By ShipCalculators.com · Published 26 April 2026 · last updated 28 May 2026

Marine Lifeboats and Survival Craft

Lifeboats and survival craft are the platforms that carry a ship’s people away from a sinking, burning, or disabled vessel and keep them alive until rescue. The loss of Titanic on 15 April 1912, with lifeboat seats for about 1,178 of the roughly 2,224 aboard, drove the first SOLAS Convention in 1914. The modern rules sit in SOLAS Chapter III and the International Life-Saving Appliance (LSA) Code, adopted as IMO Resolution MSC.48(66) on 4 June 1996 and mandatory since 1 July 1998. To size craft and fuel, see the LSA lifeboat capacity calculator and the wider catalogue of calculators.

Contents

What survival craft do, and why the rules are this strict

Survival craft have to deploy in the worst conditions a ship can present: a heavy roll, a list, a trim by the head or stern, a fire on deck, or a hull going down by the minute. The LSA Code answers that by writing the worst case into the acceptance tests. A launching appliance has to lower its craft safely with the ship at a trim of up to 10 degrees and a list of up to 20 degrees either way, under LSA Code paragraph 6.1.1.1. Every liferaft has to survive 30 days afloat in all sea conditions (paragraph 4.1.1.1). Every appliance has to sit in stowage through an air-temperature range of minus 30 to plus 65 degrees Celsius without damage and, where used in the water, operate from minus 1 to plus 30 degrees Celsius (paragraph 1.2.2). These aren’t comfort margins. They’re the envelope a survivor actually meets.

The Code reads like an equipment list because that’s what saves lives at the moment of abandonment. A crew doesn’t get to improvise. They get what’s bolted to the boat deck, maintained on a schedule, and drilled monthly. The whole framework is the accumulated record of a century of casualties, written so that the next crew isn’t relearning the lesson that killed the last one.

The regulatory framework: SOLAS Chapter III and the LSA Code

SOLAS Chapter III, “Life-Saving Appliances and Arrangements,” entered into force on 1 July 1998 and runs to 38 regulations across three parts: Part A general (regulations 1 to 5), Part B requirements for ships (regulations 6 to 37), and Part C alternative design (regulation 38). It splits ship requirements by type. Passenger-ship survival craft and rescue boats sit in regulation 21; cargo-ship survival craft and rescue boats in regulation 31. Common requirements covering muster, drills, and operational readiness apply to both.

The LSA Code carries the engineering. Adopted as Resolution MSC.48(66) on 4 June 1996, it became mandatory under SOLAS Chapter III on 1 July 1998 and any amendment to it follows the tacit-acceptance procedure of SOLAS article VIII. The Code’s chapters map directly to the hardware: Chapter II personal appliances (lifebuoys, lifejackets, immersion suits, anti-exposure suits, thermal protective aids), Chapter III visual signals (rocket parachute flares, hand flares, buoyant smoke signals), Chapter IV survival craft (liferafts, lifeboats, totally enclosed, free-fall, self-contained-air-support, fire-protected), Chapter V rescue boats, Chapter VI launching and embarkation appliances and marine evacuation systems, and Chapter VII line-throwing appliances plus the general alarm. The detailed, numbered, testable requirements quoted through this article all come from that text.

Two supporting instruments matter to the working surveyor. Resolution MSC.81(70), the Revised Recommendation on Testing of Life-Saving Appliances, adopted 11 December 1998, sets the prototype and production tests that demonstrate compliance with the LSA Code; appliances installed on or after 1 July 1999 are tested against it. The Polar Code, mandatory under SOLAS for ships in polar waters, adds cold-weather and extended-survival requirements on top of the LSA baseline. Periodic class surveys, annual and at the five-year special survey, verify all of it stays in force across the ship’s life.

