On the 13th September 2021 the Merchant Shipping Directorate of Transport Malta issued Merchant Shipping Notice 173 highlighting the launch of a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on ship stability by the Member Authorities of the Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) on Port State Control (PSC). The purpose of the campaign is to confirm:
- that commercial ship crew are familiar with assessing the actual stability of the ship before its departure;
- to create awareness among the ship’s crew and owners about the importance of calculating the actual stability condition of the ship before departure of the ship; and
- to verify that the ship complies with intact stability requirements (and damage stability requirements, if applicable) under the relevant IMO instruments.
This CIC campaign will be held for a period of three months until 30 November 2021 and a ship will be subject to only one inspection for the duration of the campaign. in preparation of any PSC inspection, the master and officers are to be familiar with operations relating to stability (in general) and with the joint CIC questionnaire, a pre-defined questionnaire used to assess that information and equipment provided onboard complies with the relevant conventions.
Should deficiencies be found, actions by the port State may include:
- recording a deficiency and instructing the master to rectify it within a certain period of time; or
- detaining the ship until the serious deficiencies have been rectified.
Commercial Yachts are also included in the CIC should there be a PSC Inspection and consequently it is essential that commercial yacht operators ensure all concerned are prepared accordingly.
In the case of detention, publication in the monthly detention lists of the Tokyo and Paris MoU websites will take place. In addition, the Flag Administration is to be duly notified and a copy of the PSC report submitted to the Administration.
Subject to any COVID-19 developments it is expected that the Tokyo and Paris MoUs will carry out approximately 10,000 inspections during the CIC, while the results of the campaign will be analysed and findings presented to the governing bodies of both MoUs for submission to the IMO.
Source: lexology
