RECOGNISE AND PREVENT PARAMETRIC ROLLING

The size of deep sea container ships has increased dramatically over the past decades. The loss of containers and their impact on the marine and coastal environments raised public and politic concerns on the safety and environmental impact of modern container ships. Authorities and industry are urged to evaluate container securing and improve regulations and practices to avoid such loss of containers at sea. The Joint Industry Project TopTier is initiated to address these topics with active participation of major stakeholders.

A series of incidents with exceptional container losses occurred during the winter season 2020-2021. Initial results show that parametric rolling in following seas was especially hazardous. The TopTier JIP took initiative to distribute a Notice to Mariners. This information gives guidance to crew and operational staff of container ships on how to plan, recognize and act to prevent parametric rolling in following seas, see www.marin.nl/jips/toptier.

It’s normal for container ships to pitch and roll in heavy seas. But the ship’s movements and certain wave conditions can sometimes reinforce one another, causing the container ship to roll uncontrollably.

Watch the video and learn how you can recognise and prevent parametric rolling.