That is an amazing story. If what you are reporting is accurate, I would expect it to make headline news, at least in the Maritime press.
I have never heard of “paper thin freefall lifeboats” before, nor have I been able to find any report of “brand new freefall lifeboats cracking and falling off davits in shipyard”, or any fatal accidents involving such boats, in Korea or anywhere else.
There have been accidents causing injuries, but caused by inadequate training and maintenance, not attributed to the design or manufacturing faults.
Here is two such reports from AMSA, Australia:
I believe at least one of these incidents has been reported on gcaptain as well?
The only incident involving structural faults were on the freefall lifeboats on the Veslefrikk Field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. This has been very well documented and resulted in a re-call of similar boats:
http://maritimeaccident.org/tags/safety-alert-free-fall-lifeboat/
This article also mention faults found on old boats used at training centres, were they may be dropped several times a day for years.
I search gcaptain for your post about your observations during a unrelated visit to a Korean yard, but couldn’t find any. It would be interesting to know how you determined the thickness of the lifeboats in a not so intensive visual investigation??
I assume that these boats were on newbuilt vessels, thus had only been exposed to transport and installation stress? If they had cracks I’m surprised that they were accepted by the yard, Class and Owners representative.
Nor do I believe that all Surveyors that must have inspected these vessels after delivery are either incompetent, or crocked and on the take.
It would also be interesting to know who all those people sending you pictures were? Since there are hardly any American vessels being built in Korea and few American flag vessels with freefall lifeboats, is it fair to assume that they were non-Americans?
As to the Norwegian company that tried to “blackmail” you, it shouldn’t be too difficult to identify it, since there have only been three Norwegian manufacturers of freefall lifeboats. (Now only one, since the other two has been taken over by a large German company)
I wouldn’t say that this is a figment of your imagination, but I’m hard put to believe that any Norwegian manufacturer of anything involving maritime safety would produce cheap, inferior and dangerous equipment with “cheap plastic fittings”, whatever those may be.
I would be interested in seeing the graphic pictures you received though. Please PM me, if they are too graphic to show in public…