rope Manual, reflecting the recommendations of the new OCIMF (Oil Companies International Marine Forum) Mooring Equipment Guidelines (MEG4). The Manual provides vessel operators in general, and wet cargo ship operators in particular, with an in-depth review of fibre mooring ropes and assistance with the Mooring System Management Plan and Line Management Plan introduced in the MEG4 guidelines.

The OCIMF’s MEG4 marks a significant change in mooring equipment guidelines with the focus more than ever on the safety of the vessel’s crew and terminal staff. The Lankhorst Ropes’ Mooring Rope Manual provides wet cargo operators with a comprehensive resource for effective mooring rope management. In addition to assisting in rope selection and maximising rope service life, the Manual covers the key mooring line recommendations in the MEG4 Guidelines. 

“MEG4 is a step-change in mooring equipment guidelines for the safe mooring of tankers and gas carriers at terminals. Our Mooring Manual is designed to help operators to make sense of the MEG4 guidelines and successfully implement them with minimum disruption to their businesses,” says Wilco Stroet, managing director, Lankhorst Ropes.

Maximising Rope Service Life

The Lankhorst Ropes approach is both comprehensive and practical. An in-depth introduction to mooring ropes – their construction, characteristics and certification, is followed by tips on rope selection to suit the vessel and mooring conditions. Understanding the factors affecting how mooring ropes perform in service such as the importance of handling and their application is vital to crew safety and rope service life. 

One of the key strengths of fibre mooring ropes is their ease of maintenance – the Lankhorst Mooring Rope Manual provides detailed information on how to inspect, and where necessary repair, mooring lines. Inevitably all ropes need to be retired at some point, normally based on mooring hours. Lankhorst Ropes provides a continuous residual strength testing program to assist in determining the best moment to change the rope end-to-end or replace it, in order to ensure the best economical service life and to optimise safety on board. 

OCIMF MEG4

For the development and implementation of the ship’s Line Management Plan (LMP), the Lankhorst Mooring Rope Manual reviews the OCIMF’s recommendations for mooring line management and tail maintenance, inspection and retirement during the operational phase of the mooring line lifecycle. Bearing in mind the Line Management Plan is specific to an operator, ship type and trade route. 

The Mooring System Management Plan (MSMP) helps ship owners and operators to keep consistent information about a ship’s mooring equipment. It is used to effectively manage all assessed risks through the design and operation of the mooring system. The MSMP along with the required Mooring System Management Plan Register (MSMPR) will accompany the vessel throughout its operational life.

As an aid to assessing the completeness of the LMP and MSMP, the Lankhorst Manual takes a FAQ approach to the OCIMF Ship Inspection Report (SIRE) Vessel Inspection Questionnaire (VIQ7). In addition to addressing the most common MEG4 questions raised by operators, the FAQ is followed by examples of Mooring Line Acquisition forms, and examples of a Rope Inspection Report, Line Management and Mooring System Management Plans.

For a copy of the Lankhorst Ropes Mooring Manual, please download it here.