Marine Offshore Operations: Methods of Personnel Transfer Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of marine offshore operations, specifically focusing on the safe transfer of personnel in renewable and non-renewable energy sectors near the sea. It covers various transfer methods, including crew boats, personnel transfer carriers, gangways, and accommodation ladders, along with associated equipment and safety considerations. The report emphasizes risk assessment, training, and communication protocols essential for safe operations. It addresses general issues like risk assessment, training, and competence, responsibility, and communications, followed by in-depth discussions on different types of personnel transfer such as personnel transfer carriers, gangways, bridges, accommodation ladders, small boats, and crew boats. Each section includes equipment details and safety measures. The report also highlights the importance of risk assessment and provides guidelines for ensuring safe vessel-to-vessel transfers, including the use of specialized equipment like 'surfers'. The report's structured approach and detailed analysis make it a valuable resource for understanding the complexities and safety requirements of marine offshore operations.

Running head: MARINE OFFSHORE OPERATIONS
Marine Offshore Operations
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1MARINE OFFSHORE OPERATIONS
Executive summary
This study is aimed at delivering an understanding of how vessels movement takes place in
offshore renewable and non-renewable energy near the sea area. Moreover, it specifically covers
a safe transfer of personnel at sea using various types of transfer such as crew boats. Moreover, it
covers risk assessment, training, responsibility, communications, responsibility and focusses on
the methods, which are being used for personnel transfer between vessels, the quayside and
offshore structures. Some of the primary methods of personnel transfer covered in this study are
personnel transfer carrier, small boat or launch, bridge or accommodation ladders and gangways,
including also the motion-compensated hydraulic gangway. For each of the case, this study
covers various safety issues and gives information on some of the useful equipment like
‘surfers’.

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Table of Contents
1. General Issues..............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Risk Assessment....................................................................................................................3
1.2 Training and Competence......................................................................................................4
1.3 Responsibility........................................................................................................................4
1.4 Communications....................................................................................................................5
2. Types of Personnel Transfer........................................................................................................5
2.1 Personnel Transfer Carrier.....................................................................................................5
2.1.1 Equipment.......................................................................................................................7
2.2 Gangway, Bridge and Accommodation Ladder Transfer......................................................7
2.2.1 Bridges............................................................................................................................8
2.2.2 Heave Compensated gangways......................................................................................8
2.3 Offshore Renewable Energy Industry Transfers...................................................................9
2.4 Vessel to Vessel Transfer in a Small Boat.............................................................................9
2.4.1 Equipment.....................................................................................................................10
2.5 Crew Boat Transfer..............................................................................................................10
2.5.1 Embarkation/Disembarkation.......................................................................................10
2.5.2 Equipment.....................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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1. General Issues
For all kinds of personnel transporting, the operation should follow the company's
policies related to various related things like the work permit, risk assessment procedures, and
toolbox. The operation should have a good understanding of the weather condition and the sea
state limitations. Every personnel should clearly know their roles and responsibilities (Van Der
Tempel et al. 2015). In vessel to vessel transfer, the operations should be avoided during the
night or any other darkness condition. If in case the transfer is needed to be executed during the
condition of darkness the operations should have a good understanding of the risk assessment
procedure to be followed. Personnel should be adequately briefed on what and how to transfer
the things. Moreover, they should have valid medical equipment available with them to handle
urgent medical needs. All personnel must have gone through offshore survival training. Training
will guide this personnel at the various aspect of the operation such as ensuring to wear the
appropriate PPE like IMO approved inflatable life jacket that comes fitted with whistle and PLB.
It is pretty difficult to identify an optimum temperature for cold water shock as experts have
differing views on this topic. It is, therefore, more advisable to assess risks associated with
various things and provide adequate safety to personnel. Moreover, the risk assessment should be
done for sea state, weather, current, vessel type, the height of transfer, the fitness of a person to
be transferred and the estimated time to recover the person from the water (Van Der Tempel et
al. 2015).
1.1 Risk Assessment
All kinds of personnel transfers at sea should be considered as a stand-alone operation. A
formal risk assessment should be ensured and carried out beforehand. The findings of such risk
assessment process can be saved in documents to use it on a regular basis. Few changes could be
made to it depending on the differing circumstances. The operation would require to be covered
by a valid permit to work (PTW). Risk assessment before conducting the personnel transfer at
sea should consider the following issues (Shanley, Balke and Murphy 2016):
 All the necessities of transfers are available
 Frequency of transfer
 Personnel involved in a transfer
 Environmental conditions like the wind speed and direction, sea state, visibility, the tide
speed or direction, rain, snow, water temperature, ice and lighting

