Best Practice: Mooring Snap-back zones

Date: 26/07/2016

Author: David Nichol

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In recent years it became common practice to mark snap-back zones on ships decks in the
vicinity of mooring machinery, rollers and fairleads. However, industry advice with respect to
identifying and marking snap-back zones came under review last year following an incident
where a deck officer was seriously injured during a mooring operation when standing in a
location that had not been identified as being within a snap-back danger zone.

All mooring ropes will stretch to some degree under tension and more so when constructed
from synthetic fibre. When a mooring line parts under load, the sudden release of stored
energy in the rope will cause it to recover its original length almost instantaneously. The two
ends of the line recoil or snap-back towards or past their secured ends with great velocity and
anyone standing within the snap-back zone risks serious injury or death. A snap-back zone is
thus an area within which it is unsafe for persons to be positioned when ropes are likely to
come under tension.

The direction of travel and area affected by a recoiling rope is in practice difficult to predict
and will vary depending on a number of factors, including the particular mooring arrangement
and direction of leads employed. Mooring ropes led around roller pedestals and fairleads have
the potential to create complex snap-back zones. It has therefore come to be recognised that
the painting of permanent snap-back zones on mooring decks is unlikely to be appropriate for
all mooring scenarios and may engender complacency in crew members.

Chapter 26 of the United Kingdom Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Code of Safe Working
Practices for Merchant Seafarers now provides advice on the matter as follows:

26.3.2 Owing to the design of mooring decks, the entire area should be considered a potential
snap-back zone. All crew working on a mooring deck should be made aware of this with clear
visible signage.

26.3.3 The painting of snap-back zones on mooring decks should be avoided because they
may give a false sense of security.

In effect, the whole mooring deck may be considered a danger zone.

Of course mooring decks are working areas and it is not suggested that they become complete
exclusion zones, which would be an absurdity. However, it is recommended that on board risk
assessments are conducted to ensure potential snap-back zones are identified, taking into
account the various mooring configurations that may be employed. Mooring plans should also
illustrate the identified snap-back hazardous zones. Prior to each operation, the mooring teams
should carry out a pre-mooring tool box talk to ensure all participating crew members are
aware of the hazards of snap-back and probable areas of the mooring deck that are not safe
when mooring lines are under load.

The accompanying images provide examples of signage used on board UK Club Members
vessels giving warning of entering snap-back hazard zones.

The loss prevention department aims to reduce Members’ exposure to claims by raising
awareness of risk. Co-ordinated by the Loss Prevention team is a dedicated team of Risk
Assessors.
The Risk Assessors supervise and co-ordinate the activities of the five ship inspectors and
control the condition surveys which are carried out (by independent surveyors) under the
Club’s Rules. The Risk Assessors travel worldwide in order to carry out their tasks.
Permanent bases are maintained in Rotterdam, Greece and Singapore. All the Ship Inspectors
are qualified QA Lead Assessors and are familiar with the requirements of the ISM
Code. For more information on our Loss prevention team please
contact: lossprevention.ukclub@thomasmiller.com