MSC.1/CIRC.1580 Guidelines for Vessels with DP System

The 98th session of the IMO Maritime safety Committee (MSC) held between 7 and 16 June in London, brought many changes on overall Maritime Legislation. Among the main outcomes, there is the approval of the new GUIDELINES FOR VESSELS AND UNITS WITH DYNAMIC POSITIONING (DP) SYSTEMS (MSC.1/CIRC. 1580) which has been issued to “re-fresh” the previous MSC/Circ.645 dated on 1994, as announced in our article on Sept 2015 (read article here)

It is recommended that this new Guidelines be applied to vessels and units constructed on or after 9 June 2017. For vessels and units constructed on or after 1 July 1994 but before 9 June 2017, the previous version of the Guidelines (MSC/Circ.645) may continue to be applied, however it is recommended that section 4 of the present Guidelines be applied to all new and existing vessels and units, as appropriate.

The new Guidelines as set in Circ. 1580 finally focus on topics such as:

Activity-Specific Operating Guidelines (ASOG) – which is the proper Decision Support Tool to plan DP operations and manage the specific risks;
FMEA and FMEA proving trials;
the obligatoriness of the Independent Joystick System (IJS), which some Classification Society had up to now deemed not compulsory for DP class 2;
the obligatoriness of the Power Management System (PMS) for DP classes 2 and 3;
Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS);
Worst-Case Failure Design Intent (WCFDI) and Worst-Case Failure (WCF);
“Loss of position” has been finally explicited as “Loss of position and/or heading”;
External forces from mission-related systems (cable lay, pipe lay, mooring, etc.) be considered and factored into the DP system design;
For DP classes 2 and 3, connections between otherwise redundant and separated systems should be kept to a minimum;
For DP classes 2 and 3, the thruster emergency stop system should have loop monitoring.
Blackout recovery procedure.

We, Medea, have already kept such topics in our practice, since many years, promulgating whitin our Customers the adoption of the highest and most updated standards.

For futher information and inquiry you may contact Medea at the following: