International Marine Accident Reporting Scheme

The Marine Accident Reporting Scheme is a confidential reporting system run by The Nautical Institute (NI) to allow full reporting of Accidents (and Near Misses) without fear of litigation. MARS reports are held in a database which may be searched in different ways from this page.

The NI MARS reports are published in "SEAWAYS" - the monthly journal of the Institute (free to NI Members).

Sail Training International (STI) and the NI have joined forces to create a unique registry of incident reports within the MARS scheme that will enable sail training vessels to both submit reports on incidents and access reports submitted by other sail training vessel operators.

The aim of this partnership between STI and NI is to promote safety in sail training and assist in accident prevention. By sharing experiences with other sail training professionals, you can help them to avoid similar situations.

We want to hear about any unsafe practices, dangerous occurrences, personal accidents, near-miss situations or equipment failures you have experienced, and any methods you have adopted to prevent repetitions. Within the context of ship operations the scheme is unlimited, and is international in outlook.

We can assure you that all reports sent in will be treated in the strictest confidence. Providing they meet the above criteria, we will publish, anonymously, as many as possible in SEAWAYS.

To submit a report, follow the instructions on the “Reporting Form” link in the top RH grey panel.