The use and maintenance of capstan heads on winches.

Dear colleagues on board,

Today we received the above photo from one of our vessels with the information that the capstan head on the aft winch is defective or no longer usable.

Even a blind person can see that this capstan head is no longer usable. The real question here is how does such damage occur?

It looks as if the capstan head has been in very poor condition for some time, and then at some point the entire head breaks.

During internal inspections, we often see mooring lines left on the capstan heads of the winches and not properly secured to the bollards provided for this purpose.

We would like to ask all of you to regularly inspect the capstan heads on your vessels and accurately record their condition in our PMS Maintenance / Mooring Plan. In addition, any minor damage to the capstan heads should be reported to the office in a timely manner.

And finally, I would like to ask you to finally secure all mooring lines to the bollards after berthing operations so that the capstans are not put under unnecessary strain.