Lifeboats, liferafts, immersion suits and the servicing regimes that keep them certified. SOLAS sets the intervals; the deficiency records show how often they slip. These articles cover what the LSA Code requires, what Port State Control inspectors actually check, and where equipment that looks compliant on paper fails in the water.
A lifebuoy is a ring that floats. The complication is that SOLAS does not treat them as interchangeable: it specifies which buoys carry lights, which carry smoke, which carry lifelines, and, crucially, which combinations are not allowed on the same buoy. By MarineCraft Journal · 15 September 2026 · 9 mins read Halfof … Read more
Distress signals are the only safety equipment aboard that expires on a fixed date whatever their condition, cannot lawfully be thrown away, and are checked on every inspection because the date is printed on the side. By MarineCraft Journal · 3 September 2026 · 8 mins read 12rocket parachute flares required to be … Read more
The lifeboat gets the attention. The davit and winch that lower it get far less, right up to the moment a brake slips during a drill. Launching appliances carry their own testing regime, their own authorised-servicing rule, and their own recurring deficiencies. By MarineCraft Journal · 1 September 2026 · 9 mins read … Read more
A lifejacket that floats is not a compliant lifejacket. Inspectors write findings against lights, whistles, sizing, servicing records, and whether the crew can actually put one on in time. The buoyancy is almost never the problem. By MarineCraft Journal · 27 August 2026 · 9 mins read 1 minthe time in which a … Read more
Buying survival equipment is the easy part. Keeping it certified for the rest of its working life depends on picking a servicing provider whose authorisation actually covers your equipment, and that is where fleets quietly acquire a compliance problem they only discover at inspection. By MarineCraft Journal · 20 August 2026 · 9 … Read more
A liferaft can sit in its canister for years and look perfect from the outside while quietly going out of certification. The rules that keep it valid are strict, specific, and easy to trip over, and an inspector checks two separate dates that operators routinely assume are one.
