Lifeboats News

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has selected SKYDEX Technologies to provide their shock mitigating kneeling decks to protect crews aboard their D Class Lifeboats.The D Class lifeboat is the busiest in the RNLI's fleet. However, due to its compact size and difficult operating environment, the crews aboard these craft are exposed to impacts and whole-body vibration, causing discomfort and reducing performance. In response, the RNLI launched an initiative to improve craft equipment to better protect their crew.Working with the RNLI…

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment, said Wednesday it was launching an innovative range of lifeboats and davits which set new standards for compact and lightweight lifeboat-based evacuation solutions. "By challenging traditional lifeboat design, the 40- and 52-person VIKING Norsafe Totally Enclosed Lifeboats (TELB) respond to a rising tide of industry demand for space- and weight-saving boats for typical crew capacities," VIKING Life-Saving Equipment said."Major shipbuilding clients…

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…

Survitec said its new Marine Evacuation System (MES) Life Ark -- a helical slide-based MES for small to medium-sized passenger vessels -- has received full-type approval from Bureau Veritas.Life Ark is designed for vessels with a freeboard height of up to 23m and passenger capacities ranging from 300 to 1,500. Using the fully enclosed, dry-shod helical (spiral) slide design inherent to Survitec’s popular Marin Ark 2 MES and Seahaven AES, Life Ark ensures a safe, rapid and comfortable descent for people of all ages and abilities.

Survitec’s Seahaven, said to be the world’s largest inflatable lifeboat, is now ready to be installed on cruise vessels, having received full type approval certification from classification society Lloyd’s Register.A Certificate of Type Approval was presented by Lloyd's Register Chief Operations Officer Mark Darley to Mark Cotton, Survitec Sales Director, during the SMM trade fair, which is taking place this week, in Hamburg, Germany.Certification follows the successful completion of heavy weather sea trials (HWST) in December…

A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into a fatal lifeboat drill accident has resulted in 10 safety and eight administrative recommendations, the agency announced.In July 2019, two people were killed and another was injured while testing lifeboats at Shell's Auger tension leg platform (TLP) in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico, about 210 miles southwest of New Orleans. The incident occurred during a routine abandon ship drill and involved the inadvertent release of the lifeboat as…

Offshore safety equipment provider VIKING has said it has won a contract with FPSO supplier BW Offshore to deliver has selected VIKING Norsafe free-fall lifeboats, daughter craft, and davits for a large FPSO project which will operate off northern Australia.While VIKING did not share the exact name of the FPSO project, this is most likely the Barossa FPSO BW Offshore is building for deployment at Santos' Barossa project.The safety equipment provider said that the primary means of evacuation from the FPSO will be three VIKING Norsafe GES-50 Mk.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has selected SHOXS suspension systems to refit and upgrade the charity’s Severn class lifeboats.Introduced to the RNLI in 1995, the 17-meter Severn class lifeboats are the largest lifeboats in the RNLI fleet and are designed to handle the toughest weather. The RNLI has chosen SHOXS 4800 variant seats for the coxswain, helm, mechanic, navigators, doctor and crew and plans to refit up to 44 Severn class lifeboats with SHOXS seating.“The volunteer crews of the RNLI head out when sea conditions are at their worst.

UK’s new polar research ship being built at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead RRS Sir David Attenborough has achieved another important milestone with the commissioning and testing of the ship’s lifeboats and lifeboat davits.The lifeboats, each capable of carrying 90 people, are now in position on both sides of the vessel, along with the operational davits that allow for the safe deployment and recovery of the boats.RRS Sir David Attenborough is the first International Maritime Organisation’s Polar Code-compliant ship to have been built in the UK. These regulations extend to the ship’s lifeboats and davits, all of which are capable of operating at the Polar Service Temperature of -35ᵒC.British Antarctic Survey and Norsafe worked closely to develop the equipment…

All American Marine, Inc. (AAM) has been named the West Coast shipyard by Birdon America, Inc., for Phase I of a contract to perform a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) on a number of United States Coast Guard’s (USCG) fleet of Motor Life Boats (MLB).AAM is currently working on two MLBs at its shop, with a plan to ramp up to eight MLB vessels each year during Phase II. Birdon America was awarded the prime contract to perform Service Life Extension work on all MLBs in the U.S. Coast Guard’s fleet.The current in-service MLBs were designed by the USCG and built from 1997 to 2003.

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.

Two safety equipment specialists - Survitec and Marine Rescue Technologies (MRT) - have created a lifejacket that accommodates and complements a range of MRT personal locator beacons (PLB) and takes advantage of the two companies’ knowledge in their respective fields.Both companies have a long and respected history – MRT has 40 years’ experience in designing man overboard safety systems.While Survitec, with its 160-year heritage and complete safety and survival portfolio – has a proven track record of working in collaboration with high profile industry leaders to develop and deliver bespoke safety innovations.The lifejacket – the Seacrewsader…

Australian-based Birdon Group, headquartered in Port Macquarie, has announced that its US subsidiary has been awarded two new contracts worth up to US$390m (AU$575m). In one contract, valued at up to USD 191m, Birdon America has been appointed to carry out an upgrade of the US Coast Guard (USCG) fleet of 47-foot Motor Lifeboat (MLB) vessels.In the second contract, worth up to USD 199m, Birdon America has secured a five-year extension to its existing contract to supply Bridge Erection Boats (BEBs) to the US Army. Birdon won the fiercely-contested tender to supply the BEBs in 2014, beating a field of established global defence suppliers.When combined with Australian contracts secured in the past three months…

The latest lifeboat to join the fleet of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the main sea rescue service in the UK and Ireland, is the waterjet-propelled Shannon class, which the organization says is its most agile and maneuverable all-weather lifeboat yet to be deployed. Designed entirely in-house by RNLI engineers, cutting-edge technology has been used in this new boat to meet modern-day rescue service demands following the lead taken with the RNLI’s introduction of the Shannon’s sister lifeboat class…

Coming in the April 2019 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News we report on the latest lifeboat to join the fleet of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the main sea rescue service in the UK and Ireland, the waterjet-propelled Shannon class, RNLI says is its most agile and maneuverable all-weather lifeboat yet to be deployed.While the vessel and it's capabilities are amazing, we really like the new launch and recovery system. A special feature of the Shannon lifeboat…