As IMCA informs, when an anchor chain swung unexpectedly across the deck, it hit a crew member, causing an injury to his foot.

A nchors were being pulled over the stern using aft tugger winches, controlled remotely by AB’s. At the same time, a winch operator on the bridge operated the winch that pulls in the chain.

When the anchor was pulled backwards, it started to lose its initial “heading”. When approaching the stern roller, the anchor was at a 45 degree angle to the vessel heading.

This was not identified as a risk since all involved persons where at a safe distance from the anchor. As the weight of the anchor passed over the roller, the anchor straightened up as expected, but this also created an unexpected swing of the chain going forward to the main winch.

The chain swung from the port side and approx. two meters to starboard and subsequently struck the left safety boot of one of the AB’s causing an injury.

This specific anchor had a bridle with shackles attached underneath. So, when the anchor moved, it was “riding” on these shackles. This made it particularly difficult to “steer” the anchor.

Instead of stopping and re-positioning the wrongly positioned anchor, the crew continued to pull it over the stern with a 45 degree angle; no-one anticipated the sudden and excessive movement of the anchor chain across the deck.

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