Theme: hawsers and lashing sTrapsRegular checks of hawsers on Viking Rosella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Dirt and damage reduce strength ......................................... 2Rope-makers with years of experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Time to change the hawser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Sanhas the floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4San tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4The Transport Agency Informs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Profile: Annelie Rusth Jensen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6In brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

YEAR 37 1 /13

Every week the mooring equipment on Viking Rosella is checked, but it still happens that hawsers break. Sun, cold and seawater wear the materials and it is sometimes dif-ficult to know when it is time to change the hawsers. The securing straps on the vehicle deck are used more sporadically and manage bet-ter.

There are piles of hawsers coiled on the deck. Repairs can be seen here and there in the coarse ropes.

”We try to keep costs down by shorte-ning and splicing quite a lot,” says the chief mate, Anders Aspholm. ”But if something starts to look too worn we replace it directly – we don’t take any chances.”

The winter sun warms slightly and the water is still. On a day like this is not necessary to have any extra mooring ropes to keep Rosella in place at the quay in Kapellskär outside Norrtälje. But the weather can turn quickly and with more arrivals each day there is a lot of wear on the equipment.

”We always moor in the same place with the starboard side against the quay, and the hawsers always wear in the same place in the hawsehole,” says Anders. ”We have extra protection where they have the most friction, but they still wear.”

“It is sometimes difficult to decide when it is time to change a hawser,” says Anders. He tells us that according to the maintenance program, Amos, the mooring equipment is checked through

once a week and equipment is replaced between these checks if necessary. And yet hawsers still break occasionally. ”Yes, they do. During a very windy autumn a hawser may break every month if we have bad luck, but as far as I know, there is nobody here onboard who has been injured in connection with such a break. Cables may also break, but then it is most often inside the swab.”

Short crossingMost mooring ropes used on the Rosel-

la are traditional Atlas types.”Atlas hawsers are rather awkward and

difficult to work with,” says Anders. ”On more modern boats where everything is

motorised, they are OK. But here, where they have to be pulled by hand and put over the bollards on the deck, it is heavy work.” On the quarterdeck, the haw-sers are reinforced by straps in the part that runs through the hawsehole. Anders explains that a few years ago, a couple of seamen in the crew put straps into the hawsers to strengthen them in places with a lot of wear. He lifts a hawser that is lying loose on the deck and shows how it is done.

”You pull the strands apart and put the strap between them,” he says and opens the hawser. ”In this way it becomes much stronger. The guys that thought of this were given a reward by the Swedish

Regular checks of hawsers on Viking Rosella

Hawsers on Viking Rosella

Work environment and safety in shipping

2 San-nytt 1/13

Mercantile Marine Foundation for their invention.”

The vehicle deck below is empty apart from a provisions truck, which is driving off after unloading the goods. Along the bulkheads there are a few securing straps, but they do not need to be used on many crossings.

”We have perhaps five trailers of the week, an average of four HGV trucks per journey and sometimes we strap stands in

place. But there is much less lashing now than there was before when Rosella used to cross between Helsinki and Tallinn,” says Anders.

The crossing to Åland takes two and a half hours and there is not so much open sea. But the load still needs to be secured at times.

”We get weather reports all the time and if the wind approaches 13 or 14 met-res a second, it is time to do the lashing. If it has been windy for long, the sea may be very old too. We have no stabilizers and she rolls like a soap-dish in the sea,” says Anders.

”At the moment it is calm, but we have reports that the wind may get harder towards the afternoon so we might need to lash the cargo yet. We try to secure the load as the vehicles drive on board, but if there are many on the crossing it can be

difficult to keep up.”Anders says that they follow the instruc-

tions in the cargo securing manual, which is available in several copies onboard. The most recent version is dated May 2012 and contains everything, from descrip-

tions of various lashing techniques to the checking and maintenance of materials.

”There is a lot of very good information in it,” says Anders. ”But to be frank, we don’t often look at it. Those who work here know how to do it, but of course, if there is a new mate we show him where the manual is kept.”

Linda Sundgren

A dirty strap has significantly less strength than a clean strap, and chains with defor-med links should not be used. Tests of lashing materials show that worn equip-ment does not have the strength that the marking indicates.