Lifeboat types under the LSA Code

The Code recognizes distinct lifeboat categories. Chapter IV section 4.4 sets the general lifeboat requirements; sections 4.5 to 4.9 add the protections that define each type. Construction is the common floor: every lifeboat carries a certificate of approval stating manufacturer, model and serial number, month and year of build, number of persons approved, total mass fully equipped and manned, and which section (4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, or 4.9) it meets (paragraph 4.4.1.2). No lifeboat is approved for more than 150 persons (paragraph 4.4.2.1). Each person is counted at an average mass of 75 kg (paragraph 4.4.2.2).

Open lifeboats

Open boats with thwarts and oars or a small motor dominated from the 19th century into the 1970s. They give occupants no protection from weather, fire, or smoke, so they survive only on older grandfathered ships. New ships built since the 1990s don’t carry them. The Code keeps the seating-load test that any lifeboat must pass: a static load of 100 kg per seat space for the persons it carries, and 100 kg in any single seat after a drop from at least 3 metres (paragraph 4.4.1.5).

Partially enclosed lifeboats

A partially enclosed lifeboat (section 4.5) carries permanently attached rigid covers over at least 20 percent of its length from the stem and at least 20 percent from the stern, with a permanently attached foldable canopy that, together with the rigid covers, fully encloses the occupants (paragraph 4.5.2). The canopy has to be erectable by no more than two people and insulated by at least two layers of material separated by an air gap. Partially enclosed boats have largely given way to totally enclosed boats but remain in service on ships built before the totally enclosed requirement bit.

Totally enclosed lifeboats

The totally enclosed lifeboat (section 4.6) is the standard for ships built since the mid-1980s. It has a rigid watertight enclosure that completely encloses the boat (paragraph 4.6.2). Access hatches open and close from both inside and outside; with the hatches closed the enclosure is watertight; windows or translucent panels admit daylight without artificial light. The defining property is self-righting: the boat is so constructed that it’s inherently or automatically self-righting when loaded with its full or partial complement and all openings are closed watertight (paragraph 4.6.3.2). In the damaged, flooded condition the water level inside, measured along the seatback, can’t rise more than 500 mm above any occupant’s seat pan (paragraph 4.6.3.3). The engine keeps running through a capsize, or stops automatically and restarts after the boat re-rights, and the fuel and lubricating systems lose no more than 250 ml of oil during the capsize (paragraph 4.6.4.2). With the engine running and the enclosure closed, internal pressure stays within 20 hPa of outside atmospheric (paragraph 4.6.2.11). Every indicated seat carries a safety belt rated to hold a 100 kg person in the capsized position (paragraph 4.6.3.1). A totally enclosed lifeboat other than a free-fall boat must also be constructed and fendered to protect occupants against harmful acceleration from a lateral impact against the ship’s side at an impact velocity of not less than 3.5 m/s (paragraph 4.6.5).

Free-fall lifeboats

A free-fall lifeboat (section 4.7) is a totally enclosed boat launched by dropping clear of a stern ramp rather than lowering on falls. The Code defines the controlling quantities precisely. The free-fall certification height (paragraph 1.1.4) is the greatest launching height for which the boat is approved, measured from the still-water surface to the lowest point on the boat in the launch configuration. The required free-fall height (paragraph 1.1.8) is the same measurement with the ship at its lightest seagoing condition; the required height can never exceed the certification height (paragraph 4.7.3.3). The boat must make positive headway immediately after water entry and clear the ship after a launch against a trim of up to 10 degrees and a list of up to 20 degrees either way (paragraph 4.7.3.1). Structurally it has to withstand a free-fall launch from a height of at least 1.3 times the certification height (paragraph 4.7.4), and the seating test is a 100 kg load in any single seat from that 1.3-times height (paragraph 4.4.1.5.3). Seating geometry is fixed for occupant protection: the seat is at least 430 mm wide, free clearance in front of the backrest at least 635 mm, and the backrest extends at least 1,000 mm above the seatpan (paragraph 4.7.2). The release system has two independent activation systems operable only from inside (paragraph 4.7.6.1), releases under any loading from no-load up to at least 200 percent of the fully equipped normal load (paragraph 4.7.6.2), and uses a factor of safety of 6 on the materials (paragraph 4.7.6.5). For oil, chemical, and gas tankers with a final angle of heel greater than 20 degrees, the free-fall boat has to be certified for launch at that final heel (paragraph 4.7.3.2). Free-fall systems suit bulk carriers and tankers because the whole crew launches together in one action, with no davit to operate.

