Getting lifeboats off the hook

Fatalities occur every year as a result of old and poorly-designed release mechanisms. The IMO has been working on a solution for years and has eventually come up what it believes to be the answer in the form of MSC circular 1392 which basically states: “The Maritime Safety Committee has approved the guidelines for evaluation and replacement of lifeboat release and retrieval systems.”

The main point is that the new SOLAS regulation III/1.5, which is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2013, requires that for all ships, on-load release mechanisms not complying with paragraphs 4.4.7.6.4 to 4.4.7.6.6 of the LSA Code, as amended by resolution MSC.320(89) (hereinafter called "the LSA Code"), be replaced or modified not later than the next scheduled dry-docking after 1 July 2014, but not later than 1 July 2019.

“It has taken a very long time to agree the contents of the circular,” says Paul Watkins, sales and project manager at Survival Craft. “As a member of ILAMA, I am one of the members of the sub-committee working group and correspondence groups at the IMO, so I have been very heavily involved in the preparation of those requirements. I would agree and everybody involved would have to agree that it has taken a very long time, but that is just the way the IMO works - it certainly wasn't through lack of effort.”

Now that a way forward has been decided upon there is still the issue about the amount of time being given to comply, but as David Torres, vice president sales at Umoe Schat-Harding Services explains: “To give you a rough idea of the numbers, because exact figures on this topic aren't available, the merchant fleet consists of around 51,000 vessels, which we as an industry are looking at. These are just vessels with lifeboats and hooks onboard. Of those 51,000 maybe 10% or 20% have freefall lifeboats onboard and another estimated 10% already comply with these guidelines. So if we take these out we are still talking about a huge number of lifeboats. The majority of the vessels are equipped with at least two totally, or partially, enclosed lifeboats. So, 30,000-plus vessels multiplied by two lifeboats is a lot of hooks to replace,” says Torres.

“There are, with certainty, types of release gear systems in lifeboats that ought to be replaced at the soonest possible moment - there is no doubt about that - and the industry will definitely support that viewpoint,” says Watkins. “The output of the IMO has now produced the 'vehicle' for that to occur. What will be unfortunate is that some owners may well drag that decision out until 30 June 2019 and that would be a shame, but we live in the real world and that will happen. However, in the five year preceding period there will be many thousands of lifeboats fitted with alternative, approved types of release gear.”

While there appears to be an option to modify existing systems to comply with the regulations, this is not likely to be realistic. Watkins told The Motorship: “The majority of existing release gear systems are manufactured from carbon steel that is galvanised. The new requirements require that the equipment is manufactured from a non-corrosive material.” Torres agrees saying: “The IMO is really pushing for non-corrosive materials, and in theory galvanising is non-corrosive, however it is not applicable in a high corrosive environment, such as at sea.”

So you may be able to modify the hook but it is unlikely to comply with the non-corrosive materials requirement. “This means that there are unlikely to be any permanent modifications accepted, requiring most hooks to be swapped out,” concludes Torres.

“My feeling and our corporate feeling is that there will be a large number of lifeboats that require their release gear to be replaced,” agrees Watkins.

Time for replacement

While the equipment replacement is only just starting because the output from the IMO only occurred in May, when it comes to making the decision to upgrade, Torres warns: “We are already doing a lot of these installations because there are a lot of safety conscious ship owners, or if they are not safety conscious, they realise that there will be a day when the availability of people able to do, or capable of doing, a proper re-hooking of the system might become a problem, which will put their continuation of activities in danger.”

Watkins concurs, saying: “Clients are beginning to contact us to talk about this requirement but it will take a bit of time for it to be digested, which is why the IMO allowed the amount of time that it has. However, our advice is to attend to this sooner rather than later, advice which a large number of our clients have heeded.”

Torres also warns: “If an accident does occur then you are exposed to a huge loss of time and money, even if there is no loss of life.”

New systems

Torres believes: “As most of the lifeboats out there are from Schat-Harding, we are the company with the longest history in this business, so if there is anybody who knows what is going on with equipment,  it is us. Therefore, if we supply the customer with a solution, such as the SeaCure, we and the customer can be confident that it is a solution that fits his needs and it is safe and cost efficient.” Schat-Harding’s SeaCure system has been designed to not just to fit its own lifeboat designs but fits all lifeboats types.

It is the same for Survival Craft, as Watkins explains: “We specifically developed our approved release gear system to allow for replacement into any lifeboat, and in the many hundreds of installations so far carried out, we haven't encountered a lifeboat yet that can't accommodate Safelaunch.”

He goes on to say; “We looked at producing a piece of equipment that inhibited or completely negated the chance of accidental release through the use of a locking pins system.”

He told The Motorship: “We strongly advise, although it is at the discretion of the master of course, that the locking pin is used during drills and maintenance only and then removed from the release gear to allow for immediate evacuation of the vessel if so required.

