Hatch Cover Leaks & Wet-Cargo Claims: Prevention You Can Document
Leaking hatch covers are the most common cause of wet-cargo claims, among the costliest claims on bulk carriers. Ultrasonic testing turns that risk into a quantified, logged reading at every compression point, run by one crew member, before the cargo ever goes in the hold.
The claim starts long before the rain does
Leaking hatch covers are the most common cause of wet-cargo claims, and among the costliest claims on bulk carriers. The failure is quiet: a worn gasket, a distorted coaming or a badly seated cross-joint doesn't show on a walk-round, and the covers look closed from the deck. The leak is usually discovered where it hurts most: at the discharge port, when the receiver opens the hold.
By then the questions are commercial ones: was the cargo loaded into a weathertight hold, when were the covers last tested, and what evidence exists? For grain, steel, fertiliser, paper and other moisture-sensitive cargoes, the difference between a defended claim and a paid one is often the quality of the vessel's watertight-integrity records.
- The seal degrades invisibly. No visual check finds a compressed or hardened gasket
- Damage surfaces at discharge, voyages after the seal actually failed
- Without a quantified test record, the vessel starts the claim on the back foot
Why hose and chalk tests fall short
Two traditional ways of checking a seal, and why neither gives you a number you can defend.
The hose test
Hose tests are slow, messy and hard to repeat at sea. The result is a judgement call, water seen or not seen, with nothing quantified to file against the voyage.
The chalk test
A chalk test only shows where a seal touches, not where it actually leaks. Contact is not compression, and compression is what keeps green water out.
What a claim needs
A repeatable, quantified reading at each compression point, dated and logged: evidence that the covers were tight when the cargo went in.
One operator, a number at every compression point
The Portascanner® WATERTIGHT places a 40 kHz ultrasonic generator inside the closed hold; the operator sweeps a receiver along the seal from outside, and any gap shows up as sound passing through, pinpointed and sized down to a 0.06 mm aperture. Each point reads in decibels and as an Open Hatch Value (%OHV), so the check produces a quantified, repeatable result rather than a judgement call, and it logs for the record.
It supports the regimes a fleet already works to: IMO SOLAS Reg II-1/21.3 for watertight doors, and IACS UR Z17 / DNVGL-CP-0484 for hatch-cover weathertightness. The PLUS is ABS Type Approved and RINA accepted.
- Run by one crew member, at sea or in port: no hose, no chalk, no flooding
- A hatch cover is treated as weathertight when its %OHV is below 10%
- The PRO maps multiple leaks at once and photographs the exact leak location for repair and re-inspection
What a claims-aware testing routine looks like
Three moments where a quantified hatch-cover test earns its place in the voyage file.
Before loading sensitive cargo
Test every hatch before grain, steel, fertiliser, paper or any moisture-sensitive parcel goes in, and file the readings with the voyage documents.
After hatch maintenance
Gasket renewal, coaming repair or cover adjustment changes the seal. A post-work test proves the maintenance actually restored weathertightness.
On charter handover
A documented test at delivery or redelivery gives both owner and charterer the same baseline, and takes the hatch covers out of the dispute.
Built for the rules you already work to
Documented integrity is a claims defence
The safety case and the business case are the same case.
When cargo damage is alleged, the vessel's position rests on what it can show: that the holds were weathertight when loading began, and that the covers were tested by a recognised, quantified method. A dated log of ultrasonic readings, point by point and hatch by hatch, supports the defence of a claim and gives owners and charterers an objective record in a dispute, in a way a remembered hose test never can. Prevention is cheaper still: the leak found before loading is the claim that never happens.
★★★★★“The fleet was equipped with a unit per bulk carrier and the units are working well, providing the confidence that there will be no problems with water-damage claims.”
Ship Management Company, as published by Coltraco Ultrasonics
Testimonial as published by Coltraco Ultrasonics. SepcoTech is an Authorised Distributor and represents the manufacturer; we make no claim of endorsement on their behalf.
Wet-Cargo Claims & Hatch Testing: FAQ
Why are hatch cover leaks such a big source of cargo claims?
Why is an ultrasonic test better than a hose test?
Is ultrasonic hatch cover testing accepted by class?
When should hatch covers be tested?
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