It is common knowledge that a ship cannot sail unless it has sufficient lifeboat capacity to cover the registered crew onboard. The older ships used to have a lifeboat on each side of the ship. Each of them had enough capacity to carry the whole crew. It was done this way in case one side of the ship was unable to lower the lifeboat. The other one would hopefully be useable. Now a day’s modern ship has only one lifeboat mounted on the stern. This type is a free falling type of lifeboat and are usually not depending on any side being free simply as it is used from the stern of the ship only. If a ship has a problem with lifeboat capacity and simply unable to use any given lifeboat that they can by temporary means while undergoing repair, have a sufficient capacity of life rafts take over the position as a lifeboat. What I mean by this is that if a lifeboat cannot be used, you can get a temporary permission from Class Society to use life rafts as replacement. The capacity has to be equal or more than the lifeboat it replaces. It is a requirement that it has the proper installation i.e. being mounted in a cradle and have the proper hydrostatic release attached. The life raft has to be up to date with certifications etc. Class has to visually see the installation before being able to issue a temporary certificate and allow ship to sail. As we see so many times, there is always a way for owners to keep the ship operating even though it might not be safe. It can be a subject for discussion if a ship is safe without proper lifeboats in working condition. Is it safe to rely on only life rafts? North Atlantic wintertime can be tuff on you no matter what you are using. A life raft might just be a better alternative here. Than again it depends where you are I guess. Many distress situations seem to be favoring the rafts. From the news you can also see on many occasions that sailors have been rescued from rafts. And there was no lifeboat to be seen, at least from the aerial photos shown.
Ships Can Sail Anyway!
December 26th, 2007 · 1 Comment
Tags: General
1 response so far ↓
1 Bob Couttie // Dec 26, 2007 at 9:16 pm
If lifeboats were motor cars they’d have been taken off the roads years ago for the mix of bad design, poor training and poor maintenance that have made them one of the biggest killers of seafarers. Free fall lifeboat also have problems, including some really appalling design. There is considerable debate in the industry whether or not lifeboats should be used at all and their replacement with liferafts have a lot of support. Indeed, it may well be that the reason one rarely sees people being rescued in lifeboats is that the mater has refused to use them on the grounds of safety.
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