Lifeboats with self-contained air support, and fire-protected lifeboats

Two added sections cover tanker fire risk. A lifeboat with a self-contained air support system (section 4.8) keeps the air inside breathable and the engine running normally for not less than 10 minutes with all entrances and openings closed, and during that period internal pressure never falls below or rises more than 20 hPa above outside atmospheric, with visual indicators of air-supply pressure at all times. A fire-protected lifeboat (section 4.9) protects its full complement when waterborne against a continuous oil fire that envelops the boat for not less than 8 minutes. Its water-spray system draws seawater through a self-priming motor pump, the intake arranged to keep flammable liquid out, and the system flushes with fresh water and drains completely (paragraph 4.9.2). Oil, chemical, and gas tankers carry boats meeting these sections so the craft can cross a burning sea surface.

Liferafts

Liferafts are the secondary survival craft on most cargo ships and the primary craft on many smaller vessels. The Code splits them into inflatable (section 4.2) and rigid (section 4.3), both built to the general liferaft requirements of section 4.1.

Every liferaft survives 30 days afloat in all sea conditions (paragraph 4.1.1.1) and a drop into the water from 18 metres (paragraph 4.1.1.2). If stowed higher than 18 metres above the waterline in the lightest seagoing condition, it’s drop-tested from that greater height. The floor of an inflatable raft holds people clear of the cold by an inflatable double layer (paragraph 4.2.2.2), and the canopy is automatically erected when the raft inflates and is insulated against heat and cold (paragraph 4.1.1.5). The smallest approved raft carries 6 persons (paragraph 4.1.2.1). Where the raft sits on a cradle that doesn’t allow easy side-to-side transfer, the total mass of raft, container, and equipment can’t exceed 185 kg (paragraph 4.1.2.2), which is why a single crew can move it.

An inflatable raft inflates with a non-toxic gas, completing inflation within 1 minute at an ambient temperature between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius, and within 3 minutes at minus 30 degrees (paragraph 4.2.2.3). It’s divided into at least two separate buoyancy compartments, each inflated through its own non-return valve, so that with any one compartment failed the intact compartments still support, with positive freeboard, the full complement at 75 kg each (paragraph 4.2.2.1). Capacity is the lesser of three numbers: tube volume divided by 0.096, floor area divided by 0.372, or the number of 75 kg persons that fit with comfort and headroom (paragraph 4.2.3). The raft can be towed at 3 knots loaded (paragraph 4.1.1.4) and rights itself, or is righted by one person, from an inverted position (paragraph 4.2.5.2). Water pockets under the floor fill to at least 60 percent within 25 seconds for stability against capsize (paragraph 4.2.5.4).

Davit-launched liferafts

A davit-launched liferaft (section 4.2.8) is lifted on falls from the embarkation deck rather than thrown over the side, so occupants board dry from the ship’s side. In addition to the general requirements it has to withstand, suspended from its hook or bridle, 4 times the mass of its full complement at ambient temperature with relief valves inoperative, and 1.1 times that mass at minus 30 degrees with relief valves operative (paragraph 4.2.8.1). It also meets the davit-launched-liferaft strength test of paragraph 4.1.4.1: a lateral impact against the ship’s side at an impact velocity of not less than 3.5 m/s and a drop into the water from not less than 3 metres without damage that affects function. On a cargo ship a davit-launched raft has to be boardable by its full complement within 3 minutes of the instruction to board (paragraph 4.1.4.3).

