Marine and offshore operations involve many serious hazards. This guide addresses only one specific category of them.

Vessels, offshore installations and shipyards involve rotating machinery, electrical systems, stored-pressure hazards, confined spaces, atmospheric risk, work at height and rope and wire under stored energy. This guide does not address any of those hazard categories.

What this guide does address is a specific and recurring pattern: the moment when a worker's hand becomes the primary interface between a person and a load, component, tool or struck surface — because no engineered alternative has been provided. That moment happens on deck, in engine rooms, in workshops and at quaysides. It happens in good weather and bad, on supply vessels and drydocks, and it is largely preventable.

The tasks described in this guide — lifting, guiding, aligning, striking — exist in most industrial sectors. What makes marine and offshore handling distinct is the set of conditions in which those tasks occur. An intervention that works reliably in a land-based workshop may behave differently when the deck is moving, the surface is wet and the reference points are not fixed.

Before selecting a product, tool or control measure, this guide asks a prior question: what is the hand actually doing in this task, and why does it need to be there? The HSF taxonomy identifies eight distinct hand functions. Each points to a different category of engineered intervention.

This guide is organised by hand-exposure application family, not by vessel type or department. Each part covers a recurring category of task where the hand is exposed and where an engineered interface may reduce that exposure. Each chapter follows the same structure: the task and its process flow; where the hand enters the hazard zone and why; and the PSC/HSF products that may address that exposure.

A conditional (◐) entry in any table or matrix means: the tool may address this application, but the condition stated must be resolved before selection. Conditional entries require a site-level review of geometry, surface condition, access and component weight. Do not treat a conditional entry as a recommendation without completing that review.

Deck crane and derrick lifts on vessels and offshore installations involve picking a load from one position and placing it at another. The mechanical phases of the lift — hook approach, pick, traverse, lower — are controlled from the crane cab or pendant. The hand-exposure occurs at the points where a worker is physically close to the load: during transit control and at landing.

• Confirm the lift plan permits tagline attachment and specify which tagline product is appropriate for the lift
• Rig PSC LoadGuider® Anti-Tangle Tagline or PSC SafeGuider® Tagline at deck level before the crane hook is engaged — not while the load is in the air
• Confirm both tagline operators have tools before crane picks the load; confirm approach-phase tools (LoadGuider® / Guide-It®) are available at the landing position
• Maintain stand-off throughout transit — do not shorten hold distance as the load descends
• Transition to push/pull guidance tool as the load enters the approach phase; do not use the tagline to arrest or oppose load momentum
• After load lands and slings are slack, retrieve rigging using RiggerSafe® or LoadGrab® until hook is fully stationary and secured

Supply vessel cargo operations involve transferring baskets, skids, tubulars and equipment between a supply vessel and an offshore installation or platform, using the installation crane. The supply vessel is moving in the sea state. The installation is moving differently, or not at all. The basket or cargo load swings between two reference points that are not stationary relative to each other.

The Last 300 mm Rule™ identifies the final approach and positioning phase as a particularly critical hand-exposure zone, because the demand for precision can draw the worker closer to the load. In supply vessel cargo transfer, this phase is compressed and unpredictable in ways that land-based lifts are not. The basket is descending. The deck it is descending toward may be rising to meet it. The closing rate is the combination of two independent motions, not one controlled descent rate.

In supply vessel cargo transfer, the critical discipline is engaging the tagline tool before the basket enters the final approach phase — not at the moment it is needed. By the time a bare-hand worker reaches for a swinging basket, it is already inside the 300 mm zone.

Every marine lift, whatever its type, ends the same way: a load moving toward a fixed point, a worker close to it, and a decision about whether the hand needs to be there.

Chapters 1 and 2 address specific lift types. This chapter addresses the phase those lifts share: the final approach, the landing moment, and the recovery of rigging after landing. This is the phase where bare-hand intervention is most instinctive and most avoidable.

After the load has landed and the slings have gone slack, the hook and rigging still carry residual movement risk until they are fully stationary and secured. Recovery of slings, removal of shackles and repositioning of the hook should be performed with the hook stationary and the load confirmed stable. Where the hook is still swinging, use LoadGuider® or Guide-It® to manage position before approaching by hand.

