Last week’s IMO sub-committee on ship design and equipment, DE 55, held at the International Maritime Organization’s Headquarters in London appears to have seen so uncharateristic forward motion on the issue of lifboat hooks, according o a report from BIMCO.
DE deals with life saving appliances, Polar Code, noise onboard ships, coating and corrosion protection, steel structures and pollution prevention. DE will be reporting to the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) and the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC).
Says the BIMCO report regarding efforts to make lifeboats safer for seafarers: “At MSC 88 held in November 2010, BIMCO, amongst all other relevant shipping industry organisations, expressed severe concern about limiting the design review assessment of lifeboat release mechanisms only to focus on wear rates, as other factors contributing to release mechanism failures might not be sufficiently considered. The concern expressed by industry led IMO to reconvene an inter-sessional working group that met prior to DE 55. Continue reading »
Protected by a lack of data on lifeboat deaths and injuries the majority of flag states are dragging their collective feet on improving the chances of seafarers surviving lifeboat drills. BIMCO is recommending a go-it-alone strategy among its members to rig fall protection devices.