Question 1

A vessel is anchored close to another ship whose radar is actively transmitting. Crew need to carry out antenna maintenance aloft on their own vessel, and the own ship's radar has been correctly isolated. Is the own-ship isolation sufficient to fully address the RF hazard in this situation?

Accepted Answer

Not necessarily — the responsible officer should also assess exposure from the neighbouring vessel's transmitting radar, since that source is outside the own ship's isolation control RF radiation doesn't respect ship boundaries; a nearby vessel's active radar could still expose the worker depending on range, bearing, and power, so the risk assessment needs to look beyond the vessel's own equipment in this scenario.

Question 2

During a busy port call with reduced crew available, the Chief Officer requests the Master's authorisation to have a single experienced AB go aloft alone for a five-minute job, with no observer, citing time pressure. Should the Master approve this request?

Accepted Answer

No — lone height work should not be authorised regardless of experience or task duration; the Master should direct that the task wait for an observer to be available or be carried out by an alternative method Task duration and individual experience do not address the core problem with lone working: if something goes wrong, there is no one present to notice or respond. Time pressure during a busy port call is precisely the situation in which this control matters most, not least.

Question 3

Midway through an overside task, the worker's radio battery dies and there is no backup communication method that was agreed in advance. What is the correct response from the deck observer?

Accepted Answer

Treat the loss of communication as a trigger to pause the task and recover the worker, since the absence of an agreed backup method means there is no reliable way to receive an instruction or distress call Without a pre-agreed backup, visual-only contact in noisy or obstructed conditions is unreliable, and the worker has no way to signal an emerging problem that isn't visually obvious — the safest response is to recover them and re-establish proper communication before resuming.