Float-free arrangements and hydrostatic release units

A liferaft stowed for float-free release uses a painter system that, in the case of an inflatable raft, inflates the raft and keeps it from being dragged under by the sinking ship (paragraph 4.1.6.1). If the arrangement uses a weak link, the link breaks under a strain of 2.2 plus or minus 0.4 kN (paragraph 4.1.6.2.3): strong enough to pull the painter and trigger inflation, weak enough to part before the raft is dragged down. The hydrostatic release unit (paragraph 4.1.6.3) automatically releases the raft at a depth of not more than 4 metres, is built of compatible materials so it won’t corrode shut, has drains so water can’t accumulate in the chamber, won’t release when seas merely wash over it, and, if disposable, is marked with a date of expiry. As the ship sinks, the HRU severs the lashing, the raft floats free, the painter pulls tight against the still-attached weak link, the inflation cylinder fires, and the link parts.

Liferaft equipment, the SOLAS A and B packs

The Code lists the contents of a liferaft in paragraph 4.1.5.1. A raft marked “SOLAS A PACK” carries the full set; “SOLAS B PACK” is the reduced set allowed on certain short-international-voyage passenger ships (paragraph 4.1.5.3). The A pack includes a buoyant rescue quoit on at least 30 metres of line, knives, buoyant bailers, sponges, two sea-anchors, two buoyant paddles, three tin-openers, a first-aid outfit, a whistle, four rocket parachute flares, six hand flares, two buoyant smoke signals, a waterproof torch for Morse signalling, a daylight signalling mirror, fishing tackle, a copy of the life-saving signals, anti-seasickness medicine for at least 48 hours plus a seasickness bag per person, survival and immediate-action instructions, and thermal protective aids for 10 percent of the persons or two, whichever is greater. Provisions are quantified: a food ration totalling not less than 10,000 kJ per person (paragraph 4.1.5.1.18), and 1.5 litres of fresh water per person, of which 0.5 litre may be replaced by a desalting apparatus producing the same amount in two days (paragraph 4.1.5.1.19). Inflatable rafts add a repair outfit and a topping-up pump or bellows (paragraph 4.2.9.1).

Rescue boats

A rescue boat is for recovering people from the water, marshalling survival craft, and towing them; it isn’t counted toward the survival-craft capacity required for the persons aboard. Chapter V section 5.1 sets its requirements. A rescue boat is rigid, inflated, or a combination, not less than 3.8 metres and not more than 8.5 metres long (paragraph 5.1.1.3.1), and carries at least five seated persons plus a person lying on a stretcher (paragraph 5.1.1.3.2). It manoeuvres at not less than 6 knots and holds that speed for at least 4 hours (paragraph 5.1.1.6), and it can tow the largest liferaft on the ship, loaded, at not less than 2 knots (paragraph 5.1.1.7). A lifeboat may double as a rescue boat if it meets all the rescue-boat requirements and its launching arrangements suit rescue-boat service (paragraph 5.1.1.1).

The launch and recovery performance is set in SOLAS Chapter III, not the LSA Code’s craft sections: a rescue boat has to be boarded and launched in the shortest possible time and recovered, when loaded with its full complement, within 5 minutes in moderate sea conditions. The rescue-boat launching appliance carries a powered winch motor able to raise the boat with its full complement from the water at not less than 0.3 m/s (LSA Code paragraph 6.1.1.9). An inflated rescue boat has its buoyancy in a single tube subdivided into at least five compartments of roughly equal volume, or two tubes neither over 60 percent of total volume, so the intact compartments still float the full complement with the forward or one side deflated (paragraph 5.1.3.5). Each buoyancy compartment provides not less than 0.17 cubic metres per person (paragraph 5.1.3.6).

Fast rescue boats, required on certain ship types under SOLAS, run higher performance and are typically rigid-hull inflatable boats with inboard or powerful outboard engines. They’re used where rapid man-overboard response in a seaway is the design case.

Davits and launching appliances

Launching and embarkation appliances sit in LSA Code Chapter VI. The governing principle is independence from ship’s power: a launching appliance can’t depend on any means other than gravity or stored mechanical power that’s independent of the ship’s power supplies (paragraph 6.1.1.3). That’s why gravity davits dominate. The craft is suspended from the davit head on falls of rotation-resistant, corrosion-resistant steel wire rope (paragraph 6.1.2.3); releasing the brake lowers the boat under its own weight, with the winch acting as a controlled brake, and the manual brake is always applied unless the operator holds it off (paragraph 6.1.2.12).

