To establish an operational standard that ensures the ship is properly equipped for safe mooring, it is necessary, depending on the

probable trading route, to determine environmental forces that would normally be experienced by the moored ship. Only then can the ship be properly equipped with a mooring system of sufficient restraint capability to resist these forces and to allow some degree of flexibility within normal safety tolerances. Therefore, strict rules for mooring systems are not specified by international regulatory bodies such as the United Requirements of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). However, Classification Societies specify minimum recommendations for mooring ropes in their rules, but compliance is not a condition of class. ~ Recommendati ons for hawsers are based on empirical tables derived from an equipment numerical obtained using displacement and dimensional criteria. Moreover, classification rules contain only little guidance on the design and installation of bits, bollards and fairleads and, generally, they give no information on safe working loads, strength of materials, structural reinforceme nts, and foundations. This lack of guidance on the mooring outfit resulted in a wide variation in the number of mooring lines, type of mooring equipment, capacity of winches, etc. found across the range of similar vessels. Furthermore, many loading berths (e.g. tanker terminals) are situated at exposed locations, and existing mooring equipment on some vessels may not permit their maintaining a safe moor at these berths during all prevailing environmental conditions unless the berth operator can provide the additional restraint required. Safe mooring of a vessel requires close cooperation between ship and shore operators and between ship and terminal designers. To achieve this objective, all personnel involved must be familiar with the principles of good mooring practice, the magnitude of forces acting on the ship, the magnitude of loads in the mooring lines, and the limitations of the mooring equi pment aboard ship and at the terminals. During 1978, in an attempt to achieve a uniform approach to the safe mooring of tankers, the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) compiled and published Guidelines and Recommendations for the Safe Mooring of Large Ships at Piers and Sea Islands. 2 More recently, OCIMF set up a task group to investigate the concept of a total mooring system for tankers and to develop guidance on the installation of mooring equipment consistent with safe mooring practices. 3 The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and the IACS participated in the task group activity. This broadbased industry group developed mooring guidelines initially for tankers. In the ,development of the guidelines it was realized, however, that many of the principles adopted and the equipment strength and installation criteria proposed could also be applied to other kinds of vessel moorings. Certainly the general principles apply to safe mooring of any size vessel.