Free-fall boat designed for 47m height installation

Norsafe, Norwegian lifeboat builder since 1903, has designed and successfully tested the GES50 MK III boat with the rescuing capacity of 70 psn and the installation height of 47m above the water level. The boat 'will be used worldwide, mainly on offshore floating or fixed constructions, and can hold 68 passengers and two helmsmen'. The lifeboat's arrangements allow for the 90-second boarding time and top 9-10 knots velocity once in the water in order to bring the crew away from the danger.

During the test fall the boat was released from 63m height with the sandbags onboard. It fell into small wavelets and hit the water with a top speed of 70mph (110kmh). As it is announced this boat is 15m long and requires minimum installation height of 20m.



After watching the free-fall test video immediately questions arise as to the safety of such a boat once commissioned and exposed to the regular operation. Latter requires periodical launching with the crew onboard. How many successful launches the hull and, particularly, the release mechanism would withstand? How fault-proof are the free-fall and securing arrangements? What are the less stressful options for the emergency evacuation from the offshore installations?

Having concern as to the number of incidents with the free-fall boats during drills or just under the maintenance, one may expect that counter-balancing the incident risks with the training and rigid proceduring still leaves ground for apprehensions.