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 Vessel movement
 The action of the water between vessels placed in close proximity
 Vessel movement
 Lighting
 Slip hazards
 Vessel holding facility of the station
 Conditions and availability of the equipment
 Communications
 Any simultaneous operations (SIMOPS)
 Training and competence of all the personnel involved in a transfer
 Safety aspects of the vessel transfer
 Potential emergency situations
 Operational requirements
1.2 Training and Competence
All the personnel those who are involved in the transfer irrespective of their duty nature
should have adequate training on their competency level. The operation should have skilled and
trained people to take care of various activities. The training in the discussion here is industry-
specific. For example, the training needs for personnel involved in a variety of operations would
be different. Hence, training needs for a crane operator would be different from the training
required for the coxswains, crews in small boats, etc. It is quite understandable that training
needs would be different for personnel employed in different activities. The adequate briefing
should be given to all passengers on the particular method to be followed or the kind of device to
be used (Taylor 2015).
1.3 Responsibility
The duties of the personnel involved in the operation should be clearly defined. The
people who are likely to be involved in a vessel transfer are (König et al. 2017):
 All masters of the vessels
 Offshore installation manager (OIM)
 Mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU)
 Marine coordinators and dispatching personnel in context to the offshore renewable
energy industry

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 The crew of personnel transfer vessels
 Crane operators
 Deck crew to be available at both end of the operations
 Personnel being transferred
Masters of OIMs have all safety responsibility of the vessel structure. Indeed, effective and
constant communication is required between the different OIMs. They should do the appropriate
measurement of the safety features. They can do it by communicating with relevant personnel.
The transfer should be canceled in case there is a risk of personnel being transferred to. In case
that personnel is not happy with the safety measures of the vessel they have all rights to
withdraw their participation from the transfer.
1.4 Communications
It should be ensured how communication will be facilitated. Moreover, radio and visual
communications between the personnel should be checked and established prior to the transfer.
This is needed to avoid any operations related to the failure. Communications need to be
maintained throughout the transfer process to identify the presence of any error and be able to
treat it to avoid communication from hampering. All personnel should be briefed on how the
communications will be facilitated before the operations begin. They should be knowing the
procedure to be followed to facilitate communication during the transfer process (Morice III,
Lallande and Gunter 2017).
2. Types of Personnel Transfer
This will include the methods of transfer to be followed, the equipment to be used and all. Some
of these are (James and Collu 2015):
 Personnel transfer carrier
 Small boat or launch
 Gangways
 Accommodation ladders
 Motion-compensated hydraulic gangways
 Support vessel
 Availability of mating ‘surfer’ structures to ensure a safe transfer of personnel

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In some cases, more than one techniques can be used. For example, personnel transferring by
either crew boat or small boat may additionally be required to use the personnel transfer carriers
and gangways.
2.1 Personnel Transfer Carrier
Personnel transfer carrier is subject to company and client procedures, local regulations, etc.
Transfer from and to the vessels can be undertaken using a number of different devices. The
essential devices to be used are (Merchant, Hussain and Pasumarthy 2016):
 Collapsible net – This is the oldest design for personnel carrier. In such type of design,
personnel is transferred while holding the outside of the lifted structure. In this type of
structure, the tension is required to be maintained in the crane wire. This kind of carrier
should be discouraged because of carrier instability. This is particularly when they are
submitted to the kinds of vessel movement.
 Rigid basket – It discusses a framework using which security will be provided to those
personnel who stay at the standing passenger position.
 Rigid capsule – It is related to stainless still frame, secured seated passenger position, and
buoyancy for self-righting and floating. In some cases, the seating system is mounted on
a different suspension system.
In some cases, crane transfer can be the only feasible transfer mode. It is in cases when there
are huge height difference between two adjacent decks. However, otherwise the transfer mode
should be avoided. In case when a crane transfer is needed then it must be done from an expert in
crane operating. There are many additional factors, which should be taken care with while
dealing with a crane transfer. These are (Asgari and Fernandes 2017):
 To check whether all the necessity things related to the transfer and alternatives are
available
 The suitability of the vessel to maintain station must be checked
 Pieces of land area where vessel will be unloaded should be checked for any harmful
substance or obstruction, which may obstruct the operation
 The likely route of the vessel should also be known
 Wind speed, vessel movement and many other barriers to vessel operation should also be
checked

