Mast head securing wire parted

A member has reported an incident in which one of the wire stays securing a mast head, parted. A deck officer on watch heard a loud metal banging sound on the monkey island deck. Immediately both the radar switched off and someone was sent to investigate. One set of mast head securing wires (the port side) had parted from the long bottle screw and the strop had become entangled with a radar scanner. As a result, there was damage to the front side (radiation side) of the radar scanner cover, and the lower lamp assembly for the main mast head lights was damaged. The entangled strop was cleared away; temporary repairs were made to the radar scanner, and both radars tried out again.

The root cause of the incident was inadequate maintenance and inspection – failure to notice corrosion and impending failure.

Our member suggested that all similar securing arrangements should be inspected and tightened periodically and renewed or replaced, as necessary. Extra attention should be paid to all lashing and securing arrangement when heavy weather is prevalent.

Members may wish to refer to the following incidents (search words: mast)

Here are included a number of incidents relating to equipment failure on masts – as strictly distinct from wires parting.

• High potential dropped object near-miss: antenna fell to deck
• Near-miss: Equipment failure: broken mast arms
• Dropped object near-miss: Antenna parts worked loose and fell to deck