Cargo arrives at the quayside by truck or is assembled on the quay for vessel loading. Transfer from truck to quay, from quay to vessel hold or deck, and in reverse — involves crane or forklift picks with final positioning at the landing point. The hand-exposure pattern in quayside operations closely mirrors that of deck crane lifts, with one difference: the reference points are fixed. There is no vessel motion at the quay. The transfer task is more controlled, but the volumes handled and the pace of port operations can compress the time available for each lift.

Vessels and offshore installations receive a continuous flow of spares, consumables, replacement parts and equipment that does not arrive in consistently shaped packages. Heavy machined components, replacement pump bodies, motor housings, valve assemblies, gearbox covers and similar items may have no convenient grip surface. They are heavy enough to injure, awkward enough to grip insecurely, and often need to be moved short distances without a crane available for the whole journey.

The risk in stores and spares handling is not usually a swinging load or a crane pick. It is the moment when a worker lifts or places a heavy component with an insecure grip — because the component's geometry does not offer a natural handhold — and the component shifts, slips or is set down onto a finger or hand.

Vessel engine rooms and machinery spaces require regular maintenance of pumps, motors, compressors and associated equipment. Removal of pump casings, motor housings, impellers and compressor components involves lifting and manoeuvring heavy machined parts in spaces that were designed around the equipment, not around maintenance access. Headroom is frequently limited. Access is often from one side only. The components are smooth, oily and machined to close tolerances — denying the hand both a natural grip and a reliable friction surface.

Marine gearbox removal, shaft withdrawal and heavy component extraction combine high component mass with irregular geometry, confined access and the need for precise positioning both on removal and on reinstallation. A gearbox does not have convenient grip surfaces. A shaft requires careful axial management during withdrawal. Both require the hand to be close to the component for a significant portion of the task.

Marine pipework maintenance involves removing and reinstalling pipe spools, valves and associated components. This chapter addresses the physical handling of those components — their movement, approach to position and guidance into alignment — before the bolting stage. The scope is the hand-exposure moment: the component in motion, approaching its mating flange or valve body, and the ALIGN task that precedes mechanical connection.

Marine and offshore maintenance workshops, engine rooms and fabrication areas involve regular use of chisels, punches, drift pins and alignment tools that require one hand to hold the tool and one hand (or another person's hand) to swing the hammer. The struck-tool scenario is a direct and readily identifiable hand-exposure mechanism in industrial maintenance work — and one of the few where a remote holding tool directly removes the HOLD function from the strike zone.

Pipe sections, propeller shafts, hydraulic cylinder bodies, roller bodies and similar tubular components appear throughout marine and offshore maintenance operations. Their cylindrical geometry is the source of the exposure: they roll, they offer no natural grip at the end face, and they require controlled guidance when being threaded through bulkheads, into bearing housings, or aligned to a mating component.

Gas cylinders on vessels and offshore installations are moved regularly — between storage, distribution and use points. A cylinder's smooth cylindrical body provides no natural handhold. In a stable land environment, this is manageable with technique. On a vessel where the deck is pitching or rolling, or on an offshore platform in rough conditions, a cylinder that is partially secured or being moved by bare-hand grip on a smooth body is a fall-and-crush risk.

Shipyard and drydock work involves handling steel plates, fabricated structural sections, access panels and equipment covers. These components are typically ferrous, flat or curved, heavy and smooth on the working face. They arrive at the work position by crane and require guidance and final positioning by workers on deck or staging. The hand-exposure moment is the final approach and positioning phase — when the plate is close to its target weld, fit-up or installation position.

Steel plate and fabricated structures in a shipyard arrive from different sources and in different surface states. New plate from the steel stockist may be clean, mill-scaled and dry — a relatively predictable magnetic handling surface. Plates removed from an existing vessel structure may carry years of paint, anti-corrosion coating, marine growth removal residue, weld-adjacent heat scale and surface contamination. The gap between ideal and actual conditions is wider in shipyard work than in a land-based fabrication workshop.

