You need crew aboard to test an empty lifeboat, i.e. to release it when it touches sea. Same crew will later reconnect the empty boat, so it can be lifted aboard after the test. Fully loaded tests is 100% different. You cannot lift a fully loaded lifeboat back on the ship.
Yes, but you can lower the crew in the rescue boat and lower the lifeboat to the water, have them climb in and exercise, then reconnect and have the crew get back in the rescue boat and hoist the lifeboat with nobody in it. That way when it falls off nobody gets hurt.
The monthly drill doesn’t require anyone in the lifeboat, the quarterly drill requires the boat be operated in the water. That requires a boat crew.
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In my experience the most chance of injury is while hooking the boat back up especially with any kind of chop running…
Crew sticking their heads out those little fore and aft openings to catch the falls that are swinging around. The davit head are about 30 meters above the sea so they do swing around.
What I did was after the boat was successfully hooked up was to yank it quick out of the water and then stop raising the boat once clear of the sea.
Then just hold the boat there for a bit so the crew can recover from the drama of the hook-up and calmly check to make sure the boat is properly hooked up. That’s where the deaths occur, improperly hooked up boats letting loose when they hit the davits on the way up.
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As a matter of policy, we do not ride the lifeboat boats down during drills. We board them from the rescue boat. However, we do pick them up again about 3meters, then descend using the remote wire and releasing the hook as soon as the hydrostatic release is sensed. Basically, we risk assessed and removed the height at which someone could get killed if there was a failure. 3meters is better than 16meters. F=ma can be a bitch.
Some companies elected to use training locks (if optioned by OEM) or a secondary tension device, ie. nylon strap from lift ring on boat to the eye on the falls.
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Fucking Newton.
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The lifeboat fall preventers look like a good idea. The company was purchasing them when I retired.
Using the rescue boat is not a solution when the designated rescue boat is the lifeboat.
If it choppy enough to use the strops then better to pick another time for the drill.
True story. If it’s not a mill pond out there I’m not launching.
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No one rides the boats here, rescue boat is one of the lifeboats so we use a launch.
Weather is always a factor, too many close calls for me years ago. But the weather is always nice in the PNW so it’s not a problem…
Personally I think Strops should be used ALL the time to get people familiar with their usage. We often put the boat in the water while in Honolulu with the water flat calm. Even under those ideal conditions wrestling the heavy falls at each end of the boat into the hooks were a pain.
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A fast rescue boat on a single point suspension is light years away from the rescue boat typically fitted to merchant ships, especially those fitted with a free fall lifeboat. With its 15hp outboard and launched disturbingly close to or over the propeller aperture, this is a vessel for those days when the sea is like a mill pond, the sun is shinning and a logbook entry can be combined with running the master from the port to the town at Papeete. Boarding from the wharf steps of course.