Rescue boats
Rescue boat
A fast boat for picking people out of the water and for marshalling and towing the survival craft.
Key facts
- Used for man overboard actions and for rounding up the liferafts after abandoning ship.
- For every person assigned to crew her, SOLAS requires an immersion suit or an anti-exposure suit. The anti-exposure suit is the one built for working in the boat, the immersion suit for waiting in the water.
- Formally it is not a survival craft in the meaning of SOLAS.
- It must take at least five seated persons and one lying on a stretcher, all in suits and lifejackets. That is where its dimensions come from.
- A variant is the fast rescue boat: a longer hull and a requirement to keep up the action for hours. On a ro-ro passenger ship at least one rescue boat must be exactly that.
Technical parameters
- Length
- not less than 3.8 m and not more than 8.5 m
- Complement
- at least five seated persons and one on a stretcher
- Construction
- rigid, inflated or a combination of both
- Fast rescue boat: length
- not less than 6 m and not more than 8.5 m, including inflated structures and fixed fenders
- Fast rescue boat: endurance
- manoeuvring for at least 4 hours at at least 20 knots with a crew of three, or at least 8 knots fully loaded
How this equipment is checked
- Weekly the engine runs for a total of at least 3 minutes. If an outboard engine cannot run that long without its propeller submerged, the crew supplies it with water another way.
- Annually the boat goes through a thorough examination and operational tests at the ship’s survey (res. MSC.402(96)).
- Permanent repairs of inflated boats are done by an approved servicing station; emergency repairs may be done on board.
Legal basis
SOLAS III/14 and III/17; suits for the boat’s crew: SOLAS III/7.3. LSA Code chapter V (dimensions and complement: 5.1.1.3, fast rescue boats: 5.1.4). Inspections: SOLAS III/20.
This is not a legal text: when in doubt, the current wording of the Convention and the LSA Code decides.
Related STCW training
Fast rescue boats (STCW A-VI/2-2).