Lesson 5 · 14 min
Planning lifeboat service for a fleet
How to line up crew checks, drills, annual and five-yearly service and falls renewal with survey windows and port calls.
Start here
The 2-minute primer
New to this? These 6 cards explain the lesson in plain words. Go through them first and the lesson will make sense.
Primer done.
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1/6Picture this
The family calendar on the fridge
A busy family keeps one calendar for everything: the dentist every six months, the boiler service each year, school terms, football practice. Each job runs on its own clock.
A lifeboat has a calendar like that, and a fleet has one for every ship. Weekly checks, drills, yearly exams and five-yearly overhauls all need a slot.
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2/6The big idea
One calendar per ship, tied to one date
Start each ship’s plan from the anniversary date of its safety equipment certificate. The yearly lifeboat exam goes inside the survey window around it.
The five-yearly work and the wires that hold the boat, the falls, run on their own clocks from when they were last done. Then match each job to a port with the right firm.
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3/6Words you'll meet
Five words, in plain English
- Survey window
- the six months around the certificate’s anniversary date when the yearly survey happens.
- Falls
- the steel wire ropes the lifeboat hangs from, renewed at least every five years.
- Authorised service provider (ASP)
- a firm approved by the flag, or on its behalf, to service lifeboats.
- Proof-load test
- a test with 1.1 times the weight of the fully loaded boat, to prove the winch holds.
- Port call
- a stop the ship makes in port, the chance for shore technicians to come on board.
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4/6Why it matters
Ships go where the cargo goes
Ships trade where the cargo is, not where the technicians are. The five-yearly work can’t be put off, and each make of boat, hook and davit may need a different firm.
Discover a deadline in the last port before it passes, and there may be no approved firm in reach and no time left to find one.
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5/6In this lesson
What you’ll be able to do
- Lay out every lifeboat job by how often it comes and who does it.
- Anchor each ship’s plan on its certificate date.
- Track the five-yearly and falls deadlines on their own clocks.
- Match ports, firms and equipment before the date arrives.
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6/6Quick check
Which date should each ship’s lifeboat plan start from?
Right: the yearly lifeboat exam is tied to the survey window around that anniversary date, so the rest of the plan is built from it.
In plain words
Every lifeboat on every ship has a calendar of jobs. The crew check it every week and every month. It is launched in drills every three months. A certified technician examines it every year, and overhauls the hooks and load-tests the winch every five years. The wires that hold it, the falls, must be renewed at least every five years.
On one ship, that is manageable. Across a fleet, it gets hard. Ships trade where the cargo goes, not where the service technicians are. The yearly work has to fit the ship’s survey dates. The five-yearly work can’t be put off. And each make of boat, hook and davit may need a different provider.
Good planning means you never discover a deadline in the last port before it passes. You keep one calendar per ship, tied to the safety equipment certificate, and look ahead for the right port.
Key points
- The annual thorough examination is tied to the annual surveys under SOLAS I/7 or I/8 (SOLAS III/20.11.1.1, III/20.11.4).
- Annual surveys for the Cargo Ship Safety Equipment Certificate fall within 3 months before or after each anniversary date (SOLAS I/8).
- The winch proof-load test and the release gear overhaul are due at least once every five years (SOLAS III/20.11.1.2, III/20.11.2.2).
- The Bahamas states there are “no provisions in SOLAS Chapter III to postpone the 5 yearly service” (BMA Marine Notice 82 §5.5).
- Falls are renewed when worn or at intervals of not more than 5 years, whichever is earlier (SOLAS III/20.4).
- Annual and five-yearly work needs a provider authorized, and technicians certified, for that make and type (MSC.402(96) §4.2–4.3, §7.1, §8.1).
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In the rest of this lesson
- The detail
- Deep dive
- Try it: Plan five years of lifeboat work
- Quiz: 5 questions
- Ask our engineers about this lesson
Familiarisation training from Al Safwan Academy. Finishing a course shows completion of online familiarisation training: it is not an STCW, flag-approved or manufacturer qualification, and these courses don't replace that training. The manufacturer's manual and your flag's rules always come first.