|
|
|---|
|
|
|
RESCUE DAVITS MAIN PAGE
|
 |
 |
Fast Rescue Boats - SOLAS Regulations III/24-1.3
The Panel of Experts decided that all ro-ro passenger ships shall be equipped
with a fast rescue boat in 1998. Normal passenger ships need not be equipped
with a fast rescue boat.
'Slow' rescue boats on normal passenger ships need not be replaced.
The Panel of Experts gave no reasons from risk and safety aspect (FSA) why a
ro-ro passenger ship, but not a normal passenger ship, must have a fast rescue
boat?
The only difference between a 'slow' and fast rescue boat is that the latter can
do 20 knots during 4 hours using a petrol engine and can capsize in heavy
weather and therefore need two specially trained crews aboard the mother ship.
A fast rescue boat is also intended to be launched and retrieved under severe
adverse weather, and apparently requires a special launching appliance.
A 'slow' diesel driven rescue boat is often also a lifeboat. A fast rescue boat
cannot be regarded as a lifeboat. As you lose LSA capacity by replacing a 'slow'
rescue boat by a fast one, the difference shall be made up by liferafts.
According res. A.656(16) a fast rescue boat is of value in certain circumstances
for the rescue, in particular, of persons involved in offshore operations.
Offshore installations are often immobile or anchored so a fast rescue boat
makes sense to pick up someone who has fallen into the water as you cannot move
the offshore unit.
The IMO decided 1995 after the 'Estonia' accident that all RoRo- passenger ferries (but no other ships) should have a fast rescue boat from 1 June 2000, which you should be able to launch and recover in severe weather, defined as Beaufort 6 with 3 meters waves (in spite of the fact that the 'Estonia' accident took place in Beaufort 7 with 4,3 meters waves).
The rescue boat shall have two specially trained crews on board, which shall
demonstrate that they can tip the capsized rescue boat upright in severe
weather, etc. The rescue boat shall be able to rescue one person in the water.
When the rules were decided all ferries had rescue boats, some even had fast
rescue boats.
A simple analysis shows that all ferries can save persons in the water in normal
circumstances. The rescue boat is one solution, but it is only adapted to rescue
one person. By launching a big lifeboat you can evidently pick up many more
persons in the water.
The boats can evidently be launched in severe weather - Beaufort 6, 3 meters
waves - but the problem is to recover the boats again. It is not easy to recover
the lifeboats in severe weather - they were not designed for that. And can you
recover a fast rescue boat?
The fast rescue boats were developed for anchored offshore installations and
similar. If somebody fell into the water, you launched the fast rescue boat and
simply picked up the person. Then - in any weather - you returned to the
anchored platform below the crane - and as the platform was not rolling - you
could be recovered, even if the sea was severe. You just waited for the right
moment to hook on the fast rescue boat - and you were hoisted aboard again.
This is not possible on a ferry (or any other ship) in severe weather. Then the
ship is rolling so much that you cannot hook on to the crane. And if you can
hook on to the crane, the probability is 100% that the rescue boat is smashed
against the side of the rolling ferry and that one rescued person and five crew
members fall into the sea! The only location where you might be able to launch
and recover a fast rescue boat in severe weather (Beaufort 6, 3 meters waves) is
at the stern of a ferry with a very
special davit. 
All the ferries of the world shall according the IMO have a fast rescue boat
today. The cost of a new, fast rescue boat including a special crane is about
EUR 70.000,- (standard system, exlc. installation) to train two crews and
two reserve crews.
That such a rescue boat could not have saved any person at the 'Estonia'
accident is another matter. The boat could neither be launched nor recovered.
Furthermore it seems that the rule is not applied 100%. All ferries evidently
have fast rescue boats but they are located in the side of the ferry and cannot
be launched in severe weather - thus exemptions are given (severe weather
is so rare that there is no need to apply the requirement that the fast rescue
boat shall be able to be launched and recovered in severe weather, etc.).
| For more details ask |  |
For any comments please use:
Fastrescueboatdavit@besco.de|
NOTE: All data's only for informations. Modification of design to be reserved. All rights are reserved in the event of the grant of an patent or the registration of a utility model or design. (c) by BESCO B. Schulz, Cuxhaven/Germany Comments:
webmaster@besco.de |