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In response to our article this week calling out 7 ships that were detained by the MCA, Captain Bjorn Hojgaard, Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong-based Univan Ship Management Ltd, contacted us today to give us a status update regarding his ship, the bulk carrier Sam Phoenix.
The 2011 built Bulk Carrier ‘SAM Phoenix’ was constructed in Zhejiang Jingang Shipbuilding Co. and taken over by Univan Ship Management on 27-July-2011.
The vessel was inspected by Port State Control under Paris MoU in the port of Tyne/United Kingdom on 06-Aug-2012.
During this inspection one detainable deficiency, known as a ‘Code 30’ deficiency, was recorded in relation to the retrieval arrangements for her rescue boat.
Other non-detainable deficiencies were noted and all were rectified by ship’s staff immediately.
As requested by the Port State Control Inspector, the rescue boat was lowered to the water. However, the rescue boat could not be retrieved without holding the brake down which was found to be due to a defective bearing in the rescue boat winch. As an immediate corrective action the rescue boat winch was overhauled and the bearing was replaced by the winch brake maker’s representative who had already been scheduled to attend the vessel at this port for the annual inspection and service.
A test of the rescue boat was witnessed by the maker’s representative and the winch brake was found to be fully operational.
As a preventive measure, the internal inspection and maintenance interval of the rescue boat winches has been reduced from 1 year to 6 months. This has been implemented for ‘SAM Phoenix’ and all of the sister vessels in the Univan fleet. This is included within the planned maintenance system tasks for the vessels.
The masters of all sister vessels in the fleet have conducted inspections and maintenance of the rescue boat winch and confirmed that all are fully operational.
Univan Ship Management has a robust Safety Management System which includes requirements for the regular testing of all safety related equipment. This includes a requirement for launching the rescue boat every month and in all cases this requirement shall be complied with at least once in 3 Months as required by SOLAS.
As an additional preventive measure, a monthly PSC checklist including checks of all potential Port State Control Inspection items are now required to be completed by the masters of all vessels in the Univan fleet. Subsequent to the above mentioned inspection, the vessel was inspected by PSC on 11-Sept-2012 at Bandirma / Turkey under MED MoU with zero deficiencies noted.
The vessel has been trading in United States-Far East-Australia for the past one year, she had undergone a USCG inspection on 15-Aug-2011 at Portland which she had cleared with zero deficiencies noted.
In conclusion Univan responded immediately to the MCA inspector’s findings and corrected the deficiencies.
The winch on the rescue boat also had its annual inspection scheduled during its call at Port Tyne and the maker’s representative was there for routine inspection and maintenance of the winch equipment.
Well done to Univan Ship Management. A very appropriate response to an issue of significant interest to the global shipping industry.
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