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 Any other kind of operations that may directly or indirectly have an impact on the
operations should also be taken care
 The crane operator must be adequately skilled and is compete for man-riding operations
 The crane is certified for the use and is appropriately functioning as well
 Before going for the transfer the transfer carrier should be thoroughly and visually
checked
 There should be effective communications between crane, banksmen and vessel area
those that are in place and also working
 Vessel and environmental motion condition should be suitable also
 Banksmen and crane operator should have good visibility of the transfer, pick-up and
landing area
2.1.1 Equipment
The crane to be used must be certified. It should also be good in functioning conditions.
Freefall lowering should never be used during the operations like personal carrier transfer. The
transfer carrier should be appropriately rigged onto the crane prior to the operations to avoid any
unexpected casualty from happening. The hook to be used in the crane should have the
appropriate height to strike a balance between the load and the crane’s lifting capacity. A
positive locking system should be in place in between the crane hook and the personnel transfer
carrier. This will prevent from unexpected accidents to be happened in the workplace. On top of
all, the crane operator should have adequate knowledge on and is also trained on how to
effectively operate the cranes (Chin and Carraha 2017). The crane operators and other personnel
should have knowledge on how and where to store all the goods.
2.2 Gangway, Bridge and Accommodation Ladder Transfer
Gangways and accommodation ladder are the primary means through which transfer of
personnel happens from one vessel to another. Gangways can be of various types. Gangways and
accommodation ladder should be made of appropriate materials and made up of appropriate
width as well. Moreover, it should be fitted with and placed at non-slippery handrails and
walkways. All the equipment should be checked on a regularly basis. Various means can be used
to examine the functioning of the equipment. Visual check is one of the ways that can be used to
inspect the equipment in terms of whether it is appropriately clean and is also free from slippery
nature. Nevertheless, gangways and accommodation ladder that are appropriately certified

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should only be used. In situation when there is a possibility like personnel falling from a height a
safety net should be used. The safety net should not only be attached solely with gangway or
accommodation ladder. In some cases, the use of safety net can be avoided. For example,
Ampelmann™, which is kind of gangway type has its sides enclosed (Paterson et al. 2018).
Hence, there will be no more need to attach an external net. However, the final decision
regarding whether or not to use a net should be left to those who only assess the risk factor. In
addition to all these, wherever needed there should be arrangements made for life buoy that
comes fitted with a line.
Both gangways and accommodation ladder should be appropriately lit till along their full
strength. Their routes should be kept free form obstruction like trip hazards. Moreover, it should
be installed in a way that provides safe access to the deck at each side of the transfer. Gangways
and accommodation ladder should never be placed at an angle of inclination as this will make
their routes largely unsafe for the transfer. The use of gangways should be monitored on a
regular basis. The fittings like handrails and stanchions should be monitored to identify any
needs for the adjustments. In case when it is mounted on a bulwark, it should be made ensured
that handrails are in place, so that, personnel does not have to jump the other side of the deck
(Martini et al. 2016).
2.2.1 Bridges
Handling some larger vessels could be pretty difficult. Vessels like pipelay barges,
heavy-lift crane vessels and accommodation vessels have quite long bridges that affect the
movement. When using such vessels the movement or transfer style should be changed. These
can be fixed at one end to enable sliding of equipment between one ends to another. It is more
advisable to hydraulically control such equipment. This will help to easily lift the personnel. For
a more secure transfer of personnel the alarm system should be activated. This will notify about
the transfer of personnel. The bridges and also the personnel crossing them should be monitored
for effective control of the operations (Van Der Tempel et al. 2016).
2.2.2 Heave Compensated gangways
This type of gangways are purposefully designed to make it compatible with and
mounted on a vessel. This is purposefully designed to connect it with another vessel. This is
installed in an offshore structure. It is designed in a way to allow safe passage across. Heave
compensated gangways are fitted with a hydraulic system that adjusts its length and angles to

9MARINE OFFSHORE OPERATIONS
make it much more stable and quite feasible for a relative movement of the vessel. The system is
so designed that it effectively widens up space and make it much easier for the vessel movement.
Before facilitating any transfer from this way there should be an effective emergency plan to
respond to an unexpected failure of the vessel movement. A traffic light system can also be
created to create visual communication and avoid any unwanted accident from happening. The
use of a much more stabilised gangways is increasingly becoming a part of the offshore
renewable energy industry. Some of these gangways are also being used in cargo transfer like
grout hoses carriage and positioning (Thies et al. 2017). All these kind of gangways should be
used in a way they are expected to deliver the best result. This will avoid an unwanted accident
from happening. Moreover, actions could be peacefully conducted.
Some more factors to take into account while using the gangways, accommodation
ladders and bridges are as mentioned below (Thies et al. 2017):
 The angle should be appropriately adjusted at which the gangway or accommodation
ladder is installed
 The height difference should also be effectively adjusted between various access points
on vessels
 The vessel beam should be known and it should also be effectively used as it provides
stability to the platform
 When dealing with the gangway watches while being in port the requirements related to
the ISPS Code should particularly be maintained
2.3 Offshore Renewable Energy Industry Transfers
The transfer system for the personnel in offshore renewable energy is similar to the one
followed in a renewable energy sector; however, there are still a few differences. The use of
surfer arrangement is given preference in the renewable energy sector. It is being used to transfer
personnel using small vessels. Personnel is primarily transferred from an accommodation
offshore to a place where renewable energy is being produced like to a wind turbine or to another
renewable energy generator. The potential wave height to transfer the vessels can vary from
place to place. Dynamic gangways are used to attain the maximum possible wave height.
Landing areas are quite small and can also affect the safety level of the transfer (Scheu et al.
2018). Many other things remain the same as that in a non-renewable offshore setup. People who