Strength is verified by proof load. The launching appliance and its attachments, other than winch brakes, withstand a static proof load of not less than 2.2 times the maximum working load (paragraph 6.1.1.5). Structural members, blocks, and falls are designed with a factor of safety of at least 4.5 on structural members, with a factor of 6 applied to falls, suspension chains, links, and blocks (paragraph 6.1.1.6). The winch brakes hold a static proof load of not less than 1.5 times the maximum working load and a dynamic proof load of not less than 1.1 times the maximum working load at maximum lowering speed (paragraph 6.1.2.5). Lowering speed is set by formula. The boat is lowered no slower than $S = 0.4 + 0.02H$ , where $S$ is the lowering speed in metres per second and $H$ is the height in metres from the davit head to the waterline in the lightest seagoing condition (paragraph 6.1.2.8). The maximum lowering speed is capped by the Administration to protect occupants and the appliance during an emergency stop (paragraph 6.1.2.10).

Free-fall lifeboats use a launching ramp rather than davits. The ramp is designed and installed so the appliance and the boat protect occupants from harmful acceleration and the boat clears the ship (paragraph 6.1.4.2), is built to prevent sparking and incendiary friction during launch (paragraph 6.1.4.3), and arranges the boat so it can’t be boarded without first releasing it (paragraph 6.1.4.5). A free-fall installation also has a secondary means of launching the boat by falls (paragraph 6.1.4.7), and that secondary means carries at least a single off-load release capability (paragraph 6.1.4.8). Marine evacuation systems (section 6.2) are inflatable chute or slide systems for large passenger ships. An MES transfers the total number of persons it serves into inflated liferafts within 30 minutes for a passenger ship and 10 minutes for a cargo ship from the abandon-ship signal (paragraph 6.2.2.1.2); an inclined slide sits between 30 and 35 degrees to the horizontal in the lightest seagoing condition, rising to a maximum of 55 degrees in a passenger ship’s final stage of flooding (paragraph 6.2.2.1.5).

On-load release gear and the MSC.317(89) retrofit

The single deadliest piece of survival-craft equipment, by its accident record, is the lifeboat hook release gear. IMO’s own statement of the problem cites “the unacceptably high number of accidents with lifeboats in which crew have been injured, sometimes fatally, while participating in lifeboat drills and/or inspections.” The mechanism that’s supposed to drop a waterborne boat cleanly has, on many older designs, released under load during routine drills, dropping a manned boat from the davit head to the water.

The LSA Code requires an on-load release gear that releases the boat with a load on the hooks under any condition from no-load up to 1.1 times the total mass of the boat fully loaded, with mechanical protection against accidental release and a deliberate, sustained operator action to release on-load (paragraph 4.4.7.6.2). After a series of drill fatalities, IMO tightened the design. Resolution MSC.317(89), adopted 20 May 2011, added a new SOLAS regulation III/1.5 and entered into force on 1 January 2013. Regulation III/1.5 requires, for all ships and overriding the new-ship limitation of paragraph III/1.4.2, that “not later than the first scheduled dry-docking after 1 July 2014, but not later than 1 July 2019, lifeboat on-load release mechanisms not complying with paragraphs 4.4.7.6.4 to 4.4.7.6.6 of the Code shall be replaced with equipment that complies with the Code.” It applies to every SOLAS ship regardless of build date. It does not apply to the release mechanisms on free-fall lifeboats.

