Life-saving appliance maintenance, inspection and drills
Life-saving appliance maintenance, inspection and drills
This domain tests the routine that keeps LSA ready: planned maintenance, inspections at the required intervals, drills and records.
Core rules
- Weekly inspections cover survival craft, rescue boats, launching appliances and release gear for obvious defects, readiness and security.
- Monthly inspections cover lifeboat equipment and engine checks; engines are run and checked in accordance with the planned maintenance system.
- Falls, release gear and davits are examined at survey intervals; release gear is tested and maintained under the manufacturer's procedures.
- Abandon ship and fire drills are held monthly; each crew member should take part in at least one abandon ship drill a month. Drills are recorded.
- Defects are reported, recorded and corrected before the appliance is relied upon; defective LSA is not simply signed off.
Worked example
A weekly inspection finds a lifeboat's engine will not start. The candidate must not record it as satisfactory. Reasoning: the boat is not ready for immediate use; the defect must be reported, the cause found, the repair recorded, and the boat retested. Until then the boat is unserviceable and the master must be informed.
Traps
Treating a drill as a paperwork exercise; confusing weekly and monthly checks; signing for a defect not corrected; running an engine without cooling water; ignoring expiry dates on pyrotechnics.