In the past, you could count on the total capa-city of the strap or chain when lashing cargo. If it was damaged or worn, on the other hand, it would be discarded immediately. Today, it is permitted to load equipment to a maximum of 50 % of its total capacity. In contrast, the rules for when it must be replaced are more flex-ible and now rules state that ”only serviceable materials with the required strength” may be used. But what that means in practice can be difficult to decide. In 2009 the Swedish Trans-port Agency gave the consultancy company Mariterm the task of testing the strength of used straps and chains. Their study did not give any clear answers.

”No, it is not possible to say anything in gene-ral,” says Peter Andersson at Mariterm, who took part in the testing. ”But one of the main con-clusions we drew is that not only does damage affect the strength, but also dirt. On the other hand, the age of lashing straps does not seem to have any effect.”

The tests were performed on lashing materials that shipping companies gathered from their ships and handed in. Most of them had already been discarded and were taken out of service, some had major breaks and wear damage, while

Dirt and damage reduce strength

”There is not as much lashing now as there used to be”

Anders Aspholm.

Edge damage

Knot on hawser

Teared hawsers

Skew chain

Hawsers and chains which should be discarded

continues on page 8

San-nytt 1/13 3

Choosing designs and materials based on the type of vessel, the traf-fic area and the equipment onboard is crucial for mooring ropes to have the longest possible service life. Three experts that SAN News has met say the same thing.

A smell of tar hangs over the rope-maker’s premises just outside central Norrköping. The company has produced hawsers since the end of the 19th century and is now the only manufacturer of twisted rope on a large scale. Tore Dahlström has been in the industry since the 1980s. His business colleagues from Certex Svenska AB in Gothenburg, Mikael Jonsson and Ken-neth Johnsson, have been going since the 1970s. Over the years, they have acqui-red sound knowledge and experience of mooring ropes. Hawsers are available in a number of variants with different charac-teristics, depending on the design and the type of fibres.

”It is important to know what is wan-ted for the ship when ordering a new hawser,” says Kenneth. ”It must be dura-ble, of course, but there are many other things to take into account. Should it be

light? Must it float? Should it stretch or be inelastic? Will it be used on a mechanical winch? We need to know the priorities, but we often help out to make the result as good as possible for the customer.”

”Yes, but on the other hand many people choose hawsers only on the basis of their price,” interrupts Tore. ”But it can

be more expensive in the long run.” On the desktop in Westerberg’s office

there are samples of hawsers in different materials. Some are heavy and rigid, oth-ers light and flexible. In Scandinavia the six-strand hawser in wear-resistant polya-mide fibre (for example, the Atlas hawser) with a high breaking load and elasticity is

Rope-makers with years of experience

Tore Dahlström, Mikael Jonsson, Kenneth Johnsson

Rope experts Tore Dahlström, Mikael Jonsson and Kenneth Johns-son give the following advice about when to replace a mooring hawser.

• Reduced circumference. When the circumference has decreased by 25 per cent, it is definitely time to scrap the hawser. To check this should you mea-sure a new hawser after it has been stretched to its working load. Measure the circumference at the highest point and the lowest point, and then take the average of these two. Check the circum-

ference of the hawser at regular intervals. • Burned fibres. Hawsers vary in terms

of heat resistance and the melting point may vary depending on what fibre the hawser is made of. During high loads in the hawse or the winch drum, heat damage may occur inside the hawser that is not always visible on the outside. A hawser that has burned feels hard and rigid. Open up the hawser and check the interior. In the case of internal burns, the hawser must be discarded.

• Defective strands. If a strand is bro-ken the hawser must be discarded. If it is not entirely broken the hawser does not necessarily need to be discarded, but the crew should be aware of the fact that it has a reduced breaking load.

• Knots. If a hawser has been knotted in the middle, the breaking load may be reduced by up to 50% and it must be discarded. The fibres in the hawser are weakened by the friction that knots give rise to.

• Sunlight. Today all synthetic haw-sers are UV-stabilized, but despite this

fact sunlight wears hawsers and breaks down the fibres. UV-exposed hawsers become rough and the fibres break when the hawser is bent. But a hawser that is only marginally affected by UV and has a furry surface can even be stronger than an unaffected hawser. This is because the fluff acts as protection against abrasion and the hawser can slide more easily through the hawse. Hawsers that lie on the deck should always be protected from sunlight and covered with a tarpaulin.

