Recently Maritron has received numerous cries for assistance from owners of vessels less than 65' who are failing Coast Guard inspections due to non-compliance with Coast Guard requirements for certified fire detection systems.
As many of you know, the sizeable architecture and roughly $10,000 price tag of the present Coast Guard certified panels is prohibitive. We decided to do some research on what appeared to be the sudden enforcement of a new ruling and what, if any, panel the Coast Guard had certified for smaller vessels.
We enlisted the assistance of Sven Lansberg, who distributes the Servofighter marine alarm panel. We believe the Servofighter, or an equivalent model, would provide an excellent solution to this problem if the manufacturer and Coast Guard could coordinate certification specifications and requirements.
Servofighter Marine Alarm Panel
We contacted the Coast Guard authorities both locally and nationally. We found that the rule is actually not new at all, it was established 1998 or 1999 but since there wasn’t any applicable systems available on the market then, the rule wasn’t really imposed and very much fell into oblivion.
Then, two years ago, a casino boat caught fire outside Florida and hell broke loose…
NTSB (National Transport Safety Board) commissioned the accident inquiry and quite soon concluded the inferior, or partially non existing fire detection system to be one of the main reasons for the extent of the accident. (NTSB is by the way the same institution that imposed the in-cabin-alarm on cruise ships after the M/V Ecstasy incident).
The accident report is now complete and NTSB have guided/ordered USCG to re-impose the rule from before. Unfortunately, a feasible system is yet not available and status quo persists…
The Servofighter system already has the adequate and feasible detectors and MCP’s at the testing premises and we expect all requirement tests be over and done with later this summer. That gives us the field units we need, so what about the panel?
Sven suggested to Mr. Nash of the US Coast Guard that the company might be willing to have the ServoFighter tested and approved, provided we in the meantime could have some kind of interim and temporary dispensation acceptance while the tests last and until the panel have passed the inquisition. Mr. Nash further agreed a system with approved field unit and a not-yet-certified panel must be considered better than nothing!
As the panel is certified by the DNV, LRS and ABS, Mr. Nash said he is willing to check both the possibilities for this extraordinary dispensation and also later expedite the process of having the ServoFighter certified.
The Swedish manufacturers of the Servofighter will now decide how to act, gather all necessary data sheets and technical doc’s, test reports and all available certificates and contact Mr. Nash for further instructions. This should not be too awkward, as we know Rm. Nash from before as a reasonable man.
In the meantime, if you are having similar issues with your vessel, contact us to be updated on manufacturer initiatives and Coast Guard resolutions.
