What’s the No. 1 driver behind choosing marine safety equipment for A2SEA’s vessels?

Unlike many shipowners, it’s not the minimal level of compliance as determined by classification, flagstate and international regulations. And it’s not the cheapest products that live up to those rules, either.

If you know A2SEA, it’s not that hard to guess that we put the protection and comfort of our crew, contractors and clients on board first. So we’re always looking for the best equipment in terms of safety, ergonomics, reliability, durability and other stringent factors.

Take the recently delivered vessel SEA CHALLENGER, for example. She’s equipped with the best equipment on the market from the outset. Her life rafts and life jackets, for example, are manufactured and supplied by VIKING Life-saving Equipment. VIKING also provided many of the other life-saving appliances and accessories, helping to design a comprehensive overall safety solution. The vessel’s lifeboats are European-quality too, manufactured by Germany’s Fassmer, while her fast rescue boat is produced by Norwegian-based Harding (the merger of Schat-Harding and Noreq).

Despite the specification of these premium brands, when SEA CHALLENGER was delivered we again carefully reviewed all safety equipment on board, upgrading less obvious safety items and implementing even higher standards wherever we felt extra care was warranted. For example, the descenders used, which serve to evacuate personnel from a jack-up vessel with a high air-gap, receive special attention during any specification process.

An area of safety concerns in recent times, the life boat davits, has also gotten the full treatment with the choice of NADIRO’s innovative Boat-in-a-Box™ system. This relatively new concept provides a very safe way of entering and leaving lifeboats during drills. It also includes an ultra-safe Drop-in-Ball™ system used to attach lifting wires to the boat. Importantly, both the boat and davit winches are mounted and stored inside a purpose-built container, providing excellent protection against wind and weather for more reliable deployment and easier maintenance.

“The safety of clients and crews means everything to us,” says Bent Vindahl Petersen, Vessel Superintendent for SEA CHALLENGER. “We maintain the highest levels of safety during the complex operations taking place on board, and that goes for the way we specify safety equipment, too.”

 

Like this post? Subscribe now and get notified about new content!