• Acid damage. There are a number of chemicals onboard that can negatively affect synthetic materials. How resistant a hawser is to corrosive and alkali substan-ces depends on what synthetic material it is made of. The basic rule, however, is always that the hawser should not come into contact with these substances.

• Stretching. The more a hawser is stretched, the greater is the risk that it will break.

Linda Sundgren

Time to change the hawser

continues on page 8

Various of hawsers

4 San-nytt 1/13

~ san has The FlOOr ~

Welcome to a new year with SAN News! Our ambition this year, as before, is to try to contribute to the focus on the work environment onboard and to monitor how the industry is working to improve conditions at sea. In this issue we have chosen to highlight an area which is both desirable and necessary, namely mooring equip-ment and cargo straps. Ropes and cables that break can lead to serious injuries and damage. Only a month ago, on 16 Janu-ary, a 20-year-old Russian seaman died on a Cyprus-flagged ship at the quay in Husum, Örnsköldsvik. He was struck on the head by a mooring rope that snapped. At the hospital they stated that he had probably died immediately. The event was reported as an occupational accident and is currently being investigated by the police. If you look through the Insjö list of incidents and accidents, you will find many examples of mooring devices that have broken. If anybody happens to be standing in the way of a recoiling rope, the result is often very serious. Such as when the Dutch ship Morraborg was

mooring in Holmsund in summer 2011. When the ship was pressed against the quayside the after bow spring line broke. The chief mate was hit on the head by the hawser and died immediately. Only a couple of weeks later there was a similar incident on the British-flagged container-feeder Fremantle Express. When mooring

in Veracruz in Mexico, a hawser snap-ped and a sea-

man lost his life. Regarding the accident on the Fremantle Express, the accident report by MAIB (Marine Accident

investigation branch) stated that the hawser was so worn that it had only 66 % of its original strength left. This was, of course, part of the reason it broke. But a hawser need not be in bad condition to fail; even new mooring ropes can break if the load on them is too large.

During a visit to a ropeyard in Norr-köping, we learned a lot about different characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, of different mooring ropes. It is not pos-sible to say anything in general about when it is time to replace a hawser, said the experts that we met. But regular

checks of ropes and removing any that are damaged – as they do on Viking Rosella – significantly reduces the risk of accidents. This is something you can read about in this issue.

We also present another perennial topic, namely chemicals management. On page 7 you can read about Annelie Rusth Jensen at Transatlantic and the extensive work she has done to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals onboard.

Happy reading!Linda Sundgren/editor of SAN News

The research project called Horizon investigates how different watch systems influence the fatigue factor onboard, both on the deck and in the engine room. The researchers have developed a prototype of a tool called Martha, which estimates the fatigue factor in advance. For more information about Martha and to download the tool for testing, go to http://www.warsashacademy.co.uk/. The Horizon research project is organised by Chalmers University of Technolo-gy, Warsash Maritime University, Sout-hampton Solent University and the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm Univer-sity, together with eight other companies and authorities.

~ san Tips ~

”Continued focus on work environment”

~ researCh ~

New test predicts fatigue

”The shipping company’s costs for chemicals have decreased between 5-10 % per year since this started”

Annelie Rusth Jensen on Transatlantic’s and Viking Supply Ships’ work to reduce the use of chemicals onboard.

Surely you have not missed the fact that you can order SAN’s popular note-book completely free of charge? The notebook comes in a convenient for-mat that is easy to put into your overall pocket. You can make a note in it if an accident happens or if you notice any shortcomings onboard. The notebook can be ordered at info@san-nytt.se.You can read more about it on our web-site at www.san-nytt.

