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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 5
January 2010
No safe alternative to authorized service
Manufacturers advise us to take our EPIRBs, life rafts, and other safety equipment to reputable, authorized service centers for servicing. Sometimes doing this takes extra time and sometimes it costs more. But taking shortcuts with safety equipment maintenance can be deadly.
In recent months, there have been several such cases that demonstrate this point. Let’s look at a few.
One was a life raft case cited in a report released on Dec. 1 by the United Kingdom’s Marine Accidents Investigation Branch (MAIB) titled “MAIB Safety Digest 3/2009.”
The skipper of a 16' powered boat, referred to in the report as a “dory,” adjusted his course to avoid a cluster of lights before dawn, ceased to pay attention, and then rammed a 29' gillnetter, breaching its hull above and below the waterline.
The two deckhands on the gillnetter launched the life raft astern, but the raft did not fully inflate because there was insufficient gas in its cylinder.
“It had not been serviced in accordance with its manufacturer’s instructions,” the MAIB found.
Fortunately, a pilot boat arrived and rescued the captain and the two deck hands, though the gillnet vessel was lost. The dory skipper was injured but eventually managed to get his craft back to port.
Inflatable lifejackets
The same report detailed a case in which two deckhands, both wearing inflatable lifejackets, were setting longline gear. One of the men was abruptly thrown into the sea seconds after hurling a 10' marker buoy weighing about 59 pounds at the end of a set.
His co-worker threw two life buoys to him, but the man in the water did not swim toward them. He soon disappeared from sight and his body was never recovered.
The “lessons” section of the report noted that it was possible that his lifejacket did not inflate automatically due to a malfunction and that he had been rendered unconscious, making him unable to pull the manual inflation cord.
Said the MAIB, “Any inflatable lifejacket held on board should be regularly serviced according to manufacturer’s instructions. Ideally, a light should also be fitted.”
EPIRBs
Here in the US, the Coast Guard Seventh District, which covers South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, recently received at least three reports of faulty battery replacements in 406 EPIRBs. In each incident, the battery replacement was done by someone other than an authorized service agent.
These incidents were so serious that the Coast Guard issued Safety Alert 08-09 on Nov. 30. Titled “Unapproved EPIRB Battery Replacements,” the alert included an excerpt from an EPIRB manufacturer’s report that adeptly describes a situation so farfetched that is it worth quoting here.
“The unit was opened and a foreign battery was found inside,” the manufacturer’s report stated. “The battery was built up using (manufacturer) fuses and wiring salvaged from the original battery. They then covered their battery with the original (manufacturer) yellow heat shrink and (manufacturer) labels and taped it together.
“This was then covered with a black heat shrink wrap. The connections were soldered and not spot welded as is required by the design and is performed in (manufacturer) production. The battery measured 8.7 volts,” the EPIRB manufacturer report continued. “Our batteries read 9-plus volts when they are new.”
This jumbled mess of a battery had been installed in an EPIRB one week before it was brought into the manufacturer. There also was evidence that water had gotten into the device through a crack in the top cap, a serious fault that would have been recognized by a properly trained service provider.
“The EPIRB was condemned by (manufacturer) and the customer was notified when he came to pick the unit up,” the report stated.
Remember, battery replacement and maintenance on EPIRBs not done by the manufacturer or the manufacturer’s authorized service center renders the EPIRB out of compliance with Coast Guard regulations.
More importantly, a noncompliant EPRIB may not function properly when the need arises, leading to unnecessarily lost vessels and lives.
Many thanks to long-time marine safety advocate Richard Hiscock for keeping me apprised of these concerns.
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