Heavy weather risks in and leaving port in Marine Insurance P&I Club News 23/02/2026 Understanding the factors that contribute to these risks can make all the difference between a manageable event and a major incident. Mooring failures At Gard, we continue to see dramatic heavy weather mooring failures, as we also highlighted in this 2024 Insight article. Last year, a cruise ship breakaway caused passengers to fall from the gangway. Mooring lines that fail are an obvious danger to people and vessels that break away from their berths also endanger other port users. Preventing mooring failures starts with ensuring that all equipment is fit for use. Mooring lines that have not been inspected or replaced when defective, as indicated by this investigation, can be an accident waiting to happen. On the shore side, it will vary enormously how much interest a port or terminal takes in the mooring arrangement. There may be little regulatory oversight, and shipowners are the ones usually shouldering the consequences of failure. Berth infrastructure may not have kept pace with the increasing size of ships and severity of weather. For example, cruise ships may seek berths close to town, but these facilities may not be up to modern demands. There have been several instances of shore bollards failing, including in this investigation. It cannot be assumed that all have up to date certificates or are free from defects, and it pays to check whether a berth has any history of breakaway events. Mooring configurations do not always go as planned. The configuration may be sub-optimal, and the limiting wind speed may be set too high. That was the found to be the case in an investigation into a tanker breakaway which happened during loading and resulted in an oil spill. For further guidance on limiting wind speeds and best mooring practices, there are several videos produced by the European Harbour Masters’ Committee. Planning when alongside Mooring plans should include a back-up, especially for high-sided vessels, light condition vessels and berths that are exposed or located near adjacent hazards. A cruise ship breaking its mornings and colliding with an adjacent tanker makes for a serious situation. In port, more weather forecasts are usually available than at sea, allowing for cross-checking of actual conditions from local met stations. More localized squalls can result in sudden increases and changes in wind direction having a profound effect on sail areas. The ship should clearly define which forecasted conditions will trigger extra control measures. When heavy weather is expected, the ship can usually take extra measures of its own regarding the mooring lines, winch break settings as well as the use of the anchor, engines or thrusters. However, if conditions are worse than forecast and parted lines in the water prevent use of ship’s power, it may be too late for tugs to save the day. The table below is an example from mooring failure investigations. In the first case, tugs were requested before the breakaway, but the tugs did not arrive in time. In the second case, the request came after the breakaway. In the third case extra measures were taken, conditions were reasonably forecast and within mooring analysis limits. Tugs were immediately requested but they still arrived 15 minutes too late. Prudent overreaction may have seen tugs arriving earlier in these and other cases. Beyond the risk to the ship, there are many tragic examples of mooring line failu