Fishing vessel drills
All fishing vessels must carry out regular drills and record these. Drills may differ depending on whether the vessel is single handed or not.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will expect you to carry out successful drills at every inspection or survey, and on every occasion a man overboard drill will be carried out. Failure to undertake successful drills will mean that the Fishing Vessel Certificate is not issued.
It is critical that when planning your drills that you consider whether that equipment you have will recover an unconscious person or someone unable to help themselves. In UK waters, it can be less than 5 minutes before someone is unable to help themselves, even in summer.
Ensure that when purchasing equipment for recovery purposes, you consider this so that you can practice how to recover someone who cannot help in their recovery.
Drills for single handed vessels must include:
- Man Overboard
- Abandon ship
- Rescue another vessel’s casualty from the water
- Fire
- Hull damage/taking water/sinking
- Collision/ grounding
Drills for crewed vessels must include:
- Muster stations drills
- Fire
- Collision/grounding
- Hull damage/taking water/sinking
- Abandon ship
Further guidance on how to conduct drills is contained in MGN 570 - Fishing Vessels: Emergency Drills.