Order SAN’s work environment

notebook!Measuring job satisfaction

”chemicals is a hot topic”

The Swedish Work Environment Aut-hority has produced an interactive self-evaluation tool which can be used to examine the psychosocial environment at your workplace. The tool was deve-loped as part of the 2012 EU campaign on risk assessments of the psychosocial work environment.You can find it at http://www.av.se/Aktu-ellt/eu_kampanj/

San-nytt 1/13 5

Cooling hoses splitOn a small ship, the skipper had been in the engine room to make checks and saw no faults. An hour later the fire alarm went off in the engine room. It turned out that the main engines had lost their coolant when the hoses from the engine block to the electrical engine heater had burst. The water vapour that formed had triggered the fire detector. A likely cause of the accident is that cold water was sucked into the seawater inlet filter, froze into ice, blocked the inlet and thus limi-ted the cooling of the engines. This led to overheating of the hoses, which con-tributed to their failure. Another factor may have been that the coolant had been replaced with a more corrosive type. The problem has arisen a number of times before at the shipping company. If the coolant or type of hose is replaced, there is good reason to contact the supplier.

SFu 06.05.02 TSS 2012-3947

Warning for pirate-copied equipment

In a circular the IMO warns about fal-sely manufactured safety and emergency equipment. The products are cheaper than the originals, but are always poo-rer quality and have not undergone the standards controls required. They include hydrostatic releases, pyrotechnic man-overboard lights, smoke signals, lifebu-oy lights or even water for emergency rations in life rafts. In addition, some of the equipment has invalid expiry dates or has been taken from scrapped ships, cleaned up and marked with a new date.

IMO MSC.1/Circ.1420

Mooring among most dangerous events at seaIn recent time, a number of serious events have occurred during mooring when hawsers have snapped. On a couple of occasions in recent years, deaths have occurred. It is not possible to over-emp-hasize the need for risk assessment of the work situation at mooring stations. It is advisable, for example, to mark areas that should be avoided when hawsers are under tension. Factors which may affect the sequence of events include:• Inappropriately designed equipment

that allows errors to occur (too strong and too long guide pin in one case).

• Incorrect positioning of hawsers.• Risky places for seamen to carry out

mooring work. • Worn hawsers.

Broken hawser caused death

When mooring, the bow line was laid around the bollards, and the machine slowly pulled the ship in towards the berth. The hawser snapped and hit a sea-man, who was injured so severely that he died on the way to hospital.

SLma 16.03 TSS 2013-144

Misplaced hawser hit seaman

A ship was in the process of mooring. A seaman was on the foredeck with his relief, who was undergoing introduction. The mate was on the quay and put the hawsers on the bollards. The aim was to moor using a after bow spring line, a bow line, a forward quarter spring line and a stern line in that order. When the bow spring line was in place and the mate had the bow line on the bollard, the bow line was going to be wound in. When it was stretched, it loosened from the brytar-kung and hit the seaman on the chest, face and head. The seaman was injured and an ambulance had to be called. It tur-ned out that the hawser had been put on the wrong side of the brytarkung and was only held in place by a guide pin (there only to prevent the hawser from falling down onto the deck when slack). When the hawser was wound in it put pressure on the guide pin, which came loose.

SFu 06.05.02 TSS 2012-4103

Mooring accidents retrieved in Insjö/ForeSeaProblems during mooring can be confir-med by a search in the industry’s accident and incident reporting system, Insjö/ForeSea. Here are couple of examples of mooring accidents retrieved from the system.Man killed when brake releasedDuring mooring work when passing locks, the ship began to move aft and the after bow spring line was stretched. The drum on which the line was laid was braked and disengaged because the cam was being used for another hawser. A crewman went forward to release the brake, which caused the line to run out of control. The rear end came loose and struck the crewman on the head. He was thrown against the base of the capstan and died immediately. The crucial factor was that the brake was released when the capstan was disengaged and there was a large force on the mooring line.

Insjö/ForeSea id 684

Broken hawser led to improved procedures During mooring work, the eye on an after bow spring line broke. The end was thrown up onto the forecastle and almost hit the bosun. He was unscathed, but the end of the hawser hit an open manhole cover, which was damaged. The incident was due to the eye on the hawser being worn. Since the accident, routines have been introduced to regularly check the hawsers and a proposal has been made for a protective bar around the place where the capstan is controlled.

Insjö/ForeSea id 38

See also the following link about acci-dents during mooring.http://www.ukpandi.com/fileadmin/uploads/uk-pi/ LP%20Documents/LP_Reports/Under-standing- MooringIncidents.pdf

The Transport agency is spreading information about important events in the industry. The whole text can be found at www.transportstyrelsen.se. it can also be read in english at www.san-nytt.se.