The companion Resolution MSC.320(89), adopted the same day and in force the same date, wrote the new fail-safe criteria into LSA Code paragraph 4.4.7.6. The mechanism may only open when the boat is fully waterborne or, if not waterborne, through multiple deliberate and sustained actions that remove or bypass safety interlocks (4.4.7.6.2); it can’t open due to wear, misalignment, or unintended force in the hook assembly with trim up to 10 degrees and list up to 20 degrees either way (4.4.7.6.2.1). Unless the hook is a load-over-centre type held closed by the boat’s weight, the hook locking parts hold the safe working load until the operator deliberately opens the locking part, and where a cam secures the hook tail the assembly stays closed through cam rotation of up to 45 degrees (4.4.7.6.3). When fully reset in the closed position, the weight of the boat transmits no force to the operating mechanism (4.4.7.6.4); locking devices can’t turn open under the hook load (4.4.7.6.5); and if a hydrostatic interlock is fitted, it automatically resets on lifting the boat from the water (4.4.7.6.6). To carry out the changeover, IMO issued the five-step guidance in MSC.1/Circ.1392: design review, performance test, flag-state reporting of compliant and non-compliant systems, replacement, and a one-time follow-up overhaul of existing systems. The U.S. Coast Guard implemented it for the U.S. fleet in CG-ENG Policy Letter 01-14 of 4 March 2014, noting that ships failing to comply by the applicable date wouldn’t keep a SOLAS Safety Equipment Certificate.

Carriage requirements: how much survival craft, by ship type

SOLAS Chapter III sets how much craft a ship carries, by type. The arithmetic is the part crews remember.

A cargo ship carries lifeboats on each side with aggregate capacity for 100 percent of the persons aboard, or one free-fall lifeboat at the stern with capacity for 100 percent, plus inflatable liferafts on each side with aggregate capacity for 100 percent of persons aboard. So the cargo ship’s total survival-craft capacity is 200 percent of the people on board: full lifeboat capacity plus full liferaft capacity. The free-fall arrangement is the common modern choice on bulk carriers and tankers, the single stern boat backed by side-stowed liferafts. A cargo ship also carries at least one rescue boat; a lifeboat may serve as the rescue boat if it meets the rescue-boat requirements.

Regulation III/31.1.4 adds the remotely-located-craft rule: where the horizontal distance from the extreme end of the stem or stern to the nearest survival craft is more than 100 metres, the ship carries an additional liferaft, normally a 6-person raft, stowed as far forward or aft as is reasonable, so a person trapped at the bow or stern isn’t beyond reach of a craft.

Passenger ships carry more. Under regulation 21 a passenger ship has lifeboats on each side with aggregate capacity for 50 percent of the persons aboard, and liferafts to bring the total to 125 percent of the persons aboard, with arrangements so the loss of any one survival craft or its launching appliance still leaves enough for everyone. Passenger ships of 500 GT and over carry at least one rescue boat on each side; under 500 GT, at least one rescue boat. Tankers and chemical and gas carriers carry the fire-protected and self-contained-air-support boats described above so the craft can launch into and cross a burning sea.

Embarkation, muster, and stowage

The embarkation deck is where people board before launch, and its arrangements are written for speed under stress. Stowage keeps the craft close to the embarkation point, on cradles or chocks, secured against heavy-weather motion by gripes that release on launch. Liferafts on cradles release float-free through their HRUs at not more than 4 metres depth, or are launched manually by davit.

The muster list is the spine of an orderly abandonment. It assigns every person a muster station and a survival craft, names the duties each person performs, and is posted throughout the ship. The general emergency alarm under LSA Code paragraph 7.2.1.1 is seven or more short blasts followed by one long blast on the ship’s whistle, backed by an electric bell or klaxon, audible throughout the accommodation and working spaces. The public-address system broadcasts to all spaces where people are normally present and to the muster stations (paragraph 7.2.2.1). Boarding ladders, where the craft sits below the embarkation deck, have hardwood steps at least 480 mm long, 115 mm wide, and 25 mm deep, spaced 300 to 380 mm apart, on side ropes of at least 65 mm circumference manila or equivalent (paragraph 6.1.6.2). For tight access to the water surface from a ship’s side, the marine pilot ladders and accommodation ladders carry their own dimensional rules.

