Lifesaving Equipment News

A maritime industry safety group is calling for the total reinvention of lifeboats on board cargo vessels amid frequent injuries among seafarers.“Lifeboats are an essential part of crew safety onboard every vessel, but seafarers are way too often getting injured when launching the lifeboat,” the Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) said. “Over the years, many seafarers have been injured – some of them fatally – while launching the lifeboat during evacuations or evacuation drills.

Survitec has introduced a new, formalized pre-inspection solution as part of its dry dock safety service to help ship owners and managers optimize and expedite dry docking schedules, a pre-inspection service designed to support the servicing and inspection of all onboard safety and lifesaving equipment.As part of the service, Survitec teams review and set out a schedule of works in line with regulatory requirements. This includes collating and reviewing the necessary safety certificates and documentation and liaising with the shipyard and suppliers to expedite parts…

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it is responding to a drillship that reportedly sustained damage as Hurricane Ida ripped through the Gulf of Mexico and into Louisiana as a Category 4 storm.The agency said it was notified during the storm that the ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Globetrotter II had been damaged, and that it had been in touch with both the vessel's master and owner Noble Corporation since Sunday to gauge the extent of any damage and to ensure readiness of onboard lifesaving equipment.The Liberian-flagged drillship and its 100-plus crew are currently located 80 nautical miles south, southeast of Grand Isle, La. The vessel's U.S. licensed master has maintained that the drillship was not in distress and is not actively taking on water, according to the Coast Guard.

A containership rescued 11 migrants from a capsized boat approximately 20 nautical miles northwest of Mona Island, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The survivors are 10 adult men and a male minor, who were rescued by the 984-foot Panamanian flagged MSC Gisselle after their inflatable boat took on water and capsized in the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.The box ship's crew informed watchstanders at U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan at 8:20 p.m. Saturday that the vessel was on scene near the capsized boat and people in the water.The Coast Guard diverted a San Juan-stationed 154-foot fast response cutter Donald Horsley and a HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft to the scene.

Quickly growing turbine numbers, installed in deeper waters offshore and farther out to sea are needed to serve accelerating demand for wind energy, but safety issues for such structures go beyond the feats of civil engineering making them possible.Supervised remotely, all of these offshore assets nonetheless need periodic physical inspection and maintenance, with the engineers landing on remote platforms either from helicopters or via gangways connecting to vessels in motion.

Dutch maritime equipment manufacturer Huisman said it has been awarded a contract by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd for the delivery of a 250mt knuckle boom crane and a 500mt towing winch, to be installed on the upgraded 14,000kW large cruise rescue vessel for Nanhai Rescue Bureau, part of the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China.The 250mt knuckle boom crane will be outfitted with an active heave compensation system, allowing the crane to operate at water depths of up to 3,000 meters.

Decades of innovation has earned Wing Inflatables its place among top manufacturers of sponsons, tubes, collars and rubber craft. While the company maintains this reputation today, the Wing Group has also grown beyond it after an ownership switch set in motion a number of major changes that have helped to both expand the company and alter its DNA.In past decades, under the leadership of founder and now-former owner Bill Wing, the California company and its polyurethane rafts and air-holding tubes, and later air/foam hybrid collar, had revolutionized the rigid inflatable industry.

With the announcements that New York Waterway, a ferry operator running 32 boats around New York and New Jersey waters, had been largely shut down by the U.S. Coast Guard just prior to Thanksgiving, 2019, the reactions ranged from surprise to outright shock. There was also a great deal of grumbling, as commuters, the major customer group, endured delays on New York Waterway’s extensive network across the Hudson River, bringing New Jersey commuters into New York’s business districts.So, what happened?

The majority of NY Waterway ferries taken out of service for safety violations last month have returned to regular operations, the U.S. Coast Guard said.On November 24, the Coast Guard revealed that Sector New York marine inspectors determined that 23 of NY Waterway's 32 ferries had damage or discrepancies significant enough to warrant a suspension of service. Findings included inoperable fixed fire extinguishing systems and bilge alarms; expired lifesaving equipment; and structural damage affecting watertight integrity.As of December 12…

British manufacturer of  marine safety and survival equipments Survitec has received DNV GL Z-17 certification as a class-approved service provider for all DNV-GL classed vessels operating various brands of safety and survival equipment, including lifeboats, liferafts, marine evacuation systems (MES) and fire-fighting equipment and breathing apparatus.“The certification means that all Survitec sites carrying out work on lifeboats, fire-fighting equipment, SCBA and LSA to ships and mobile offshore units (MOU) to SOLAS standards are included in the Z-17 approval,” said Mats Hestmann, Group Quality, Health and Safety Manager, Survitec.“Survitec is also approved to carry out class-approved annual inspections services…

The near-shore and inland workboat fleet is at the leading edge for autonomous vessel developmentWhile the advent of autonomous workboats are not exactly mainstream, you better believe that in the not-too-distant future they will be a reality on waterways in and around the U.S. Today there remain more questions than answers, particularly on the legal, logistics and insurance side of the coin. But the technology is evolving at record pace, providing many in the industry with mixed emotions. Excitement. Controversy. Curiosity. Skepticism. These are just a few of thoughts, and emotions that arise to any mention of the topic of autonomous vessels.It’s happening now.

