THE ASSEMBLY,
RECALLING
Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning
the functions of the Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning
maritime safety,
RECALLING ALSO the provisions of
regulation V/28 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as
amended, requiring all ships engaged on international voyages to keep on board a record
of navigational activities and incidents which are of importance to safety of navigation
and which must contain sufficient detail to restore a complete record of the voyage,
taking into account the recommendations adopted by the Organization,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendations made by the Maritime Safety
Committee at its seventy-third session and by the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation
at its forty-seventh session,
1. ADOPTS the
Guidelines for the recording of events related to navigation set out in the Annex to the
present resolution;
2. INVITES Governments
concerned to take into account these Guidelines when implementing SOLAS regulation V/28;
3. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee
to keep the Guidelines under review and to amend them as appropriate.
Annex Guidelines for the recording of events related to navigation
Regulation V/28 of the 1974 SOLAS Convention, as amended,
requires all ships engaged on international voyages to keep on board a record of
navigational activities and incidents which are of importance to safety of navigation
and which must contain sufficient detail to restore a complete record of the voyage,
taking into account the recommendations adopted by the Organization.
This resolution aims at providing guidance for the recording of such events:
1 Recording of information related to
navigation
In addition to national
requirements, it is recommended that the following events and items, as appropriate,
be among those recorded:
.1 before
commencing the voyage
Details of all data relating to the general
condition of the ship should be acknowledged and recorded, such as manning and
provisioning, cargo aboard, draught, result of stability/stress checks when conducted,
inspections of controls, the steering gear and navigational and radiocommunication
equipment.
.2 during the voyage
Details related to the voyage should be recorded, such as courses
steered and distances sailed, position fixings, weather and sea conditions, changes to
the voyage plan, details of pilots' embarkation/disembarkation, and entry into areas
covered by, and compliance with, ship routeing or reporting systems.
.3 on special events
Details on special
events should be recorded, such as death and injuries among passengers and crew and
passengers, malfunctions of shipboard equipment and aids to navigation, potentially
hazardous situations, emergencies and distress messages received.
.4 when the ship is at anchor or in a port
Details on operational or administrative matters and details related
to the safety and security of the ship should be recorded.
2 Method of recording
SOLAS
regulation V/28 requires that, if the records of navigational activities are not
maintained in the ship's log-book, they should be maintained in another form approved
by the Administration. Methods of recording should be permanent and may be
handwritten, electronic or mechanical.
3
Non-duplication
In general, information on
the events and items specified in paragraph 1, which are adequately recorded in a
special-purpose log, need not be duplicated in the ship's log book.
4 Preservation of records
In order to be able to restore a complete record of the voyage,
records should be maintained as follows:
.1
each page of the ship's log-book should ha ve a page number printed on it, and
handwritten records which need correction should not be erased or removed but should
be rewritten after crossing out the incorrect version;
.2 the times used in automatic and permanent recording
facilities should be synchronized by using a common clock;
.3 electronically or mechanically input records should be
protected by means to prevent them from being deleted, destroyed or overwritten; and
.4 irrespective of the method of
recording, ships should keep records for as long as the Administration concerned
requires, provided the fixed period is not less than one year.