Muster, drills, and training under SOLAS III

Equipment is half the system. The other half is a crew that has done it before. SOLAS regulation III/19 sets the drill regime. Every crew member takes part in at least one abandon-ship drill and one fire drill each month. When a new crew joins, or more than 25 percent of the crew haven’t taken part in drills on that ship in the previous month, the drills are held within 24 hours of leaving port. Each abandon-ship drill includes mustering at stations, checking lifejackets and immersion suits, and inspecting and operating davits. Each lifeboat is launched with its assigned operating crew aboard and manoeuvred in the water at least once every three months under regulation III/19.3.4.3. Davits and launching gear are exercised and the muster procedure rehearsed so that nobody is reading instructions when the alarm sounds.

Free-fall boats are an exception to the launch-every-three-months rule because an actual free-fall drop imposes shock loading and isn’t done routinely. SOLAS amendments that entered into force on 1 July 2008 allowed a free-fall boat to be launched in a drill with only the crew needed to operate it, or lowered by its secondary means without crew aboard and then manoeuvred by crew, so the drill no longer demands a full free-fall drop with people in the boat. That change followed the same accident record that drove the release-gear retrofit: the drill itself was killing people. The 2006 amendments to regulations III/19 and III/20 likewise removed the requirement for personnel to be aboard during routine maintenance lowering and hoisting.

Regulation III/35 requires a training manual and on-board training aids covering the survival craft and their equipment. STCW certification for survival-craft and rescue-boat operation backs this with formal competence in launching, navigation by survival craft, and survival procedures. Drills work best when they rehearse the full task, launching, navigation, signalling, first aid, and emergency radio, because the knowledge a survivor needs is broad and degrades without use.

Maintenance, inspection, and survey

Reliability after years in a marine environment is what the maintenance schedule buys. Weekly, the crew visually inspects survival craft and launching gear for damage, confirms securing arrangements, and exercises the boat engines and davit operation. Monthly, an abandon-ship drill includes lowering a boat. Quarterly, falls and rigging are inspected, davit components lubricated, and brakes checked. Each lifeboat is launched and manoeuvred at least once every three months. Annually, a class surveyor verifies the survival-craft equipment by external inspection, functional testing of launching systems, condition assessment of the falls, and testing of the automatic release systems, the HRUs, and the on-load release gear.

Consumables run on shelf-life clocks the surveyor checks against. Pyrotechnics, the rocket parachute flares, hand flares, and buoyant smoke signals, carry manufacturer expiry dates, typically 36 to 42 months from manufacture, and are replaced before expiry. Inflatable liferafts go ashore to certified servicing stations on the schedule marked on the canister, where they are inflated, inspected, their equipment inventoried and expired items replaced, then repacked and recertified; the raft carries a service certificate produced at port-state and class inspections. Falls of running rigging are turned end-for-end or renewed at the intervals class rules set, often 5 years, so a fatigued section of wire never sits at the same fairlead through the boat’s life. At the five-year special survey, davit machinery is opened up, the falls renewed, and proof loads re-applied.

Limitations

This article states the LSA Code (Resolution MSC.48(66)) and SOLAS Chapter III requirements as adopted and as amended through the MSC.317(89) and MSC.320(89) on-load release gear changes. The Code has been amended several times since 1996, and flag Administrations may grant exemptions or accept equivalents under SOLAS for ships in particular trades, so the precise figure on a given ship can differ from the baseline quoted here. The carriage percentages (100 percent lifeboat plus 100 percent liferaft on cargo ships; 50 percent lifeboat to a 125 percent total on passenger ships) summarize regulations 21 and 31; the regulations themselves carry conditions, alternatives, and small-ship exceptions that govern any actual case. Free-fall certification height, ramp angle, and acceleration limits are design quantities verified on a per-boat basis against MSC.81(70) test procedures, not constants. The IMO statement on lifeboat-drill accidents is qualitative; this article does not assign a specific casualty count to it because IMO’s published material on that page does not give one. For survival-time estimation in cold water, design judgement and the Polar Code, not the LSA baseline, govern; consult class rules and the flag Administration for binding figures, and verify the current consolidated LSA Code text before relying on any paragraph number for compliance work.