The captain of a Russian oil tanker is forced to pay £25,761.99 (more than $34,300) in the U.K. for breaching the International Safety Management (ISM) Code in a prosecution brought by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA).Vitaliy Trofimov, Captain of the Russian registered 85-meter-long tanker Tecoil Polaris, pleaded guilty at Hull Magistrates Court on Thursday to a number of safety failures which placed the vessel – to be loaded with 1,665 metric tons of lubrication oil – at risk. He was fined £1,400 and ordered to pay £24,361.99 in costs.The vessel arrived at Humber Port on the evening of Tuesday, June 5, 2018 having come from Hamina, Finland.

The first vessel in the series will be the 20 meter RALamander 2000, featuring FiFi1 capability, pumping capacity of 2400 m3/hour and with optional foam capabilities. Vancouver based naval architects and marine engineers Robert Allan Ltd., and international marine technology specialist Kongsberg Maritime are collaborating on the development of a radically new remotely-operated fireboat that will allow first responders to attack dangerous port fires more aggressively and safer than ever before. Like other autonomous efforts underway on the waterfront, this concept tackles and solves the so-called “3D’s” – dull, dirty and dangerous – of workboat drudgery.

It’s a major understatement to say that Subchapter M is top of mind for workboat operators. While most would agree that the new regulations will raise the level of safety and operational sophistication, most would also likely agree that with change comes uncertainty, cost and effort. Thus it was no surprise that at October’s national meeting of the American Waterways Operators, discussions were dominated by Subchapter M and its implications for operators. As a former faculty member at a large research university and someone very focused on training in the maritime industry…

Kongsberg, Robert Allan drive the future of marine fighting. The first vessel in the series will be the 20 meter RALamander 2000, featuring FiFi1 capability, pumping capacity of 2400 m3/hour and with optional foam capabilities. Vancouver based naval architects and marine engineers Robert Allan Ltd., and international marine technology specialist Kongsberg Maritime are collaborating on the development of a radically new remotely-operated fireboat that will allow first responders to attack dangerous port fires more aggressively and safer than ever before. Like other autonomous efforts underway on the waterfront, this concept tackles and solves the so-called “3D’s” – dull, dirty and dangerous – of workboat drudgery.

Howard Fireman, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, joined the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) in 2013. Fireman is responsible for leveraging the latest advancements in technology to drive the development of innovative products and services that promote safety and improve the delivery of class services in the marine and offshore industries. Since joining ABS, Fireman has also served as President of the ABS Nautical Systems Fleet Management Software product line where he has overseen significant advancements in the software and achieved growth in every sector.

Survitec Group has announced a five-year contract award with Total E&P UK Ltd for the provision of lifesaving equipment maintenance services.    The contract, which adds to an existing contract for lifeboat maintenance services, covers the offshore Alwyn/Dunbar and Elgin/Franklin fields and sees Survitec providing a full range of life saving apparatus, including new lifejackets, immersion suits and liferafts. As part of the agreement, the areas of coverage will be fully supported with associated maintenance routines as part of the Survitec after-sales care package.

ABS mobile application is purpose-built for the workboat, inland sectors. ABS Nautical Systems, the ABS enterprise fleet management software suite, has launched a new mobile application, NS Workboat. The latest in a line of new tools that ABS has developed to help workboat operators gain compliance with the pending Subchapter M regulations, the ‘app’, which leverages the Nautical Systems enterprise software, is a mobile solution that is purpose-built for the workboat and inland-shipping sectors, where ease of use is of paramount importance.

Styrk Bekkenes, President of Palfinger Marine, has stepped down from his position. “With the strengths that lie within the company, both in terms of personnel and products, Palfinger Marine is very well positioned to be the preferred supplier of cranes, lifesaving equipment and winches for vessels and installations worldwide. I feel that the time is right for me to step down and seek new challenges,” said Bekkenes. Coming from the role of CEO of Harding Safety, Styrk has been the President of Palfinger Marine since January of this year.

The PALFINGER Group closed the acquisition of 100 percent of the shares in Herkules Harding Holding AS, i.e. the globally operating Harding Group, supplier of lifesaving equipment and lifecycle services for maritime installations and ships. The PALFINGER Group’s new member will be reported on as a fully consolidated company starting from the second quarter of 2016. As a consequence of the acquisition – the largest in the history of the PALFINGER Group – PALFINGER expands its marine business by adding new products and a global service network.

Palfinger Marine said its new generation FRSQ 630 fast rescue boat offers optimal working conditions in rough sea conditions – at competitive pricing. In 2016, Harding Safety and Palfinger Marine merged into one company. Now the first product combining the lifesaving systems expertise of former Harding and the boat expertise of Palfinger Marine's professional boats division is introduced to the market: The new generation FRSQ 630 fast rescue boat. “FRSQ 630 features the best of both our worlds.

A Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) historian has recently uncovered information that sheds new light on the loss of the World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA 35). In the final days of the war, Indianapolis completed a top secret mission to deliver components of the atomic bomb used in Hiroshima to U.S. forces in theater. After dropping those components off at Tinian in the Marianas Islands, Indianapolis headed to Leyte, an island in the Philippines, when it was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine just after midnight July 30, 1945.

PALFINGER MARINE and Harding Safety recently signed a contract to provide lifesaving equipment and cranes for two fishing vessels being built in Tersan Shipyard. Each vessel will be equipped with two PALFINGER MARINE knuckle boom cranes, one A-frame fast rescue boat davit, and one fast rescue boat. Harding Safety, which was acquired by PALFINGER in June of this year, will be supplying the fast rescue boats. This contract represents the first results of the  Joining Forces strategy. The cranes were sold by Marsis, PALFINGER MARINE’s long-time partner in Turkey: “Tersan Shipyard has been a long-time customer for our cranes and davits.