Driving Lifeboats & Rescue Boats + Launch and Recovery of Boats from Ships

Product Description

These two books, both written by highly experienced navigator Dag Pike AFNI, are thoroughly practical guides for carrying out one of the most demanding tasks a seafarer will ever have to face – taking to the boats after an emergency at sea.

Launching, operating and recovering small boats are outside the expertise of most crew and require great skill and seamanship. Training in sheltered waters can never properly prepare the mariner for hazards of an emergency abandon ship.

Both books aim to fill the gap between training and reality by providing potentially lifesaving insights into the realities of launching and handling a lifeboat, MOB boat or fast rescue boat in all conditions. Photographs and clear diagrams help explain the most effective techniques for leaving the ship’s side and handling small craft in following seas, beam seas, head seas, fog, ice and darkness.

Lack of practical launching experience together with well-publicised practice accidents have contributed to a lack of seafarer confidence in lifeboat launch equipment. The author explains in clear language the techniques, systems and boarding preparations that can improve safety at this critical time. As a former RNLI lifeboat inspector, Captain Pike is well placed to review the various types of equipment available and their relative benefits and drawbacks.

Captain Pike also discusses the transfer of passengers from a lifeboat or rescue boat to a ship – a task made harder by the unsatisfactory design of many modern lifesaving craft – and the recovery of the boat itself.

Together, Launch and Recovery of Boats from Ships and Driving Lifeboats and Rescue Boats provide vital guidance for mariners at every level and also important insights for shipowners, LSA designers and manufacturers, and regulators.