Must we really safety standards for RIB and inflatable boats?

Do you know about the Safety Standards for RIBs?

If not, please read on!

Safety Standards for ships and all watercraft date back for centuries and have mainly been associated with Naval Authorities but since the advent of commercial craft, and then, latterly recreational craft, Safety Standards have become the domain of specialized civilian National bodies. To bring it up to the recent past, the formation of the European Community started a complete harmonization of the National safety standards of the Member States covering most consumer products and this is where we can pick up the origins of our current Standards for RIBs and Inflatable Boats.

The European Union issued a Directive 94/25/EC, called the RCD (Recreational Craft Directive), stating that all craft distributed for sale in the EU must be compliant its essential requirements of the RCD. The ISO 6185 Standard is the voluntary tool that is used by RIB builders, RIB importers and RIB surveyors to ensure that the requirements of the RCD are met. It controls the safety aspects of the design and testing of RIBs and inflatables up to 24m. This is not about how operators use or maintain the craft, neither is it about manufacturer's production quality assurance system. It is focused on protecting the consumer from buying a poorly conceived or constructed craft or a craft made from sub standard materials.

The enforcement of the RCD in Europe varies from State to State but is usually monitored by each member's appropriate Organization such as National Marine Authorities, Trade Associations, and Standards Institutes. In the UK, it's the Dept of Trade and Industry thru their networks of public works offices. In some cases, even manufacturers, distributors and consumers themselves have been quick to point out potential non compliance as every craft available for sale in the EC must show that it complies with the Directive by showing a recognized Builders plate for everyone to see and verify. Usually, a Boat show or other public displays are good venues to check craft. However, I will not dwell too deeply on the machinations of the why's and how's but suffice to say that every member state of the EU has adopted and should enforce the RCD.

I have been the Convener of the Working Group of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which has been maintaining the ISO 6185 series of safety standards for inflatable boats and RIBs since 1988. Members of the WG (called Experts) are normally nominated by the appropriate Authorities of the Member States. The UK, for example, is represented by Experts from the RYA and the BMF. In the "old days" Experts were a mix of individuals from Standards Organizations such as the BSI and DIN as well as actual Boat manufacturers but in recent years, the Experts are marine professionals practiced in Standardization.

There are 4 Parts to the current Standard; each Part covering a certain size of boat and motor rating from 2.5m up to 24m.

We have only recently been finishing the work on the relatively new Part 4 which concerns RIBs from 8m to 24m. This then led to revising Part 3 which covers RIBs up to 8m. These 2 Parts concern the vast majority of RIBs in use today.

Each Part is scheduled for review every 5 years to determine if a full revision is required or not. As RIBs have become bigger and more complicated; some having covered decks and cabins, the task of determining safe levels of buoyancy and stability become more complicated. In fact, this evolution of RIB design has helped change the profile of the Experts in the Working Group. We are lucky to have been able to call upon the expertise of other ISO Working Group Experts who are tasked with Standards for all types of boats up to 24m.

Safety is the single concern for the Experts of the Working Group and governs every decision. A very valuable source of safety information concerning safety incidents at sea is the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch. They have an open and thorough reporting system and any incident concerning a RIB gets discussion in the Working Group. There are an increasing amount of accidents concerning RIBs and some of this can be attributed to their increasing numbers. There are also more commercial "Adventure rides" in RIBs which increase exposure to accidents involving fare paying passengers getting injured. This could surely lead to more stringent controls of design and construction by other Authorities such as the MCA...

I have to say that when I looked at the MAIB 2009/1 Safety Digest covering Small Craft, RIBs were prominent in the "lessons learned" case studies. Whilst some of these incidents were attributable to human error, some of the problems were compounded by design and installation failures. The Working group therefore tries to bring in sensible corrections in the safety Standard where possible.

I have spent over 45 years driving small craft, mainly inflatables and RIBs and I, like you maybe, think that the fact we have large inflatable buoyancy tubes around the hull gives us a large safety and performance margin over our "non inflatable" cousins of similar length. One of the fears that I have in the evolution of Standards is that this margin will be lost in the tendency to harmonize standards for all small powered craft. There are some who think that ISO 6185 should just concern just the inflatable parts of the craft! They fail to realize the sum of a well designed and constructed hull and tube working in harmony is far more efficient than the characteristics of the individual parts.

