Liferaft News

Danish maritime safety solutions company Viking Life-Saving Equipment has acquired rights to manufacture and supply Undertun marine evacuation systems (MES).The Viking acquisition has been agreed with Sverre Undertun, whose Norway-based company offers solutions which include its well-known Undertun ship gangways.The solution is suitable for the small ferry market due to its easy installation and use.Catering for up to 150 persons, Undertun MES are especially convenient when installation heights and crew numbers are low…

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has issued a safety bulletin following the engine room flooding and foundering of the stern trawler Piedras (FD 528) which led to the failure of a liferaft to inflate. A second liferaft was successfully launched, and the crew were rescued.Both liferafts exhibited deficiencies that raised servicing and certification concerns and are likely to have contributed to the failure, says MAIB. The port liferaft was never recovered, but inspection of the starboard liferaft found that it had not been correctly serviced since manufacture in March 2007…

Vestdavit has developed an innovative heavy-duty davit for larger offshore wind workboats to be delivered for a green-fueled service operation vessel (SOV) newbuild as part of a multiple davit contract with Esvagt.Danish shipowner Esvagt earlier this year announced an order at Turkey’s Cemre Shipyard for an SOV to operate on green fuels under a joint newbuild project with compatriot offshore wind operator Ørsted.Powered by batteries and dual-fuel engines, the 93-meter-long vessel will be capable of sailing on renewable e-methanol produced from wind energy and biogenic carbon…

Survival technology company Survitec has unveiled a new Marine Evacuation System (MES) designed for small to medium size passenger vessels. Targeted at vessels with passenger capacities ranging from 300 to 1,500 persons, such as ferries and expedition cruise ships, the new MES solution will be officially introduced to ship operators during the SMM Trade Fair before being rolled out for full market availability from early 2023.The product is being launched with an extended service MES option of up to 30 months…

U.K.-based safety and survival solutions provider Survitec said it has completed its acquisition of Blue Anchor Fire & Safety, a Scottish provider of survival solutions to the fisheries, maritime and offshore energy industries.The investment, part of Survitec’s expansion strategy, follows the acquisition in May of Norway’s Hansen Protection, a provider of personal protective equipment.Baba Devani, Chief Executive Officer, Marine, Survitec, said, “We are delighted to announce this acquisition…

Safety of workers,structures, equipment and the environment are paramount in any offshore energy project. In the March/April print edition, Offshore Engineer took a look inside some notable newcomers.Wearable tech to boost drill floor safetyHaloGuard – Credit: TransoceanOffshore drilling contractor Transocean has recently deployed what it said was the offshore drilling industry’s first safety system that integrates a wearable locating device with drill floor equipment and machine stoppage controls.The system…

Norway-based Henriksen Hooks said its new Liferaft Release Hook into full production following completion of a prolonged testing program.Now available globally, the new crane hook has been especially developed for launching inflated liferafts. It is permanently attached to the fall wire of a crane and clips into a steel lifting ring on the liferaft. It holds the liferaft safely while it is being hoisted out and lowered and releases automatically when the raft reaches the water and the load has come off the hook."First shown in 2017…

A third crewman from a cargo ship that capsized this week off the coast of Japan with more than 40 crew and some 6,000 cattle on board was found alive on Friday after he was spotted by a search plane, Japan's coastguard said.The man, 30-year-old Filipino Jay-nel Rosals, was found on a liferaft waving for help 2 km (1.2 miles) off Kodakarajima, a small island in Japan's southern Kagoshima prefecture, the coastguard said.He was conscious and was able to walk when the coast guard rescued him. Rescuers also found an overturned orange lifeboat floating at sea some 4 km off Kodakarajima, but no one was found on that boat.Rosals was only the third crew member to be found so far from the Gulf Livestock 1, which capsized in the East China Sea on Wednesday and is believed to have sunk.

The Coast Guard continues to respond to an incident aboard the commercial fishing vessel Miss Emma off Oahu, Wednesday.“We’re pleased there was no loss of life in this case, and there are no current reports of pollution,” said Lt. j.g. Seth Gross, a command duty officer for Coast Guard Sector Honolulu. “We will conduct another overflight of the area today, and Coast Guard personnel are investigating the cause of the fire."The vessel caught fire Tuesday afternoon about 8 miles south of Sand Island prompting a search and rescue response.

Two fishermen whose boat caught fire off the coast of Land’s End, UK, successfully evacuated into a Survitec liferaft and from there were taken ashore by Falmouth Coastguard. The pair activated the Survitec Seasava liferaft and abandoned Ocean Harvest, when it caught fire.The coastguard received emergency calls at around 15.25 BST, and two lifeboats, one from Penleee and one from Sennen, were dispatched alongside a rescue helicopter, but not before the fire completely took hold and engulfed the fishing vessel.

Captain Pat Folan outlines the way forward, especially for the smaller towboat firms. It’s not rocket science, but it does involve common sense. July 20, 2018 came and went, and we are all still here – mostly. The reality of Sub M has begun to sink in and for some it signals the end of a business and career. The AWO RCP members, oil movers and early adopters are going to make it. But for some of the ‘Mom & Pops,’ this is looking like a bridge too far.And some of this group are the ones that needed to be weeded out.

