MSC 1206

The IMO and its sub committees have instructed the industry to share its opinions with the Deck Equipment sub committee, whom will report back on its findings. It is very important that you share your thoughts on the matter with the sub-committee, via your flag administration, classification society or other industry representatives. The MSC1206 document, as currently written serves to limit those able to work on your equipment to only the OEM service personnel or those approved by them. This will severely limit your choice of service provider and is considered by many to be a retrograde step for the entire maritime community and by some as possibly anti-competitive, monopolistic and cartel like.

The administrators of this site would urge you to communicate with your relevant National Administrations, industry associations and Classification Societies and register your thoughts on the matter in the strongest possible terms.

As part of the site you are invited to download various resources, which can be found under the links page. The administrator would particularly urge you to study the report prepared by Trevor W Ross (1.4MB .pdf) - an extremely comprehensive document, with in depth analysis of lifeboat accidents. Within this report are conclusions which go a long way to dispelling the commonly thought reasons for accidents with lifeboats and provides proof that servicing or maintenance by OEM will not cure the industry of accidents with lifeboats.

Reports:
MSC1206 Document
Trevor W Ross Report
MCA Project 555 Report
MSN1803 Document (UK MCA process for approval of competent, independent lifeboat servicing and testing organisations – ILSTO)

Lifeboat Accident Reports:
Lack of familiarity
Other accidents
Flag notices
Reports / studies

Finally we would also draw your attention to the forum portion of the site. Please use the forum to share your thoughts, comments, suggestions, ideas and any other relevant information you have with the world wide maritime community.