Anchor handling incident
- Safety Flash
- Published on 29 June 2011
- Generated on 24 March 2026
- IMCA SF 05/11
- 1 minute read
A Member has reported an incident in which a buoy was damaged during anchor handling operations.
The incident occurred when recovering a buoy to deck; a lasso designed to catch a buoy cut through the buoy and damaged it beyond repair. The incident occurred because the lasso was not deployed in a procedural and safe manner.
Our member’s procedures state that the lasso should be thrown over the buoy and when tensioned, it should ‘choke’ onto the wire or chain underneath the buoy. If this procedure is not successful the buoy should be placed back in the water and the capture tried again until successful.
Our member highlighted this as an example of how not following procedures can have a significant cost.
buoy catcher lasso was not completely over the buoy
buoy is destroyed when lasso cuts through it
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