On Monday 17th March a Marine Evacuation System (MES) timed evacuation deployment was conducted from the SeaJets HSC Catamaran “Champion Jet 3” in Piraeus Harbour, Greece. The test was conducted in accordance with IMO Res.81 (70)
A 100p MES was deployed consisting of 100 person Self Righting Liferaft and 14 metre evacuation slide, with an additional 2 x 100p Self Righting Liferafts for a total liferaft capacity of 300 persons, in conditions of approximately 15 knots of true windspeed with an associated wave height.
28 crew and 272 other persons (for a total of 300), being a good cross section of adults of both sexes and also children, all wearing SOLAS approved lifejackets, descended the evacuation slide into the 100 person liferafts in a total time including inflation of the equipment of 11 minutes and 30 seconds (approximately 1 x person every 2.3 seconds).
No injuries or concerns were noted and after completion of the test all evacuees were transferred to the port in a safe and efficient manner.
The marine administration and vessel owners witnessing the test were extremely complimentary of the LSA equipment, which was then safely removed from the vessel and transferred to our authorised service agent (Marine Safety Center) for servicing and re-packing, to be re-installed on the vessel prior to the summer season. Kyriakos and George Dermatis from Marine Safety Center are to be congratulated for their efficiency during the test and then recovering the equipment.
The test once again demonstrated the safety, ease of operation and efficiency of the LSA MES for one of our significant customers SeaJets of Greece.