The attached bulletin is putting awareness to any ship/rig carrying a rescue boat type WHFRB 6,50, produced by Watercraft Hellas, which is a company owned by the Norsafe AS.

The bulletin informs that the rescue boat weight has increased, from it’s original weight due to water ingress in to the foam compartments. The foam compartments are designed to be watertight, and there should be no water ingress, unless there are damages or cracks somewhere in the boat, which could lead water to the foam compartments. It is a possibility that water can enter into foam compartments in any boat type, if there are cracks, damages or bad sealing’s etc. A specific Product Awareness Notice for the rescue boat type WHFRP 6,50 , has been issued and distributed to operators carrying this boat type.

Our recommendation for any other boattype is to do regular inspection and control of your boat, observe the performance of the boat and check the weight of the boat towards the certificate. In case of deviations, please contact the original manufacturer of the boat.

(Please also take note of the recommendations in the MAIB Safety Bulletin.)

Furthermore we want to highlight that the excess weight of the boat, was in this case not the reason for this incident. As far as we know the investigation of the incident is ongoing, but it has been concluded that the wire was pulled off by the winch, as the limit switch on the davit was broken.

By saying this, we want to highlight the importance of regular inspection and control of the LSA arrangement as a whole.

In case any Norsafe type of rescue boat is found to be over weighted, we kindly ask you to fill in the attached weight report scheme, and submit this to service@norsafe.com

Please find link to MAIB bulletin SB 2 (Davit failure) here.

Please find link to MAIB bulletin SB 1 here.

Please find link to the Product Awareness Notice WHFRB 650 here.

Please find link to Rescue boat weight registration form here.