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SOLAS DRILLS REFERENCES

Regulation 21 - Periodical Operation and Inspection of Watertight

1 Drills for the operating of watertight doors, sidescuttles, valves and closing mechanisms of
scuppers, ash-chutes and rubbish-chutes shall take place weekly. In ships in which the
voyage exceeds one week in duration a complete drill shall be held before leaving port,
and others thereafter at least once a week during the voyage.

2 All watertight doors, both hinged and power operated, in watertight bulkheads, in use at
sea, shall be operated daily.

Regulation 15 - Instructions, On-Board Training and Drills

2 General requirements

2.2 On-board training and drills

2.2.4 On-board training in the use of the ship's fire-extinguishing systems and appliances
shall be planned and conducted in accordance with the provisions of regulation III/19.4.1.

2.2.5 Fire drills shall be conducted and recorded in accordance with the provisions
of regulations III/19.3 and III/19.5.

3 Additional requirements for passenger ships

3.1 Fire drills

In addition to the requirement of paragraph 2.2.3, fire drills shall be conducted in accordance
with the provisions of regulation III/30, having due regard to notification of passengers and
movement of passengers to assembly stations and embarkation decks.

Date created: 12 January 2018

Regulation 19 - Emergency Training and Drills

2 Familiarity with safety installations and practice musters

2.1 Every crew member with assigned emergency duties shall be familiar with these duties
before the voyage begins.

2.2 On a ship engaged on a voyage where passengers are scheduled to be on board for
more than 24 h, musters of newly-embarked passengers shall take place prior to or
immediately upon departure. Passengers shall be instructed in the use of the lifejackets
and the action to take in an emergency.

2.3 Whenever new passengers embark, a passenger safety briefing shall be given
immediately before departure, or immediately after departure. The briefing shall include
the instructions required by regulations 8.2 and 8.4, and shall be made by means of an
announcement, in one or more languages likely to be understood by the passengers. The
announcement shall be made on the ship's public address system, or by other equivalent
means likely to be heard at least by the passengers who have not yet heard it during the
voyage. The briefing may be included in the muster required by paragraph 2.2. Information
cards or posters or video programmes displayed on ships video displays may be used to
supplement the briefing, but may not be used to replace the announcement.

3 Drills

3.2 Every crew member shall participate in at least one abandon ship drill and one fire
drill every month. The drills of the crew shall take place within 24 h of the ship leaving a port
if more than 25% of the crew have not participated in abandon ship and fire drills on board
that particular ship in the previous month. When a ship enters service for the first time, after
modification of a major character or when a new crew is engaged, these drills shall be
held before sailing. The Administration may accept other arrangements that are at least
equivalent for those classes of ships for which this is impracticable.

3.3 Crew members with enclosed space entry or rescue responsibilities shall participate in an
enclosed space entry and rescue drill to be held on board the ship at least once every
two months.

Date created: 12 January 2018

3.4.3 Except as provided in paragraphs 3.4.4 and 3.4.5, each lifeboat shall be launched, and
manoeuvred in the water by its assigned operating crew, at least once every three months
during an abandon ship drill.

3.4.4 In the case of a lifeboat arranged for free-fall launching, at least once every three
months during an abandon ship drill the crew shall board the lifeboat, properly secure
themselves in their seats and commence launch procedures up to but not including the
actual release of the lifeboat (i.e., the release hook shall not be released). The lifeboat shall
then either be free-fall launched with only the required operating crew on board, or
lowered into the water by means of the secondary means of launching with or without
the operating crew on board. In both cases the lifeboat shall thereafter be manoeuvred in
the water by the operating crew. At intervals of not more than six months, the lifeboat
shall either be launched by free-fall with only the operating crew on board, or simulated
launching shall be carried out in accordance with the guidelines developed by the
Organization*.

3.4.5 The Administration may allow ships operating on short international voyages not to
launch the lifeboats on one side if their berthing arrangements in port and their trading
patterns do not permit launching of lifeboats on that side. However, all such lifeboats shall be
lowered at least once every three months and launched at least annually.

