Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)

Schedules

Second Schedule

Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974

Annex

Chapter III : Live-Saving Appliances, etc.

Part A — General

Regulation 5 : Construction of lifeboats

Purchase

(a)

All lifeboats shall be properly constructed and shall be of such form and proportions that they shall have ample stability in a seaway, and sufficient freeboard when loaded with their full complement of persons and equipment. All lifeboats shall be capable of maintaining positive stability when open to the sea and loaded with their full complement of persons and equipment.

(b)

(i)

All lifeboats shall have rigid sides and internal buoyancy only. The Administration may approve lifeboats with a rigid shelter, provided that it may be readily opened from both inside and outside, and does not impede rapid embarkation and disembarkation or the launching and handling of the lifeboat.

(ii)	Motor lifeboats may be fitted to the satisfaction of the Administration with a means for preventing the entry of water at the fore end.

(iii)

All lifeboats shall be not less than 7,3 metres (24 feet) in length except where owing to the size of the ship, or for other reasons, the Administration considers the carriage of such lifeboats unreasonable or impracticable. In no ship shall the lifeboats be less than 4,9 metres (16 feet) in length.

(c)	No lifeboat may be approved the weight of which when fully laden with persons and equipment exceed 20 300 kilograms (20 tons) or which has a carrying capacity calculated in accordance with Regulation 7 of this Chapter of more than 150 persons.

(d)

All lifeboats permitted to carry more than 60 persons but not more than 100 persons shall be either motor lifeboats complying with the requirements of Regulation 9 of this Chapter or be lifeboats fitted with an approved means of mechanical propulsion complying with Regulation 10 of this Chapter. All lifeboats permitted to carry more than 100 persons shall be motor lifeboats complying with the requirements of Regulation 9 of this Chapter.

(e)	All lifeboats shall be of sufficient strength to enable them to be safely lowered into the water when loaded with their full complement of persons and equipment. All lifeboats shall be of such strength that they will not suffer residual deflection if subjected to an overload of 25 per cent.

(f)	All lifeboats shall have a mean sheer at least equal to 4 per cent of their length. The sheer shall be approximately parabolic in form.

(g)	In lifeboats permitted to carry 100 or more persons the volume of the buoyancy shall be increased to the satisfaction of the Administration.

(h)

All lifeboats shall have inherent buoyancy, or shall be fitted with watertight air cases or other equivalent non-corrodible buoyant material which shall not be adversely affected by oil or oil products, sufficient to float the boat and its equipment when the boat is flooded and open to the sea. An additional volume of watertight air cases or other equivalent non-corrodible buoyant material, which shall not be adversely affected by oil or oil products, equal to at least one-tenth of the cubic capacity of the boat shall also be provided. The Administration may permit the watertight air cases to be filled with a non-corrodible buoyant material which shall not be adversely affected by oil or oil products.

(i)	All thwarts and sideseats shall be fitted as low in the lifeboat as practicable.

(j)

The block coefficient of the cubic capacity as determined in accordance with Regulation 6 of this Chapter of all lifeboats, except wooden lifeboats made of planks, shall be not less than 0,64 provided that any such lifeboat may have a block coefficient of less than 0,64 if the Administration is satisfied with the sufficiency of the metacentric height and freeboard when the lifeboat is loaded with its full complement of persons and equipment.