WOW, anyone fancy this for your lifeboat drills

[John Arton]

Watch this 40 metre free fall Lifeboat trial. Some ride eh!
WATCH: Manned Free Fall Lifeboat World Record Drop - 40 Meters Up! - gCaptain
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

When I did the free fall lifeboat drills you had to be very careful when lying down , having the back or head not quite right can be rather painful.
I must admit I am not a fan of doing free fall, tho` they are very effective in a real emergency.
Cheers
Brian

[Stan Carter]

I would imagine if the flames were snapping at your heels and the chance of an explosion being real, a forty metre free fall and the possibility of injury would be the last thing on ones mind. certainly come a long way from painted chocks and seized blocks, plus the fraustration of lowering a lifeboat evenly.
regards, stan

[j.sabourn]

This no doubt is the end of the era of launching the boat for recreational periods of a run ashore, or for a BBQ on some adjacent island close to an anchorage. Cheers JS

[John Arton]

J.S.
All free fall boats have to have some sort of recovery system fitted, be it a crane or a cradle fitted with a hoist. Using the recovery system you can also launch your boat in a controlled manner rather than a free fall.
Remember your boat must be exercised in the water at least once every 3 months and most flag states will allow you to use the controlled launch system to exercise your boat in the water. We often used to use the lifeboat for jollys ashore in harbours in France, ship visiting whilst at anchor in St. Helens roads or Cobh, so there is no real hindrance to using your free fall boat for jollys ashore. I would be more worried if using those enclosed, davit launched boats that have an off load automatic release gear fitted. These are thhe ones that have caused most deaths when being exercised.
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

Never sailed with the enclosed boats apart from on rigs. So dont know too much about them. Know after the Piper Alpha in 1988 was asked several questions on how to improve the survival rate on the same recurring and free fall boats was asked about. At the time if the truth was known about survival rates my answer should of been keep clear of the basket, not my problem. There were all sorts of things suggested and at the time my answer would be the same today as what it was then as regards rescue procedures, was more manpower and proper tonnage. As a kind of discussion has recently been about unions, there was at the time no hard and fast rules on such, which believe there are now. However would imagine it took the loss of 167 men to get ones point across, a high penalty to pay. There has been other loss of life at various installations over the years and always notice at the enquiries people are very knowledgable after the fact. Cheers JS