Liferaft Service News

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…

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…

SOLAS regulation III/20.8 requires inflatable liferafts to be serviced at intervals not exceeding 12 months. It also requires the servicing to be carried out at an approved servicing station which is competent to service them, maintains proper servicing facilities and uses only properly trained personnel. IMO guidance on servicing stations is contained in resolution A.761(18) – Recommendation on Conditions for the Approval of Servicing Stations for Inflatable Liferafts. The IMO has recently issued an amendment to resolution A.761(18), published as resolution MSC.388(94), which introduces the following new requirement for inflatable liferaft…

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) appointed Romaine Romanet as new General Manager for Belgium. Ms. Romanet brings many years’ experience from a number of multinational businesses in the areas of operation, finance, business development, change project management and people development. Ms. Romanet was formerly part of the senior management team at CMA CGM Group with responsibility for the development and administrative control of European agencies. Prior to this, Ms. Romanet worked for 15 years with the SGS Group (testing, inspection and certification) as Country Chief Executive in the U.K.

With the earning of ABS global approval for its safety services and the opening of a Houston Training facility, Wilhelmsen Ships Services (WSS) passed two critical milestone’s in a quest to build and operate an efficient, technically superior maritime and offshore services juggernaut. More than a decade ago Wilhelmsen Ships Service planted the seeds for what today is growing one of the world’s premier providers of services to the maritime and offshore markets globally. The company celebrated two significant milestones in its quest…

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) has opened a new liferaft service station in Suez, Egypt, which will service vessels transiting the Suez Canal and Egypt’s main ports. Russell Dinwoodie; General Manager WSS Egypt said: “With over 17,000 vessel transits per year in the Suez Canal, this new Liferaft Service Station is an important addition to our global network. Its’ strategic location will benefit ship operators by allowing them to utilze our full range of liferaft services whilst waiting to transit the Canal…

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) is expanding and upgrading its service stations in Shanghai and Guangzhou in direct response to market demand for Fire, Rescue and Safety (FRS) services says Jason Chew, General Manager China. “As demand for professional Fire, Safety and Rescue services in China continues to grow at a fast pace, we are recruiting and training a team of qualified technicians to service our customers. In addition, we are expanding our capabilities across China to provide our solutions to local customers, as well as continuing to support international vessels”.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) annonced plans to expand in South America to serve the growing cruise and offshore sectors. Prior to this month’s Cruise Shipping Miami, Area Director Henrique Schlaepfer said: “South America continues to be an area of concentrated investment for WSS. Over the last year we have put in place a new management team with responsibility for almost 200 employees, operating in key positions in Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Argentina”. In sharp contrast to its presence within the region less than four years ago…

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) has reported  consistent growth and increased market awareness over the last few years for its world-leading portfolio of  Marine Products in New Zealand, according to Nigel Smith, WSS General Manager for New Zealand and Pacific Islands. Recently relocated from central city offices to a new warehouse complex, WSS New Zealand is now able to concentrate on delivering a stronger mix of marine products, as well as new initiatives such as the innovative LRE (Liferaft Exchange Program).

Liferaft Exchange concept continues to expand globally. Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s (WSS) market-leading global Liferaft Exchange Programme (LRE) is set to hit 15,000 exchanges since its launch just over two years ago and continues to expand, according to Dave Evans, WSS product marketing manager for liferafts. The LRE concept, which exchanges service-due liferafts and life-saving appliances for operational ones, allows vessel operators to take better control of costs and reduces…

Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s (WSS) liferaft rental concept, launched worldwide two years ago is thriving in the Eastern Mediterranean (including Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon) as ship owners and operators embrace the concept and the benefits of renting rather than buying liferafts. When the concept was introduced, WSS’s sales, customer service and supply teams found the Eastern Mediterranean market to be extremely positive and in the last two years, 122 local shipping companies have placed rented liferafts on more than 1 000 vessels. Nicos Shiakallis, WSS Area Director Eastern Mediterranean comments, “The growth in liferaft  rental is an example of the snowball effect.

In Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s continued expansion of its liferaft service station network, the company has opened a new liferaft service station in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. “With the Kaohsiung Service Station we will be able to exchange liferafts in all ports in Taiwan, which means we can serve our customers even better,” comments Harald Lundestad, General Manager for Wilhelmsen Ships Service in Taiwan. As with all the company’s global liferaft service stations Wilhelmsen Ships Service will be supplying its own Unitor branded liferaft range to customers…

Manufacturers’ approvals of a number of Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s liferaft stations have now taken the number of approved stations to 30. Since Wilhelmsen Ships Service launched its Liferaft Exchange Programme one year ago, the programme has made approximately 10,000 liferaft exchanges and continues to expand. The concept, which exchanges service-due liferafts and life-saving appliances for operational ones, takes better control of costs and reduces the chance of getting caught out by unforeseen service dates and costly weak links in the supply chain.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service has secured a five-year agreement with Delphin Kreuzfahrten GmbH to supply 16 liferafts to the MS Delphin cruise liner. The liferafts are being supplied to the Germany-based company as part of Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s Liferaft Exchange Programme (LRE). The LRE programme is a system of exchanging service-due liferafts on the dockside to avoid the delays of servicing. The LRE programme takes service-due liferafts off vessels and immediately replaces them with serviced ones. By avoiding a delay period where a vessel would have to wait for a liferaft to be serviced, the system both saves money and increases the operational efficiency of each single vessel. The system ensures that each vessel is always prepared for annual inspection and meets safety legislation.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service is pleased to announce that their Liferaft and Marin-Ark service station in Miami, Florida is now fully operational. It is a stand-alone station conveniently situated between the port of Miami and Port Everglades in South Florida, approximately 4 kilometers from the current Wilhelmsen Ships Service premises in Miami. The station is certified to service all Unitor branded rafts as well as Marin-Ark MES Systems, which are among the largest rafts in the world, with a life-saving capacity of 430 persons per evacuation system.