This document is intended to portray tug’s operational safety issues for the attention
of all those concerned, mainly Pilots, Masters of vessels being assisted, their bridge
teams and mooring parties.
In February 2011, the European Tug owners’ Association (ETA) and the European
Maritime Pilot’s Association (EMPA) jointly issued a document mainly on the subject
of bitts, bollards and chocks. This document was intended to raise awareness of ship
owners, naval architects, new-building superintendents, classification societies,
shipyards and insurers about the concerns of the towage industry.
Structural issues are, however, not the only liability for safe tug operations.
Other types of risk that tug crews are imperilled by without having any control
whatsoever of them are brought about by certain practices of pilots, ship’s command
and mooring parties of the vessels being assisted.
ETA has identified a need for a set of general guidelines, widely applicable to all
types of vessels and ports. These general guidelines have been kept as concise as
possible and presented as a list of “DO NOT” and “DO” when making use of harbour
towage services.
The list of “Do” and Do not” has been presented in bullet form for ease of reference
and can be found in the last 3 pages of this document. The background to all the
relevant points is presented in the first part of this document and ETA strongly
recommends all concerned to read through them carefully in order to get a better
understanding of the tugs’ crews concerns.
Download the document here
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