Below are the requirements and recommendations for maintenance and inspection of safety equipment in a compact and practical tool for ship owners, operators and Surveyors. New maintenance requirements for such equipment are published irregularly and in various IMO documents and chapters which makes it cumbersome and time consuming to keep track of all changes.

Additional or more stringent requirements of manufacturers and the competent Administration are to be observed.

Procedure

Certain maintenance procedures and inspections may be performed by competent crew members, while others shall be performed by specially trained persons. Which parts of the inspections and maintenance shall be completed by competent crew members or specially trained persons is indicated in the list.

Precautions

As a general rule all inspections shall be carried out in accordance with the system manufacturer’s instructions and safety precautions. If equipment is undergoing maintenance or testing then suitable arrangements shall be made

to ensure safety is not diminished through the provision of alternate equipment or other measures.

Records Records of the inspections shall be carried on board of the ship, or may be computer-based. In cases where the inspections and maintenance are carried out by specially trained persons other than the ship’s crew, inspection reports shall be provided upon the completion of the inspections. Some inspections required by SOLAS shall be

Testing of the automatic identification system (AIS)

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
	SOLAS V/18.9	All	Annually	Shore Service	Test report shall be retained on board the ship.

Long range identification and tracking system (LRIT)

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
	SOLAS V/19-1 SOLAS V/16 MSC.1/Circ.1307	All	Annually	Service Provider	Conformance Test Report shall be retained on board the ship.

Checking of radio battery

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
	SOLAS IV/13.6.2	All	Annually	Shore Service

Satellite EPIRBs

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
Testing according to MSC.1/Circ.1040/Rev.1.	SOLAS IV/15.9.1	All	Annually	Shore Service
Testing according to MSC/Circ.1039.	SOLAS IV/15.9.2	All	5-yearly	Shore Service	Certificate of Compliance shall be issued.

Standard magnetic compass

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
Determination of Magnetic Compass Error	STCW Code/Sec. A-VIII/2.34.2	All	Once a watch	Crew
Adjustment incl. Curve of Residual Deviation	Flag State requirements	All	Individual Flag State requirements	Individual Flag State requirements	Table or Curve of residual Deviation to be available at all times and compass deviation book to be properly maintained will be checked annually during safety equipment surveys. Res.A.1053(27), item (EA) 1.2.1.27

Steering gear

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
Testing	SOLAS V/26.1	All	12 hours before departure	Crew
Emergency steering drill	SOLAS V/26.4	All	Quarterly	Crew

Voyage data recorder (VDR)

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
	SOLAS V/18.8	All	Annually	Shore Service	Certificate of Compliance and maintenance report shall be retained on board the ship.

Maintenance of Other Miscellaneous Items

Lightweight survey

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
	SOLAS II-1/5.5 IS Code VIII/8.1.5	Passenger ships	5-yearly	Shore Service or Crew	Provided crew is properly trained.

Low-location lighting systems

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
Verify that the low-location lighting systems are functional by switching off normal lighting in selected locations.	MSC.1/Circ.1432, para. 4.6	Passenger ships	Weekly	Crew
Test the luminance in accordance with the procedures in resolution A.752(18).	MSC.1/Circ.1432, para. 9.5 Res.A.752(18)	Passenger ships	5-yearly	Shore Service

Medical oxygen

Requirement	Regulation	Ship Type	Interval	By	Remark
Replacement of oxygen.	National pharmaceutical regulations, if applicable	All	According to national pharmaceutical regulations	Maker
Hydrostatic test and internal inspection of cylinders.	Flag State, if applicable	All	According to Flag State requirements	Shore Service	Scope of inspection specified by the Flag State and/or recognized international standards (e.g. ISO, EN) are to be observed.