NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

No. 190

Government Notice

Shipping and Seamen Act 1952

The Lifesaving Appliances (Code of Practice for Existing Ships of Classes I and II) Notice 1989

Pursuant to section 235 of the Shipping and Seamen Act 1952, the Minister of Transport hereby gives the following notice.

Notice

1. Title and commencement—(1) This notice may be cited as the Lifesaving Appliances (Code of Practice for Existing Ships of Classes I and II) Notice 1989.

(2) This notice shall come into force on the 1st day of November 1989.

2. Code of Practice prescribed—The Code of Practice set out in the Schedule to this notice is hereby prescribed for the purposes of the Shipping (Lifesaving Appliances) Regulations 1989.

Schedule

Code of Practice for Existing Ships of Classes I and II

1. Interpretation

In this Schedule unless the context otherwise requires:

“The Act” means the Shipping and Seamen Act 1952.

“Approved” means approved in writing by the Director.

“Buoyant apparatus” means flotation equipment (other than lifebuoys and lifejackets) designed to support persons who are in the water.

“Certified” means certified by a certificate issued under section 219 of the Act or accepted by a surveyor as equivalent to such certificate for the purposes of this Schedule.

“Child” For the purposes of these Regulations, a “child” means a passenger weighing less than 32 kg and the term “childrens lifejacket” shall mean a lifejacket approved for use by a person weighing less than 32 kg.

“Existing ship” means a ship which is not a new ship.

“Hydrofoil ship” means a ship which is supported above the water surface in normal operating conditions by hydrodynamic forces generated on foils.

“Immersion suit” means a protective suit which reduces the body heat-loss of a person wearing it in cold water.

“Launching appliance or arrangement” means an appliance or arrangement for transferring a survival craft, or boat from its stowed position safely to the water.

“New ship” means a ship of which the keel is laid, or in respect of which a similar stage of construction is reached,

(a) in the case of a ship of Class I, on the 1st day of July 1986; and

(b) in the case of a ship of Class II, on the date of commencement of this Notice;

and for the purposes of this definition, “similar stage of construction” means the stage at which construction identifiable with the ship comprises at least 50 tonnes or 1 per cent of the estimated mass of the structural material of the completed ship, whichever is the less. A cargo ship, whenever built, which is converted to a passenger ship shall be treated as a passenger ship constructed on the date on which such a conversion commences.

“Passenger” means a person carried on board a ship except:

(a) a person employed or engaged in any capacity on board the ship on the business of that ship;

(b) a person on board the ship either in pursuance of the obligation laid upon the master to carry shipwrecked, distressed, or other persons or by reason of any circumstance that neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer (if any) could have prevented or forestalled;

(c) a child under the age of 1 year.

“Passenger ship” means a ship carrying more than 12 passengers; or, in the case of a ship plying within restricted limits, means a ship carrying any passengers.

“Person” means a person over the age of 1 year.

“Surface effect ship” means a ship the weight of which, in the normal operating condition, is partially supported by a cushion of air expelled from the ship, and by the buoyancy of its immersed hull or hulls.

“Thermal protective aid” means a bag or suit made of waterproof material with low thermal conductivity.

Other expressions defined in the Act have the meaning so defined.

2. Application

This Schedule applies to Existing Ships of Classes I and II except ships of Class II which are hydrofoil or surface effect ships.

3. Lifeboats, liferafts and buoyant apparatus

Every ship of Class I or Class II to which this Code of Practice applies shall carry either:

(a) On each side of the ship lifeboats of sufficient aggregate capacity to accommodate 1/2 of the total number of persons which the ship is certified to carry; or

(b) in the case of a ship of Class I: lifeboats and liferafts which together provide sufficient aggregate capacity to accommodate the total number of persons which the ship is certified to carry: provided there shall never be less than sufficient lifeboats on each side of the ship to accommodate 37.5 per cent of the total number of persons which the ship is certified to carry; or

(c) in the case of a ship of Class II which is sub-divided in accordance with the requirements of the Shipping (Construction) Regulations 1989, such lifeboats and liferafts as are together sufficient for the total number of persons which the ship is certified to carry; but in any such case the number of lifeboats carried in ships of 75m in length or over shall never be less than 2; and of which shall be carried on each side of the ship, and in ships of less than 75m in length shall never be less than 1 of which shall be carried on each side of the ship.

(2) On every ship of Class I or Class II to which this Code of Practice applies 2 of the lifeboats required by sub-clause (1) of this clause shall be kept ready for immediate use in an emergency while the ship is at sea. These emergency lifeboats shall be not more than 8.5m in length, and each of them shall be a motor lifeboat and may be counted for the purposes of sub-clauses (3) or (5) of this clause.

(3) In every ship of Class I to which this Code of Practice applies which is certified to carry more than 30 persons at least 1 of the lifeboats carried on each side of the ship shall be a motor lifeboat; and in every ship of Class I which is certified to carry 30 persons or less at least 1 of the lifeboats shall be a motor lifeboat.

(4) In every ship of Class I to which this Code of Practice applies which is certified to carry 1,500 persons or more, each of the motor lifeboats carried in compliance with sub-clause (3) of this clause shall be provided with radio equipment complying with the requirements of the Shipping (Radio) Regulations 1989. In every such ship which is certified to carry more than 1999 but less than 1,500 persons, at least 1 of the motor lifeboats carried in compliance with sub-clause (3) of this clause shall be so provided.

(5) In every ship of Class II to which this Code of Practice applies which is certified to carry more than 50 but less than 250 persons at least 1 of the lifeboats carried shall be a motor lifeboat, and in every such ship which is certified to carry 250 persons or more at least 1 of the lifeboats carried on each side of the ship shall be a motor lifeboat.