The Henriksen HLH 3500 rescue boat and liferaft hook has grow to be a key ingredient of a brand new fall safety system invented by BC Ferries, the Descent Management System (DCS), which is now put in throughout its fleet of 38 ships.
As launching boats at sea is a high-risk exercise, BC Ferries embarked upon a two-year improvement program for its DCS. Now, every time BC Ferries rescue crews board their boats, they may every clip onto a webbing line that’s managed by an auto belay unit. Because the boat descends to sea degree the auto belay items pay out the crews’ strains till the boat is floating and the Henriksen on and off-load hook robotically disconnects it from the autumn line.
So long as the descent is uneventful, the crew members can then unclip from their auto belay and fasten their strains onto a wire loop adjoining to the Henriksen hook. This leaves them free to start their mission whereas with the ability to clip again onto their belay after they return. Ought to one thing go fallacious throughout a descent or ascent which causes the boat to fall away, the crew members could be safely lowered to the water by their auto belay.
These items are manufactured within the USA by Head Rush Expertise and have dependable magnetic braking. They’re extensively utilized in mountaineering gyms and are in a position to be employed within the DCS with out modification.
“The thought initially got here from our youngsters going to birthday events which had a climbing wall. The autumn safety system was really easy to make use of that children may leap from top and land fairly safely on the bottom. This identical system was getting used on climbing partitions by cruise ships in a marine atmosphere,” mentioned Capt Jan Brockhausen, Director of fleet know-how and human efficiency for BC Ferries. “After a major quantity of testing and danger evaluation, we landed on a design made completely by off-the-shelf components available out there, based mostly on these climbing wall belaying items. That is now all packaged collectively and authorized by Higginson Engineering to be used as a fall safety system which meets the necessities of the Occupational Security and Well being Rules in British Columbia.”
The impetus for this main change to BC Ferries’ ships was initiated by new SOLAS rules that require hooks to be able to launch in a restricted on-load or off-load situation. A change within the hooks proved obligatory because the Palfinger hooks that had been used beforehand are not in manufacturing. After detailed testing, the Henriksen HLH 3500 kg hook proved supreme and the order was positioned by way of Vestdavit, Henriksen’s consultant in Canada.
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