Guidance

MGN 553 Amendment 1(M+F): Inflatable Non-SOLAS liferafts and life-saving appliances

MCA policy for acceptable standards of non-SOLAS inflatable life-saving appliances incorporating the changes in the rationalised ISO 9650-1-2022, and completion of phase out of ORC liferafts.

• From: Maritime and Coastguard Agency
• Published: 22 April 2024

Documents

MGN 553 Amendment 1(M+F) Inflatable Non-SOLAS Liferafts and life-saving appliances

HTML

MGN 553 Amendment 1 Annex 1

HTML

Details

Notice to all Owners and Operators of Fishing Vessels, Small Commercial Vessels and Domestic Passenger ships with non-SOLAS MES; Manufacturers, Suppliers, and Service Station Personnel for all Products within the Scope of this Note. 

This notice updates and replaces MGN 553(M+F) previously published in October 2016.

This provides ammendments in accordance with the updated standard BS ISO 9650 – 1:2022 provisions (was previously BS ISO 9650-1:2005, BS ISO 9650-2:2005)  

The key amendments within this Note for non-SOLAS inflatable LSA are that: 

• Non-SOLAS liferafts marketed as compliant with ISO 9650 may now be marked for a capacity of 4 to 16 persons.   
• Non-SOLAS liferafts built to comply with the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) standard previously accepted on UK commercial vessels are now phased out of service in accordance with the arrangements detailed in the previous MGN 553.

Published 22 April 2024