Following a further round of discussions on 'Places of Refuge' at the IMO last week, prompted by a submission from the EU Member States, the European Commission, shipowners and the maritime insurance industry, IACS today published recommendations addressing the minimum support services for vessels in need of operational technical support, including vessels in need of a Port of Refuge.
These recommendations will be of value to all shipowners, operators and managers when choosing an emergency response service provider by clearly establishing the minimum level of support the service provider can be expected to deliver.
By choosing a service provider that meets all the IACS recommendations, shipowners, operators and managers can be confident that the provider will have the required capability to both comply with relevant national and international regulations and guidelines as well provide effective and rapid technical assistance to a ship in a casualty situation.
In a ship emergency, a safe course of action to protect the ship, crew, cargo and the marine environment may not be obvious. A ship’s crew and management need rapid precise technical information on the behaviour of the ship after the casualty as well as information on the consequences of any proposed remedial actions.
The aim of an emergency response service is to provide rapid technical assistance to Masters and other authorities in a casualty situation by assessing the damage stability and residual longitudinal strength of the ship.
This assistance can only be provided rapidly if:
• A 24 hour all year round emergency response service is available
• The calculation results can be provided rapidly by using computer programs
• Models of the ship are prepared in advance
The IACS recommendations provide additional detail on these core elements and can be downloaded,free of charge, from the IACS website at: http://www.iacs.org.uk/document/public/Publications/
Guidelines_and_recommendations/PDF/Rec._No._145_pdf2856.pdf