The process of getting an ISO Standard created, drafted, agreed, finished, voted and published is sometimes quite long and arduous. The Working group has to be tasked by the appropriate ISO Technical Committee, in our case it is TC 188. Small Craft. Resources are scarce, especially these days, so new work items are only taken on when necessary. There is a TC 188 Plenary meeting every year which reviews the Work of the 27 active Working Groups, discusses future projects, reports on liaisons with other ISO Technical Committees and generally updates all the plenary participants.

There are predefined formats and structures for all International Standards that the Working Groups must follow. Experts collect and decide on the relevant technical data and then make decisions about what will be a Requirement in the Standard and the appropriate test method or calculation to ensure that the Requirement is met. In our case, we always try to keep in mind the resources available to typical RIB manufacturers who must perform the test or the calculation to satisfy themselves or the Examining Surveyor that the requirement has been met.

Once the Working Group has finished a first Draft of the Standard, which may have already taken a year to achieve, they submit it to the Technical Committee as an ISO DIS, which means it's a Draft International Standard protected by Copyright laws. The DIS then goes to the 32 EU Members for review and a vote. 19 Members have vote status, the others are Observers. If there is a majority vote to pass the DIS, it is then returned to the Working Group to deal with any corrections or comments that may have arisen during this process. The DIS then becomes an FDIS which means it's a Final Draft International Standard and submitted again to the Members for Voting. If it passes again, then it is returned to the Working Group for any final corrections and then its on its way as a full ISO Standard. If the Draft fails to pass at any time, it is sent back to the Working Group to address the reasons why it was rejected. The publication of the Standard is organized by CEN which is the European Committee for Standardisation and it is then made available to the public for a fee.

One of the reasons that Part 4 of the Standard is taking so long to be published is that it met a lot of resistance through its Final draft status and even though it passed the majority vote rule, it failed the final test which is carried out by the CEN Consultant, a paid professional whose job it is, amongst others, is to ensure that the Standard does adequately address the essential requirements of the RCD. In this case, the Consultant believed that it did not and it was sent back to the Working Group at the eleventh hour. It was subsequently changed so much that it went back to a DIS status and is currently on its way round again in the first voting stage. I understand that it has been passed and we are waiting to get our hands on it again so that we can revise and correct it to bring it up to the FDIS level.

Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Part 3 of the standard which covers RIBs and Inflatables up to 8m had been ordered to be revised by the TC and this was maybe a chance to harmonize the 2 parts in a bold new departure from the "norm". However it was decided that this would delay the much needed Part 4 for too long so, instead, a Part 3 revision was undertaken that used many of the new items in Part 4.

Of particular note are the new items such as:
the requirement that boats must have means of a Man Overboard Prevention and Recovery the technical requirements for foam or other materials used in solid or filled buoyancy tubes. the strength of principal accessories such as steering consoles and seats and the method by which they are attached to the deck. There are some tests to be carried out to show they can withstand sufficient lateral forces. Testing the strength of the attachment method between the buoyancy tube and the hull in RIBs over 8m.

Some RIB and inflatable manufacturers are able to choose to self certify their boats once they have been audited by an appropriate authority; others contract the certification to Notified Bodies who are familiar with the challenges of compliance. That is why it's important to write standards that are easily understood by the people who use them and to have testing and examination that is within the resources of the industry at large.

My name is Tim Fleming and I specialize in Custom Yacht Tenders for Large Yachts. I have been in the inflatable boat business for most of my working life and now I am a full time independent specialist that would like to help you procure and maintain a yacht tender best suited to your needs.
Whether it's chasing down spare parts in any corner of the world or helping you procure an "off the shelf" tender or building a custom tender from a clean sheet of paper, I have the time, resources and knowledge to help you do it.
I am also a journalist, a PR consultant and Chairman of the ISO Working Group that edits safety standards for RIBS and Inflatables