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are all deployed to the work must be fully trained on how to communicate with the concerned
team and how to handle each of the operational stages.
2.4 Vessel to Vessel Transfer in a Small Boat
Vessel to vessel transfer using small boats is less realisable and quite challenging also.
Unless there is no other way that can be used for transferring the personnel due to some
unfavourable external factors transfers using small boats should never be practiced. Small boats
would carry less capacity leading to more trips of transfers and so, a higher transfer cost.
Moreover, those who are dealing with boats should know how to operate it. Only those who are
highly trained can only manage to work with boats (Aubault et al. 2018). In the case of vessels
transferring with small boats, it is necessary to assess the weather conditions as well as the sea
state. In case these are not assessed it could result in severe losses. Failure due to such reason
would not just cause loses of materials being transferred but also cost the lives of those who are
in boats (Aubault et al. 2018).
2.4.1 Equipment
The boats to be used should be sufficient for the personnel to be transferred and for those
who are lodging in the boats. Moreover, the boats to be used should be in compliance with
applicable regulations concerning the area of the operation. Those who are boarding in such
small boats should have with them approved inflatable life jacket. Moreover, for colder regions,
they should have with them an appropriate survival suit. A vessel to vessel transfer using small
boats should ensure the following things (McCartan et al. 2015):
 Checking whether the small boat is fully operational and is in good condition
 Checking whether emergency equipment is available onboard. This includes but not
limited to like water, flares, radio, man overboard equipment, torch, etc.
 The availability of heaving line and lifebelt from either of the side at the transfer point
2.5 Crew Boat Transfer
Personnel transfer can also sometimes be made using larger vessels usually called as
crew boats. Crew boats can be used in the transfer of offshore support personnel. Crew boat can
be used in transferring vessels such as offshore support personnel, deck and below-deck cargo.
Crew boats do not require to follow the international safety codes like International Safety
Management (ISM) and International Ship Security Certificate (ISPS) (Samie 2016). Indeed, this
might be a good practice to follow these international bodies of policy. In crew boat transfer of

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the personnel each and every stage involved in the operations should be carefully handled. The
size of the boat to be used should be appropriately planned. In addition to the size of the boat, the
vessels to be used should also be only those fitting to it. Efforts should be given to avoid
excessive weight. Before launching the crew boat in the sea the weather conditions and the sea
state of the origin place and also of the destination should be effectively analysed. In this regard,
documented facts like when to launch the crew boat and what climatic factors could be
favourable, should be accessed. Such documented facts are mandatory for avoiding unwanted
accidents (Samie 2016).
2.5.1 Embarkation/Disembarkation
The means and resource of embarking and disembarking personnel to and fro the crew
boat should be ensured at both ends of the transit. This part of the operation should be handled
effectively as this can be extremely hazardous part of the entire operation. In practicality, in a
transfer through the crew boat, other means of transfer can also be accessed. Other means of
transfer includes but not limited to like personnel carrier, small boat, gangway and
accommodation ladder. All this should be decided after looking on to the availability of the deck
space and the urgency state for the personnel transfer. In irrespective of the kinds of personnel
transfer, workers should be briefed on every aspect of the business like how to maintain and
follow the safety measures (Abrecht and Leveson 2016). In case when both crew boat and a
vessel come together the movement should be strategically handled. Depending on the
circumstances, relative movement should be given positive permission. In all such cases, the
heights of the decks at either end of the transit should be checked prior to the movement.
Moreover, there should be sufficient assistance available at both ends of the transit. One or few
experienced people should be given the responsibility to take care of the related process and
communicate with the bridge. However, this structure may not be available or feasible in case of
the unmanned structures. The physical involvement of workers should be limited to a safe limit,
and the operation should be carried with the help of handrails and bulwarks as long as it is
possible. The relative position such as the position of vessels and units should also be considered
when they are required for external adverse circumstances or for any operational related failure
in a crew boat (Abrecht and Leveson 2016).
2.5.2 Equipment