Davit failures
- Safety Flash
- Published on 4 September 2019
- Generated on 15 August 2025
- IMCA SF 21/19
- 1 minute read
A member reports two recent issues relating to the davits of small boats
What happened?
- During routine inspection of the rescue boat equipment and davit swing, it was noted that the davit would not swing out. This was due to a malfunctioning hydraulic pump not building up pressure.
- During a weekly technical inspection of lifeboats and davits, a delay in response of the aft davit was noticed whilst swinging in the starboard lifeboat to the stowed position. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the hydraulic accumulator valve of the forward davit was changed over to ‘evacuation mode’ in order to direct hydraulic oil to the hydraulic cylinder of the aft davit only. After that, the aft and forward davits came back to the stowed position at the same time.
What went wrong?
- In both cases equipment failure.
- The faults were observed in routine planned inspections of the equipment, which emphasises the importance of conducting inspections and planned maintenance.
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