Bollard Pull Certificate
What a bollard pull certificate states, which society issues it, its five year validity, and why it is contractual rather than statutory.
A bollard pull certificate records the horizontal towline force a vessel developed at zero speed through the water during a witnessed static trial. It is issued by a classification society on the basis of a trial its surveyor attended. No IMO instrument prescribes the trial, the certificate or a minimum figure, so port State control does not check it and its force in a dispute is contractual.
Under the MARIN International Standard For Bollard Pull Trials of July 2019, the certificate states the pull in metric tonnes in the ahead or astern direction, the measured brake power in kW, the mean engine speed in rpm, the draught and trim, and the fuel type with its calorific value. That standard sets a validity of five years. Bureau Veritas reproduces the procedure in NR467 Part E, Chapter 1, Appendix 1, and requires the measured figure to be no more than 3 percent below and no more than 1 percent above the design bollard pull.
The full article will set out the certificate’s contents field by field, compare what the IMO, class and joint industry procedures each require to appear on it, and explain why a certificate is readable only alongside the trial report that names the procedure followed.