Liferafts, evacuation systems and personal life-saving appliances

A liferaft spends years in a white canister on deck. Nobody sees inside it until the day it goes to the service station or the day the ship sinks. In between, it has to float free, inflate in a minute and keep people alive. The same is true of the gear around it: the hydrostatic release that frees it, the lifejacket and immersion suit each person wears, the flares, and the beacon that tells a rescue centre where to look. Almost all of it is checked by the crew once a month and opened, tested and repacked by a shore-based specialist on a fixed cycle set by SOLAS chapter III, the LSA Code and IMO guidelines.

The small things are where it goes wrong. In 2021 the Australian Maritime Safety Authority issued over 100 deficiencies for wrongly fitted hydrostatic release units on liferafts and float-free EPIRBs, most often a painter not tied to the weak link. From 1 January 2023 immersion suit defects (stiff zips, failed seams, overdue air tests) made up nearly a third of all life-saving deficiencies found in Marshall Islands flag inspections. The UK told the IMO about marine evacuation systems that failed at their six-yearly test deployment, and the Bahamas now asks for a report on every one.

This course goes through each item in the order you would meet it on deck, from the liferaft cradle to the EPIRB bracket. For each one you will see what the rules say, who does what and how often, what the service record should show, and what port state control officers and surveyors write up.

What you will learn

• Read a liferaft’s stowage and float-free arrangement and spot a wrongly rigged painter, weak link or HRU in seconds.
• Know what an approved service station does at each annual service, and which tests become due in years 5, 10 and later.
• Plan servicing so it stays within 12 months, use the flag extension rules correctly, and handle 30-month extended-service liferafts.
• Run the rotational deployment of a marine evacuation system and know what makes it a pass or a fail.
• Inspect lifejackets, lights, immersion suits and thermal protective aids to the IMO checklists, and know when air pressure tests are due.
• Manage flares from stowage to lawful disposal, and check an EPIRB and SART against the annual test and five-year shore-based maintenance guidelines.