Cape Kestrel - Oct 2001

Lifeboat falls parted when the davits came past the limit switches and up against the stops with the winch still running

On completion of a lifeboat exercise, the hooks were reconnected. However the remote control for the winch motor was not operating. The winch was started by manually depressing the main contactor for the motor on the starter panel for the lifeboat winches, located in the air conditioning room aft in the accommodation.

Hoisting of the boat continued with the first engineer depressing the contactor in the starter panel. The davits came in, past the limit switches and up against the stops, with the winch still running. The forward fall parted, followed by the after fall, causing the boat to fall about 20 metres to the water.

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Cape Kestrel - Oct 2001