lifeboat questions

[NoWhiners]

Did you make any enquiries onboard? A broken window replaced with plywood is one thing, but losing a lifeboat's hull integrity with a 3" hole is a different issue altogether.

 

 

No, that never occurred to us. I guess we figured they knew that the window was replaced with plywood, and it they saw that, the hole was pretty obvious.:)

 

I don't think the tenders are water tight upside down, just the non-tender "capsule" type life boats.

 

Understood, but they use some of the lifeboats as tenders and ours was one of them for this cruise. During the safety video thye show on the TV, they say that the lifeboats are water-tight, even if upside down. Clearly that wasn't happening with ours. Its a low probability event, we just thought it was sort of funny.:D

 

ML

[chengkp75]

Will the lifeboats really hold their stated capacity? Passenger rear ends look bigger than the space they are supposed to fit in. I am guessing that lifeboats were designed for 1930's backsides, not 2010's backsides.

 

Best answer, maybe. The standard for lifeboat capacity is 82.5 kg/person (181.5 lb/person), and a space of 17" wide x 24" front to back (knees to back, sitting). The weight standard was recently updated from 75 kg/person. Pretty much, you are in there like sardines, with some folks leaning forward and some sitting upright to get their shoulders into the space allowed. I've always said that lifeboat capacity was based on an all Philipino crew. Of course, the number of children in a boat will make more room for "larger" adults.

[CruiserBruce]

Best answer, maybe. The standard for lifeboat capacity is 82.5 kg/person (181.5 lb/person), and a space of 17" wide x 24" front to back (knees to back, sitting). The weight standard was recently updated from 75 kg/person. Pretty much, you are in there like sardines, with some folks leaning forward and some sitting upright to get their shoulders into the space allowed. I've always said that lifeboat capacity was based on an all Philipino crew. Of course, the number of children in a boat will make more room for "larger" adults.

 

17" wide is the average coach plane seat. But the thing to note is we would be wearing our life jackets. That definitely takes up considerable space.

[chengkp75]

No, that never occurred to us. I guess we figured they knew that the window was replaced with plywood, and it they saw that, the hole was pretty obvious.:)

 

 

 

Understood, but they use some of the lifeboats as tenders and ours was one of them for this cruise. During the safety video thye show on the TV, they say that the lifeboats are water-tight, even if upside down. Clearly that wasn't happening with ours. Its a low probability event, we just thought it was sort of funny.:D

 

ML

 

Unless the boat has fiberglass doors with a set of locking handles, they are not "watertight". Most of the tender style boats that double as lifeboats are definitely not watertight. Many of the standard lifeboats are what is referred to as "semi-enclosed", which means they have a roof over them, but the doors, for instance, are just canvas roll-ups designed to keep out spray. What they may have meant is that the boat itself has enough floatation to stay afloat even when upside down. "Totally enclosed" lifeboats have the doors and hatches as I've described, and are also considered to be "self-righting" (so if they are rolled upside down, they will roll back upright) IF EVERYONE IS SEATBELTED TO THE SEATS. Very important point, as the weight of the people is what rights the boat, but if everyone falls to the top of the boat, it won't roll back upright. So this is another clue as to whether a boat is watertight or not; does it have seatbelts.

 

Some holes in the boats are okay, and the crew were probably waiting for material to repair it. If the hole does not puncture a floatation chamber (empty space in the hull for air), then it does no real harm, just looks bad.

[Fouremco]

Best answer, maybe. The standard for lifeboat capacity is 82.5 kg/person (181.5 lb/person), and a space of 17" wide x 24" front to back (knees to back, sitting). The weight standard was recently updated from 75 kg/person. Pretty much, you are in there like sardines, with some folks leaning forward and some sitting upright to get their shoulders into the space allowed. I've always said that lifeboat capacity was based on an all Philipino crew. Of course, the number of children in a boat will make more room for "larger" adults.

Possibly a benefit for Disney and some other lines' passengers, but not much relief for HAL cruisers. :eek:

 

[whogo]

Thanks for info, chengkp75.

[RuthC]

Wayyy back in the good old days, we had lifeboat drill every seven days of the cruise. What was different from taking the typical 7-day cruise was that on longer cruises, every drill covered different topics. We learned about the food and medicine aboard, saw divers in their gear; the boats were lowered for a more practical demonstration.

I can't remember all of it now as it's been too long, but it certainly was interesting.

Not that I advocate more drills, but it would be nice if there were some way to incorporate some of this more extensive information. People might pay more attention, too.

[Ians Grandma]

How do the crew board the rafts?

[chengkp75]

How do the crew board the rafts?

 

There are generally two different types of rafts.

 

Davit launched rafts are lowered to the embarkation deck, inflated, and the crew boards there, and then lower themselves to the water.

 

"Marine Evacuation System" rafts are deployed two or three at a time, and as one raft falls to the water it inflates and pulls an inflatable slide or chute with it. Crew will slide down the chute into the raft. Crew will pull the other one or two rafts alongside the first raft, inflate it, and direct the arriving crew into this second raft. As each raft fills, it is cut loose, and the next is inflated and filled. Finally, the chute raft is filled, and cut loose from the ship.

 

There are some youtube videos of demostrations of the evacuation chutes and slides out there.

[Ians Grandma]

Thanks again for all of the great information. One last question, how many crew would be on each lifeboat if all goes as planned? That is to handle the boat, etc.? Do they try to have an officer on each boat?

[FredT]

Someone "up thread" made mention of the book on the Prinsendam fire. I have heard about it before but never heard of the book. Just ordered it on Amazon, and looking forward to reading it. (Maybe on our upcoming Volendam far east cruise? :D )

[chengkp75]

Thanks again for all of the great information. One last question, how many crew would be on each lifeboat if all goes as planned? That is to handle the boat, etc.? Do they try to have an officer on each boat?

 

There are normally only about 3 crew assigned to each boat, except for the mega-boats on the Allure class, which apparently have 16. No, generally the officers are still at emergency stations when the boats get away, still trying to handle the emergency and save the vessel. After the passengers leave, the Captain will signal the crew to abandon ship by one long blast on the ship's horn, and the crew will report to their abandon ship station. On a lot of ships, the rafts are interspersed between the boat davits, so it requires the boats and guests to be away before there is room to lower the rafts and embark the crew.