Over the past 10 years the maritime industry has observed an unacceptably high number of accidents with lifeboats in which crew were injured, sometimes fatally, whilst participating in lifeboat drills and/or inspections. The IMO has been working to introduce measures to reduce the likelihood and severity of such incidents, and the main publications seeking to achieve this are MSC.1/Circ.1206/Rev.1 and MSC.1/Circ.1277, upon which this skill is based. It has been observed that most accidents fall under the following categories:
o Failure of on-load release mechanism; o Inadvertent operation of on-load release mechanism; o Inadequate maintenance of lifeboats, davits and launching equipment; o Communication failures; o Lack of familiarity with lifeboats, davits, equipment and associated controls; o Unsafe practices during lifeboat drills and inspections; and o Design faults other than on-load release mechanisms.
A thorough understanding concerning the launching and service requirements is a must for anyone who is the responsible for the upkeep of such life saving appliances on board.
To perform well in this quiz, you are advised to read Marine Guidance Note (MGN) available 560 from the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency website. This is in addition to MSC.1/Circ 1206/Rev.1 and MSC.1/Circ 1277. These IMO circulars can be downloaded by performing a simple Google search.
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