Personnel from the American P&I Club conducted 106 condition surveys during the 2016. They say that ninety one of the surveys resulted in deficiencies but only fifteen surveys resulted in no deficiencies noted at all. 46% of the surveys were conducted on dry cargo vessels, whilst tankers accounted for 35% of the surveys that were conducted.
American P&I Club reveals that tankers were found to have the most deficiencies per survey with just under 10 per survey. Dry cargo vessels (excluding container ships) were found to have just over 7 deficiencies per survey. Out of the 873 deficiencies noted, the most frequent individual category of deficiency found was related to the condition of machinery spaces. The most frequent deficiencies overall were related to the conditions and functions of cargo systems, particularly related to bulk carriers.
The American P&I Club notes that machinery related deficiencies were found to be the second most frequent deficiency (120), accounting for 14.3% of all deficiencies observed during these surveys.
Furthermore, another 49 deficiencies observed had to do with the machinery systems associated with cargo systems, fire safety and pollution prevention. When combined with the other machinery deficiencies, this accounts for 19.2% of the sum total of all deficiencies found.
Taking all of the machinery related deficiencies into account, machinery integrity deficiencies were found to be most frequent. The two most frequent machinery related deficiencies were:
– cleanliness of engine compartments including bilges being clean, tidy and free of combustible materials; and
– engine integrity related deficiencies that include the conditions of main & auxiliary engines, engine monitoring systems and insufficient spare parts.
Furthermore, fire system related deficiencies were also significant in number. These deficiencies include poor conditions in fixed fire and extinguishing systems, main and emergency fire pumps and fixed gas detention and monitoring systems.
The American P&I Club underlines that, as a result of these findings, they will be releasing further loss prevention guidance in the near future, associated to engine room and fire safety related topics as per the findings of their report.