As informed by ClassNK Technical Information No.TEC-0698 dated 23 May 2007, the requirements for "Life-saving Appliances and Arrangements" in Chapter III of SOLAS will be partly amended with the effective date of 1 July 2008.

This technical information provides the following outlines of the amendments to the requirements for "Operational readiness, maintenance and inspection" in Reg.III/20 of SOLAS:

1. According to the amendment of Reg. III/20.4 (Maintenance of falls) , the requirement to turn end for end of the falls used in launching at the interval not more than 30 months which is required in case the falls is renewed at intervals of not more than 5 years is deleted.
2. The present Reg.III/20.11 (Periodic servicing of launching appliances and on-load release gear) have required a thorough examination and operational test of on-load release gears of lifeboats during the annual surveys and the overhauls and operational test under the load of 1.1 times overload of them at least every 5 years. According to the amendment of this regulation, the same examination and operational tests are required to the free-fall lifeboat release systems, on-load release gear of the rescue boats and davit-launched liferaft automatic release hooks.

For the details, please refer to ClassNK Technical Information No.TEC-0698.


For any questions about the above, please contact:

NIPPON KAIJI KYOKAI (ClassNK)
Survey Department, Administration Center, Head Office
Address: 4-7 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8567, Japan
Tel.: +81-3-5226-2027
Fax: +81-3-5226-2029
E-mail: svd@classnk.or.jp