3.4.6 As far as is reasonable and practicable, rescue boats other than lifeboats which are
also rescue boats, shall be launched each month with their assigned crew aboard and
manoeuvred in the water. In all cases this requirement shall be complied with at least once
every three months.

3.4.8 If a ship is fitted with marine evacuation systems, drills shall include exercising of the
procedures required for the deployment of such a system up to the point immediately
preceding actual deployment of the system. This aspect of drills should be augmented by
regular instruction using the on-board training aids required by regulation 35.4. Additionally
every system party member shall, as far as practicable, be further trained by participation in a
full deployment of a similar system into water, either on board a ship or ashore, at intervals
of not longer than two years, but in no case longer than three years. This training can be
associated with the deployments required by regulation 20.8.2.

4 On-board training and instructions

Date created: 12 January 2018

4.1 On-board training in the use of the ship's life-saving appliances, including survival craft
equipment, and in the use of the ship's fire-extinguishing appliances shall be given as soon
as possible but not later than two weeks after a crew member joins the ship. However, if
the crew member is on a regularly scheduled rotating assignment to the ship, such training
shall be given not later than two weeks after the time of first joining the ship. Instructions
in the use of the ship's fire-extinguishing appliances, life-saving appliances, and in survival at
sea shall be given at the same interval as the drills. Individual instruction may cover
different parts of the ship's life-saving and fire-extinguishing appliances, but all the ship's life-
saving and fire-extinguishing appliances shall be covered within any period of two
months.

4.3 On-board training in the use of davit-launched liferafts shall take place at intervals of
not more than four months on every ship fitted with such appliances. Whenever
practicable this shall include the inflation and lowering of a liferaft. This liferaft may be a
special liferaft intended for training purposes only, which is not part of the ship's life-saving
equipment; such a special liferaft shall be conspicuously marked.

5 Records

The date when musters are held, details of abandon ship drills and fire drills, enclosed space
entry and rescue drills, drills of other life-saving appliances and on board training shall be
recorded in such log-book as may be prescribed by the Administration. If a full muster, drill or
training session is not held at the appointed time, an entry shall be made in the log-book
stating the circumstances and the extent of the muster, drill or training session held.

Regulation 30 - Drills

1 This regulation applies to all passenger ships.

2 On passenger ships, an abandon ship drill and fire drill shall take place weekly. The
entire crew need not be involved in every drill, but each crew member must participate in
an abandon ship drill and a fire drill each month as required in regulation 19.3.2.
Passengers shall be strongly encouraged to attend these drills.

Date created: 12 January 2018

Regulation 26 - Steering Gear: Testing and Drills

1 Within 12 hours before departure, the ship's steering gear shall be checked and tested
by the ship's crew…

4 In addition to the routine checks and tests prescribed in paragraphs 1 and 2, emergency
steering drills shall take place at least once every three months in order to practise
emergency steering procedures. These drills shall include direct control within the steering
gear compartment, the communications procedure with the navigation bridge and, where
applicable, the operation of alternative power supplies.

5 The Administration may waive the requirements to carry out the checks and tests
prescribed in paragraphs 1 and 2 for ships which regularly engage on voyages of short
duration. Such ships shall carry out these checks and tests at least once every week.

ISPS code 13 - Drills and exercises

13.6 To ensure the effective implementation of the provisions of the ship security plan, drills
should be conducted at least once every three months. In addition, in cases where more
than 25 percent of the ship’s personnel has been changed, at any one time, with
personnel that has not previously participated in any drill on that ship, within the last 3
months, a drill should be conducted within one week of the change. These drills should test
individual elements of the plan such as those security threats listed in paragraph 8.9.

13.7 Various types of exercises which may include participation of company security
officers, port facility security officers, relevant authorities of Contracting Governments
as well as ship security officers, if available, should be carried out at least once each
calendar year with no more than 18 months between the exercises. These exercises
should test communications, coordination, resource availability, and response. These
exercises may be:
.1 full scale or live;
.2 tabletop simulation or seminar; or
.3 combined with other exercises held such as search and rescue or emergency response
exercises.

13.8 Company participation in an exercise with another Contracting Government should be

Date created: 12 January 2018