The Danish Maritime Authority (DMA) has officially approved the VIKING LifeCraft Survival Craft as a Novel Life-Saving Appliance, meeting the requirements for replacing conventional lifeboats on passenger ships and advancing progress toward greater safety in large-scale ship evacuation emergencies.Following successful heavy weather trials in November last year, the Survival Craft component of VIKING Life-Saving Equipment’s unique hybrid lifeboat/liferaft solution, the VIKING LifeCraft System…

The Inflatable Safety & Survival Equipment Technical Association (ISSETA) has elected the Danish self-proclaimed “liferaft man”, Erik Søndergaard, Secretary.Søndergaard has held various leading management positions for both Survitec and VIKING Life-Saving Equipment and comes with extensive knowledge about the maritime industry. He retired a few years ago and looks forward to again being a part of the industry he loves so much.Since 2000, Ian Brindle has served as Secretary of ISSETA.

Incat delivered its latest large fast ferry, a 110-meter catamaran for Virtu Ferries of Malta dubbed Saint John Paul II.Saint John Paul II is the 44th large commercial fast ferry delivered by Incat and the sixth in excess of 5,500gt in the past decade; a decade also shared with 19 other Incat newbuilds of smaller passenger ferries and support vessels.“Using the latest computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and hydrodynamic free-running model test techniques, the well proven Incat Wave Piercing Catamaran hullform has been further developed for Mediterranean winter conditions…

Interferry, the trade association representing the worldwide ferry industry, has announced that the new chairman of its board of directors is John Steen-Mikkelsen, CEO of Danish ferry operator Danske Faerger.Steen-Mikkelsen was elected together with three new board members at the annual general meeting held last week in Cancun, Mexico, during the association’s 43rd annual conference.The Interferry board is drawn from all types of large and small ferry operations - including ro-pax, ro-ro, cruise ferries, fast ferries and passenger-only ferries - as well as industry suppliers.

U.K.-based offshore drilling company Stena Drilling has placed a significant part of its safety equipment and servicing management under a VIKING Offshore Safety Agreement.In early 2018, an extensive review done by VIKING Life-Saving Equipment for its long-time customer revealed the potential for major cost and administration savings in placing much of the company’s safety equipment sourcing and administration under a VIKING Offshore Safety Agreement (OSA), Stena Drilling welcomed the input and signed up.

Safety solutions provider Survitec is returning to Seawork International in Southampton from July 3-5, a year after winning the Spirit of Innovation award at last year’s event. The focus of Survitec’s stand this year will be SOLAS 360; a brand-new concept aimed at improving overall safety levels through offering the products and services required in a holistic and consistent manner, available through one supplier. SOLAS 360 includes lifeboats, liferafts, personal lifesaving appliances…

Maritime safety equipment and servicing provider VIKING Life-Saving Equipment is kicking off its presence at Sea Japan 2018 (April 11-13) with a boosted liferaft offering. On one hand is the company’s ability to supply VIKING S30 extended service interval SOLAS liferafts; on the other is a recent Japanese Government approval for VIKING to supply liferafts to Japanese flagged vessels and carry out final liferaft assembly in Japan. This is the first such approval awarded to a non-Japanese manufacturer…

United States and Australian aircraft joined the search for passengers of a missing ferry off Kiribati on Tuesday, as rescuers scoured the central Pacific Ocean for a liferaft believed to be carrying survivors. Eight people rescued from an drifting dinghy on the weekend said the ferry broke up soon after setting out on Jan. 18 and that they had seen other passengers scramble aboard a liferaft. "There is a definitely a possibility that the people in the liferaft are alive given that only a short while ago we found people in an open dinghy alive…

Over the course of a six-week period during the last quarter of 2017, three German containerships docked at Gibdock’s Gibraltar yard for repair work, highlighting the yard’s success in attracting German ship owners. The containership visits are part of an encouraging general upturn in activity at the Gibraltar yard in recent weeks, Gibdock said. “Business has been picking up and container vessel owners and operators have been attracted to the yard by our location, close to key trade lanes…

International safety expert Salvare has secured a number of orders for its Seapod and Mini-Pod lifesaving systems through its U.K. sales agent SeaSafe over the last year. The latest contract for five units went to a U.K. west coast fleet operator, which wants to kit out all of its vessels to help ensure its crews stay safe at sea. Jeremy Dale, managing director, SeaSafe, said, “Since we took on the distribution of Salvare’s Seapod and Mini-pod, units have been sold worldwide from everywhere in between America to Germany. He added that the systems’ popularity speaks for itself.

A new generation fast ferry has left Tasmania on her delivery voyage to Denmark via the Panama Canal. The Express 3 is a 109 meter long high speed vehicle/passenger ferry from Australian shipbuilder Incat Tasmania for Danish operator Molslinjen, becoming the fourth Hobart-built catamaran in the company’s current fleet. An entirely new generation fast ferry, the 109 meter wave piercing catamaran Express 3 has evolved from Incat’s well proven 112 meter catamaran range which first entered commercial service in mid-2007. Incat’s Tim Burnell commented, “The design brief was simple.

Interferry has unveiled a strategic plan promising to put safety issues at the heart of its work as the voice of the worldwide ferry industry. The pledge came at the global trade association’s 41st annual conference in Manila – a venue chosen to spotlight the challenges of domestic ferry safety in developing nations. According to Interferry, the plan signals its overriding ambition to help lift ferry safety in all parts of the world to the very high standard already in place in North America and Europe, where casualties in recent decades have been extremely rare.