Feature 3 | LIFE SAVING APPLIANCES


Restech Norway’s PLT Mini (top) and PLT Rescue 230 line throwers feature re-usable line and lighting options for their projectiles.


changed every 36 months, to ensure that the light they produce is strong enough to be visible, but the materials used in the PLT range of line throwers have no expiry date.” For vessels above typical patrol boat size, the group’s PLT Rescue 230 model covers a range of at least 230m with a line breaking strain of 2000N , fires at 90m per second and is powered by compressed air. Tis latter model can be operated either as a handheld unit, as with the PLT Mini, or clamped to the vessel’s rail. Meanwhile, distress signals specialist


Chemring Marine recently announced that it has signed a five-year deal to supply its Pain Wessex and Comet products families to Survitec Group’s global network of manufacturing plants. Survitec made news recently aſter buying up life jacket and lifeboat manufacturer Zodiac Marine. Chemring specialises in products


designed to meet SOLAS regulations, particularly those in Chapter III, specifying that vessels of 300gt and above should be equipped with two MOB distress flare units, mounted on the bridge wings, in addition to four line throwers, six hand flares, 12 para red rockets and two floating orange smoke systems. Popular Chemring sellers, managing director Justine Heeley comments, include the Linethrower 250, which features a throwing range of 230m and a line breaking strain of 2000N, and the Manoverboard MK8, a combined light and smoke lifebuoy marker, which is capable of withstanding a 60m drop into water and satisfies the SOLAS requirement for a mounted, bridge-based


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MOB system. Te latter unit emits clouds of dense orange smoke for a period of 15 minutes, and generates light, measured at 2 candela, for a period of up to two hours. Heeley confirms that Chemring


Marine has started to do business in Brazil, and she claims that “we are seeing a geographical shift in demand, from the US to the Far East, and are actively targeting Russia and China.”


Buoyancy breakthrough This June saw International Safety Products (ISP) Limited formally launch its ISO 12402 Challenger Worksafe lifejacket, which features an extra amount of reflective piping and meets the new ISO 12402 testing regulation for floating devices. Andy Scott, business development manager at ISP, explains: “Previously, lifejackets providing buoyancy with 150N or 275N were covered by the CE standards for buoyancy aids, EN 396 and EN 399 respectively. However, these standards focused solely on the jacket itself; items such as the lifejacket buckle, for example, conformed to separate standards. ISO 12402 has brought all of these elements together, testing the lifejacket as a whole to a single standard.” Te 300N Challenger Worksafe comes with a tag for storing a VHF radio, a breathable mesh back and a new patented feature, monikered the ‘interlocking lobe design’. This latter feature serves two key functions; as Scott explains: “With a lot of lifejackets, both bladders of the jacket are inflated to achieve buoyancy, but this can lead to a channel being created between the right


The Challenger Worksafe lifejacket features an interlocking lobe design, to prevent water from rushing into the wearer’s face.


and leſt bladders. Seawater can be forced up through this channel, hitting the MOB in the face. Te interlocking lobe design prevents water from being channelled into the airways, while the tailored neck design gives vital support to the head and neck, even when the MOB is unconscious.” Secondly, the interlocking lobe design has been formulated to self-right the wearer in under five seconds – another potent safeguard, should the subject happen to be unconscious or dazed. Sea Marshall’s range of personal locator


beacon (PLB)-enhanced lifejackets present another means of rapid response to MOB incidents. Should a crew member fall overboard, the group’s SOLAS-approved, Hi-Rise jacket design contains a PLB unit, which is fitted into a window pocket on the jacket, and an antenna. Sea Marshall general manager Andrew Brown tells Ship & Boat International that, aſter the casualty has hit the water, it takes between two and five seconds for the PLB to send an alert to an onboard monitor, which sounds a siren and provides updates on the MOB’s position, enabling the vessel to manoeuvre to effect a rescue. Te PLB has a range of just over 8km between the ship and the person in the water. SBI


Ship & Boat International July/August 2011


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