Marine LOLER 2006 Inspection & Testing

Marine LOLER 2006 applies to lifting equipment on UK-registered ships wherever they sail, and to non-UK vessels while they operate or trade in UK waters, so flag alone does not put a vessel outside the rules. The duties fall on the crew, ship operators, and shipowners together, in line with the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment) Regulations 2006.

What counts as lifting equipment is everything that lifts, such as cargo cranes and provision cranes, engine room lifting gear, davits and winches, lifting beams and padeyes, and the full family of accessories, slings, shackles, hooks, chains, spreaders, eyebolts and strops. If it raises, lowers, or suspends a load on the vessel, it falls within the regulations and the examination schedule.

The intervals mirror the shore-side regime our LOLER inspection customers know: equipment or accessories used for lifting people must be thoroughly examined at least every 6 months, and all other lifting equipment and accessories at least every 12 months. Examinations are also required after events that could affect safety, so damage, overload or major repair puts an appliance back in front of a competent person before it works again.

Aboard ship, the consequences of a lapse are sharper than ashore, because an uncertified crane can hold a cargo operation, a charter or a survey to ransom. We plan examinations around port calls, lay-ups and yard periods, so the schedule serves the vessel’s programme rather than interrupting it.

Where an examination demands testing, we bring the test to the vessel. Davits, launching appliances, and ships’ cranes are proven under load using water-filled bags through our waterbag testing service, which applies the load in controlled increments and travels aboard without the crane lifts that solid weights would require. Winches, capstans and mooring equipment are tested against their duties, and brake render tests and bollard pulls are carried out where the operation calls for them.

Loose gear and accessories can be examined aboard or brought ashore to our facility, where our rigs prove slings, shackles, beams and spreaders under calibrated load as part of our proof load testing service. Either way, the result is the same, with a measured figure behind every certificate.

A vessel’s lifting records are only as good as their availability when a surveyor, charterer or port state inspector asks for them. Every examination and test we carry out is documented and certified, itemised against the appliance and its position aboard, with defects categorised and their resolution recorded, so the register tells the whole story rather than the flattering half.

For operators running fleets, we manage the examination programme across vessels, tracking due dates so certificates never lapse mid-charter and coordinating with dry dockings and yard periods so examinations and any remedial work land when downtime already exists.