Judy Maksoud
International Editor

LISBON, Portugal -- Lifeboat performance is critical to crew safety in offshore operations. Antonio Simoes of Canada's National Research Council addressed the subject of lifeboat performance at the International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference on July 4.

Simoes discussed a joint research program carried out between NRC and the Memorial University of Newfoundland that gathered data on lifeboat freefall at the test basin facilities at NRC. "The vision of the program was to improve the safety of personnel at sea," he said.

The analysis included numerous systematic tests with varying wind and wave speeds and lifeboat displacements, Simoes explained. "We developed a lot of performance measures for our tests," Simoes said, "and we carried out validity tests for benchmarking conditions."

The testing comprised a large number of random freefalls that yielded some useful observations. The tests revealed a strong relationship between the location of the boat in relation to the waves and the level of safety of the drop. The best drops occurred when the boat landed on the crest or the downslope of the wave, Simoes said, and the worst occurred when the boat landed on the upslope of the wave or in the trough.

A timing device is now being verified, Simoes said, that will allow the lifeboat to drop on the crest or downslope to ensure the best possible results for crew safety.

July 4, 2007