Fabricated structural sections — frames, ring sections, transverse members — often present tubular or structural members that are compatible with LoadGrab® or RiggerSafe® engagement. Where the structure has a defined tube or member the tool can engage, push/pull and tagline control during crane-assisted placement becomes straightforward. Where the structure is all-plate with no tubular engagement, crane slings and LoadGuider® guidance during approach are the primary approach.

Drydock periods allow access to machinery and components that cannot be reached during normal vessel operation. Main engine overhaul, propulsion component removal, auxiliary machinery replacement and structural component reinstallation all involve crane picks into and out of confined machinery spaces. This chapter addresses the physical handling phase — the moment when the component is moving and approaching its installation position. It does not address the engineering decisions about the component itself, the disassembly sequence or the systems work that follows installation.

In drydock conditions, the availability of a shipyard crane creates the opportunity for better-controlled lifts than are typical during underway maintenance. Use that advantage: plan tool engagement before the component is moving, not during. Confirm LoadGuider® and Guide-It® are available at the receiving position before the crane pick commences.

The chapters in this guide address the hand-exposure moments where an engineered interface can meaningfully change the position of the worker's hand. There are many other hand-exposure risks in marine and offshore operations where that is not the case — where the hazard requires engineering controls, systems procedures or operational management that is outside the scope of any hand-tool intervention.

This chapter names those hazards directly. A PSC/HSF product should not be presented as a solution to any of them. If a customer or site contact identifies one of these as a priority concern, the correct response is to acknowledge the hazard and direct them to the appropriate control — not to find a PSC/HSF product that can be connected to it.

• Mooring snap-back zones A mooring line under tension stores energy proportional to its breaking load. When it parts, the snap-back zone is defined by the line geometry, not by the worker's position. No handling tool addresses this. Control is procedural and spatial — keeping workers out of the snap-back zone before tensioning commences.
• Winch and capstan nip points The nip point between a rope or wire and a rotating drum or barrel is a machine guarding and exclusion zone problem. A PSC/HSF tool does not address it. Control requires guarding, exclusion and trained operation.
• Anchor and windlass machinery Anchor chain under load, the hawsepipe throat and windlass barrel represent stored energy exposure at a scale and geometry that no hand-handling tool addresses. Proximity exclusion and operational procedures are the controls.
• Rope and wire under stored energy Taut rope, wire, synthetic line or cable under tension can part or spring without warning. The recoil energy is a function of the line's stored elastic energy. Control is exclusion from the recoil zone.

• Hydraulic and pressurised system stored energy Pressurised hydraulic systems, steam lines, compressed-air systems and gas-pressurised equipment require isolation and depressurisation before any maintenance access. A hand-handling tool does not manage stored pressure. LOTO, isolation valves and pressure verification are the controls.
• Electrical exposure Electrical isolation, arc flash risk and electrical contact exposure are managed by electrical permit systems, isolation procedures and PPE appropriate to the voltage level. No PSC/HSF product addresses electrical hazards.
• Confined space atmospheric hazards Oxygen deficiency, toxic atmosphere and flammable gas accumulation in cargo holds, ballast tanks, void spaces and enclosed machinery spaces require atmospheric testing, ventilation and permit-to-enter. A handling tool does not address atmospheric risk.

• Diving and underwater support operations Diving operations involve specialist equipment, surface supply systems, decompression management and underwater communication. The hand-exposure risks in diving are managed by diving procedures, dive control and equipment integrity. This guide does not address them.
• Work at height and rigging Working aloft — on masts, on staging, on the exterior of a structure — requires fall protection, working-at-height procedures and rigging competency. The hand-handling tools in this guide are deck-level and workshop tools. They are not working-at-height controls.
• Rotating propulsion machinery in service Propeller shafts, stern tubes and thruster systems in operation — or in any state other than fully isolated and confirmed stationary — are outside the scope of any hand-handling tool. Isolation and confirmation of machinery status are prerequisites for any of the maintenance tasks in Part III of this guide.

A controlled application trial is the appropriate next step after identifying a likely application from this guide. It is a defined, time-limited trial with named tools, named tasks and a clear evaluation criterion.

Run the trial on the specific task with the named tools. Brief the operators before the first use. Observe at least one operation in person if feasible. Collect operator feedback at the end of the trial period — not a questionnaire, a conversation about what worked and what did not.