April 2007 | Page - 1
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DG visits SIMS, Lonavala

Mrs. Kiran Dhingra, IAS, Director General of Shipping ,Govt. of India  paid an official visit to the SIMS  pre- sea campus at Lonavala on 12th March and commended the efforts of this world-class facility to train the next generation of Indian seafarers.

Mrs. Dhingra was shown around the entire campus including the administrative and academic buildings, cadet hostels, the brand new 350 seater auditorium with world class acoustics and finally she went up to view the up coming “ship-in-campus” which is one of its kind in the industry. (additional photos can be found on page 6.) Mrs. Dhingra showed keen interest in the progress of the institute towards its goal of being the top of such facilities in the world.

During her visit, the DG also  interacted with the cadets as well as the faculty and expressed her opinion that it was indeed an “excellent beginning” for translating this vision into reality.

The visit of a dignitary is not new to the institute; however, the visit of DG was seen as a morale booster by all, especially when she left with a comment like this:
“An excellent beginning, with all appearances of translating a vision into reality.  The challenge will be to keep academic standards at the same lofty level.  I wish the Institute all success in this endeavour.”
Mandatory tests are not a Guarantee
*Note: This monthly safety moment is collected from various sources for educational purpose and is not an actual incident from the ESM fleet.
The crew of a 22-year-old bulk carrier were carrying out a launch and recovery exercise with the vessel’s starboard lifeboat. It had been lowered into the water and was in the process of being recovered. It was hoisted to the embarkation deck and stopped to allow the lifeboat’s crew to disembark. As the gap between the lifeboat and the vessel’s deck was found too wide to safely step across. The winch motor was started to raise the lifeboat slightly further and, coincidentally, the winch drum began turning rapidly, allowing the lifeboat to fall into the water about 10 meters below. Emergency services were immediately called.

After disconnecting the lifeboat from the falls, it was pulled to the quay, using its painter, where a shore crane lifted it ashore. There, all the crew managed to climb out unaided, and received medical attention. Two of the seven crew in the lifeboat suffered injury; the remainder were unhurt.

Both the lifeboat winches on the vessel had been overload tested and examined as required by SOLAS. The next overload test was not due for over 2 years.

The winch failed because the drive between the wire drum and motor/ brake was lost. The drive shaft of the winch passed through both ends of the drum and, at one end, was keyed to a boss welded to the drum’s end. It was through this keyed connection that the hoisting and braking torques were transmitted. The drum end had failed at this end due to corrosion, and the keyed boss had separated from the cylindrical part of the drum (as in figure).

After the accident, the winch on the port lifeboat’s davit was dismantled for examination. The drum, at the keyed drive end, was corroded to a degree that suggested it could have failed at any time, in a similar fashion to the starboard winch.
LESSONS LEARNT
•
These tests alone cannot guarantee that a winch will be able to operate safely for another 5 years.
•
The very small gap between the drum’s ends and the winch’s frame made it very difficult to visually examine the drum’s ends for corrosion. Before the mandatory 5 yearly 110% load testing is carried out, it may be prudent to remove a drum to make a proper assessment of its condition during the intermediate dry docking.
•
The Motor on this winch was capable of hoisting a partially loaded boat, so the practice should have caused the winch/ davit system no difficulty. However more the crew there are in a lifeboat during recovery, more the people are placed at risk if things go wrong.
 
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