~ The TranspOrT agenCY inFOrms ~

Broken cooling line.

6 San-nytt 1/13

The use of unhealthy cleaning liquids on Transatlantic’s and Viking Supply Ships’ vessels has been reduced by over 90 %. The shipping company is now going to look over glues and paints. The pro-ject is being run by Annelie Rusth Jensen, who has worked with the issue for over five years.

When Annelie started at Transatlantic she made a list of the chemicals in the cleaning agents used on some of the ships. She found that there were many toxic and environmentally harmful pro-ducts onboard and the ship often used different agents for the same purpose. An action plan was drawn up to reduce the number of suppliers, replace toxic products with ”softer” alternatives and arrange the same list of chemicals for all of the ships.

”Using the same products on all the ships is very important. Otherwise employees must read up on new pro-ducts every time they change boat,” says Annelie.

Together with the suppliers and onboard personnel, it has been decided which products will be used and for what.

”For us, it has been very important to have the crews involved in this work. They know what they need and should not feel that this is something that we have invented in the office and are for-cing on them.” The work with cleaning agents has led to new lists of products that are allowed to be purchased.

”In a few extreme cases, such as a major oil spill, it may be necessary to buy stronger agents that are not included on

the list. Then you have to apply for using a particular product and we issue a tem-porary approval in writing,” says Annelie.

The company has also installed dosing devices for the washing machines onboard. It gave immediate results.

”Most ships have halved their con-sumption of washing powder, but one ship has reduced its use by 80 %. In addi-tion to using less detergent, the crew does not have to handle powder, which they can breathe in as well as getting on their skin,” says Annelie.

Annelie has now gone on to work with glues. The first step of making an inven-tory is completed and she notes that there is a lot to do here, too.

”So far I have only scratched the surfa-ce, but I have already found one product that contains carcinogenic substances. I contacted the supplier, who had an equi-valent adhesive that was not as harmful to health.”

Much informationFinding good substitute products is

rarely a problem, says Annelie.”The more we demand, the greater will

be the supply. As a customer we have good opportunities to influence develop-ment.”

The spreading of information is a key part of the shipping company’s chemi-cal work. Single sheets with a warning symbol and the protective equipment required for a given product have been produced. The information sheets are in A6 format and are placed next to the

product they describe.”I would have liked to see personnel

reading through safety data sheets every time they use a product. But they are 8 to 12 pages long and I am quite sure they wouldn’t do it,” says Annelie.

The company has also produced A3 sheets for every department, which lists the most commonly used chemicals along with a brief description of proper-ties and protection requirements.

”If they want to put them up, they do, but we do not force them to. We don’t work with orders, but with rewards and encouragement.”

Initially the work with chemicals meant a great deal of work for Annelie. But in a longer perspective, she is convinced that this will lead to a reduction in the total amount of work. In addition, the ship-ping company’s costs for chemicals have been reduced by 5 to 10 % each year since she started the scheme.

”There are fewer purchases and we do not have as many suppliers and products to keep track of. We also keep costs down by buying in larger quantities and conso-lidating the transport to ships. When it comes to detergent, the installation cost of the dosing devices was not more than about 8,000 kronor per machine, so the investment repaid itself quickly.”

Linda Sundgren

Annelie clears out the chemical stores~ prOFilen ~

Annelie Rusth JensenAge: 53Family: Married, three children.Lives: VarbergJob: Sustainability coordinator on Viking Supply Ships and TransatlanticCurrent: Works to reduce the use of chemicals on board.Background: Quality-, environme-nt- and safety conductor.Work environment tip: Think ahead and minimize the risks

Anneli Rusth Jensen rensar i kemikalieförråden.

Fewer deaths in maritime tradeWithin the maritime trade, one person was killed in 2012 compared with three in the previous year. There was also a decrease in the number of people killed on the roads, although there was a slight increase in the rail sector. These are preliminary figures from the Swedish Transport Agency.

(Transport Agency)

App for seafarersThe Seaman’s Foundation has developed a free offline-app called ”Shore leave”. This makes it possible for seafarers to store contact information for seafarers’ centres around the world, and quickly talk to the nearest mission or the Seafarer help-line. The app is available for Android-phones and Blackberrys, and is also being adapted for iPhones. At itfglobal.org , ”news online” you can find more information about the app and how to download it.