“We also re-engineered the cam and the hook interface so that there are no critical tolerances or critical gap requirements to be concerned about,” he explains. “You are able to easily observe the safe status of the release gear without having to enter the lifeboat at all, so you can rapidly judge whether that lifeboat is safe to board before even opening the hatch.”

The company has released an upgrade to Safelaunch, which it exhibited at Offshore Europe in Aberdeen. “It has a secondary locking system on it which adds another layer of security to Safelaunch,” explains Watkins. “The locking pin can be compared to the harbour pin on a davit system, which when used in port stops the davits luffing out. It is a very simple solution but one that is well proven to work and is of a type supported by some of the industry groups at the IMO. They are very keen on the simple technology of a locking pin.”

Maintenance in question

IMO, classification societies, flag states and shipping associations have been placing great emphasis on lifeboat safety in an effort to reduce the number of reported deaths and injuries which are occurring within the industry.

Lifeboat and davit manufacturers have also been doing their bit by ramping up training and service company certifications to meet the growing maintenance and servicing needs of the industry. “But, sadly, this has come about at the expense of quality of service, and professionalism,” claims Technofibre. “In the course of these commendable efforts within the industry as a whole, a new, unforeseen element of danger has arisen in the form of a rise in the number of substandard service providers.”

The company says: “A vast majority of these companies are relatively new ‘service’ companies which took advantage of the legislation under MSC 1206 rev1 guidelines to literally ‘collect’ OEM service authorisations and approvals without having the requisite technical expertise, experience and /or any form of internal training and quality control systems in place.”

However, Paul Watkins of Survival Craft, points out: “We have been inspecting, repairing, maintaining and testing lifeboats since 1991, so have plenty of direct industry experience to draw on. Quite rightly, there are some strictly enforced requirements; you must be able prove a minimum industry relevant experience of two years, to have a fully implemented ISO 9000 Part 1 quality management system, to be certified and trained and you need to buy critical path item spare parts from the OEMs only. All these requirements are laid out in the two maritime safety circulars MSC.1/Circ.1206 Rev 1 and MSC.1/Circ. 1277. I suppose that it could be argued that perhaps two years is insufficient and perhaps it would be better with five years but that is what, after much gnashing of teeth at the IMO, was ultimately decided upon and there are a lot of very smart people at the IMO.”

This is something that David Torres of Umoe Schat-Harding Services agrees with, saying: “The majority of these ‘experts’ started to service customers' equipment from or after 2008, so you cannot say that in a period of three years that you are an expert, especially if you take into consideration where some of these so-called experts are located. For example, servicing lifeboats for a year in Rotterdam, one of the biggest and busiest ports in the world, is totally different from doing the same in Romania - it is a totally different ball game. Experience is built up by actually doing the job and the customer is being exposed to and funding these guys’ experience build-up.”

 “Perhaps, sometime in the future, the requirements may need to be enhanced slightly but that is something for the IMO to decide,” says Watkins.

Disaster waiting

Just recently, in Malaysia, an OEM accredited and authorised lifeboat service company supposedly carried out a five yearly overhaul and inspection of two European manufactured lifeboats and davit systems, as prescribed by the IMO MSC 1206 Rev 1 guidelines.

Within about one month after this ‘inspection’ and ‘overhaul’ was undertaken, Technofibre Malaysia was urgently requested to attend the vessel upon its return to its home port. This was in order to carry out a damage repair survey on one of the lifeboats which had been recently ‘surveyed’ by the ‘authorised’ Malaysian company.

Technofibre  found extensive damage to the lifeboat. Due to the massive structural damage to the keel the lifeboat was deemed to be ‘beyond economical repair’ and was therefore sent to be scrapped. “This is a prime example of the slipshod and unprofessional works that still seem to prevail within the lifeboat servicing industry despite all the current measures and legislation put into place by the IMO,” states the company. “Bona fide service companies, owners, class and manufacturers need to do far more in weeding out these so-called service providers. And more thought needs to be given to raising the entry requirements and standards for companies wishing to engage in these types of activities, perhaps along the lines of the current MCA doctrines for ILSTOs,” it concludes.

Evacuation

A new high capacity evacuation system for ship-shaped offshore installations has been developed by Viking Life-Saving Equipment. The new Venoc system is an active chute and liferaft which dispenses with bowsing lines and uses a stabiliser weight, suspended from the bottom of the chute instead. The result is that the chute itself is neutral, even when the vessel is in extreme trim and list conditions. The solution has already undergone full heavy sea weather trials in the North Sea.

On launch, the system uses an electrical winch to lower the chute, a buoyancy device and a deflated self-righting liferaft in a speed controlled manner. On contact with the water, the liferaft inflates automatically, negating the need for any member of personnel to enter the equipment before it is fully functional.

Viking claims 140 people could be evacuated from a ship within 10 minutes, and 420 persons could be evacuated over a 30 minute period, in line with SOLAS requirements set by IMO. Sea trials that will lead to certification by class are progressing towards an expected commercial launch soon.