Liferaft Deployment and Boarding

In 2006, Seafish Marine Services teamed up with the RNLI in a joint investigation to evaluate various liferafts and hydrostatic release units. Important trials were planned to test whether or not the liferafts and hydrostatic release units would perform as expected and to determine how difficult it would be to board each liferaft once in the water.

Deployment Rig

A galvanised steel deployment rig was constructed to act as a platform upon which individual liferafts could be mounted in suitable cradles and lowered into the RNLI tank at Poole. The platform was designed to provide sufficient weight to counter the buoyancy of the liferafts and consequently provide enough resistive force to break the weak links proposed.

Trials

Following the success of the initial equipment trials conducted in October 2006, the main trials took place in June 2007. A number of fishermen participated in the trials, with observers present from various organisations including the MCA. The findings of the investigation will be made available to industry in the near future.

The deployment rig

For further details, please contact Marine Services (details on Contact page).