(ITF)

Held hostage for three years - recently released The crew of the Panama-flagged ship Ice-berg 1 was released recently after being held hostage for almost three years by Somali pirates. One chief mate is still missing and one seaman committed suicide while in cap-tivity. There is no more information about the release of the Danish seamen who have been held captive in Somalia for more than two years. At the same time, statistics show that pirate attacks off Somalia fell sharply in 2012 and the number of ships captured was halved.

(LS)

~ in BrieF ~

Sjöfartens ArbetsmiljönämndBox 404, 401 26 GöteborgTel: 031-62 94 00E-post: info@san-nytt.seHemsida: www.san-nytt.se

Ansvarig utgivare: Lars Andersson, SARF

Redaktör: Linda Sundgren tel 08-540 645 15, linda@san-nytt.se

Redaktionskommitté: Karl-Arne Johansson, SEKO sjöfolkMikael Huss, SjöbefälsföreningenJohan Marzelius, Sjöbefälsföreningen Offentliganställda

San-nytt framställs med bidrag från Sjöfartens Arbetsmiljöstiftelse

Produktion: Breakwater Publishing Tryck: Lindgren & Söner, Göteborg 2013

Sjöfartens Arbetsmiljönämnd är gemensamt organ för Sjöfartens Arbetsgivareförbund, Sjöbefäls föreningen och SEKO sjöfolk

continuing from page 2

popular on ships with automatic moo-ring gear. But the good elasticity also means the risk of a powerful recoil if the hawser breaks. Other disadvantages are its high density, that means it sinks in water, and its sensitivity to sunlight.

Two other common types are eight-strand polypropylene hawsers and eight and twelve-strand polyolefin hawsers. These materials can withstand sunlight relatively well, are relatively durable and they float.

Products which are becoming more and more common on the market are hawsers made from HMPE or UHMPE fibre. They are light, soft and smooth in the hand. They float and do not absorb water, and stretch significantly less than other hawsers (5 % compared with up to 25 %).

”This is as strong as a cable,” says Tore and lifts up an HMPE hawser. “Previously it was expensive, but now that more companies are producing it, the price has become more reasonable.”

It is also important to adapt the choice of hawser to its area of use, handling and the technical equip-ment. In roller hawseholes, six-strand or round-braided ropes work well. For braided designs, the Panama hawsehole is recommended (located in the mid-stem or the stern), while braided haw-sers work best on winches with a split-barrel. Six-strand hawsers work best on automatic winches. A round hawser has

less wear surface in the hawsehole and lies in closer coils on a winch-drum, which reduces friction.

”It is very important to make regular checks on the condition of the hawse-hole. If steel hawsers were previously used for mooring, the surface of the hawsehole must be ground and polis-hed, otherwise fibre hawsers can be rui-ned on the first mooring,” says Mikael.

The breaking strength of a hawser depends on the fibre strength and quantity of material per metre. The harder the braiding or twisting, the more compact and durable it becomes.

”The amount of material is decisive. This is the reason why hawsers are often sold at a price per kilo,” says Tore.

Linda Sundgren

This machine is from 1939.

others were in better condition. The damage was found to affect lashing straps in different ways, depending on the type of wear they had. Damaged edges reduced their strength, as well as folding marks straight across the straps. Stretching damage, however, showed no clear pattern.

”Sometimes we were surprised that a lashing strap broke despite the fact that it looked in good condition. But it could also be the other way round, that it was much stronger than we expected,” says Peter Andersson.

Straps with knots in the middle or those which were twisted had far less strength and should be discarded accor-ding to the report, regardless of their condition in general. Brand new lashing straps were also tested. ”They were not

always up to scratch, which was a little surprising. On the whole, you can rely on the label on the straps, but there are many manufacturers and suppliers and it may be a good idea to stick to those you know are good,” says Peter Andersson.

Chains were also tested. They proved to be much more durable than lashing straps and despite rust and dirt, many of them had the same capacity as when they were new. Their weak points were hooks and attachments, which did not always manage the strains they were subjected to in the winches.

”You must also watch out for defor-med links. If a link is damaged, the chain must be replaced,” says Peter Andersson.

Linda Sundgren

continuing from page 3