201829 Spring-acting FRC painter clip fails

 

 

As edited from Marine Safety Forum Safety Alert 17-07

Three crew members were in the fast rescue craft (FRC). During recovery the forward painter quick release parted just as the craft was lifted from the water. The FRC then swung to starboard, causing the stern to come into contact with the ship. The jet guard struck the side of the ship and then rode up into the ship’s rescue zone, allowing the jet itself to strike the side of the ship. The FRC bucket was cracked, as was the jet inside the bucket and the jet guard was slightly bent. The FRC was recovered with no injuries to the crew members.

The painter quick release mechanism had been in use for the past two years. A previous near miss had occurred where the clip had parted, but subsequent visual inspections of the outside of the quick release did not discern problems inside the clip where the spring mechanism is housed.

Lessons learned
- Mechanisms containing moving parts that are hidden from view but exposed to the elements are hard to maintain and verify. Whenever possible, they should be replaced with more reliable substitutes. In this case, the clips were replaced with a G-link type clip without a spring mechanism.