Lifeboat Hooks

[CharlieDelta]

Ok, shoot me down for being unbelievably bored and geeky, but I just happened upon Fassmer's new yacht lifeboat/tender/rescue boat. Funky looking contraption. But a bit confused about this:

The boat is equipped with intelligent hoisting hooks which open on their own when the tender reaches the water.

http://www.fassmer.de/index.php?id=65

Seems a bit unsafe to me?

[RNR]

I can see how, if the boat reaches the water on the back end of the crest of a wave it sounds like the hooks could open, not good news. The on-load release system on most TEMPSCs seems to sound safer than that. After all it is sort-of a cross between mechanical action and human action, not totally reliant on one or the other (apart from the over-ride lever).

[Ash]

Could be some sort of hydrostatic release mechanism on it similar to the hammar liferaft release?

[CharlieDelta]

Well, in saying that, wasn't the on-load system designed to get rid of problems that off-load hooks were having with not being able to unhook both ends at once in heavy seas? So that you could, for example, bypass the interlock and drop the boat at an agreeable moment? Probably some complicated wavey-sciency things going on here.

[RNR]

Yep so in practice the on-load release is like an upgrade of the off-load release as it incorporates both parts into its design.

[ETwhat?]

given that the hook shown on the boat pictured doesnt look any different to the hooks on their frc's, and theres a rather large lever on the console i would say its maybe a little bit of bad wording and i would guess that its more the frc type, prime it with the handle and then when the load comes off they realease , although that doesnt sound like a great idea either as it really only works for single point attachments,

[Chiefy]

Advertising pure and simple non technical bloke writting about life boat hooks, they look like Hydro Static off load hooks, but maybe they are on load, without seeing the "gubbins" it's hard to tell, they arent anything new or special.

A bit like every new car gets a 200 point safety check then you read the list and it has things like "number plates present", "seat belts present" etc

[alistairuk]

I would guess its a similar system (read: idea) to the self-releasing liferaft hooks we have. When you start lowering you pull the release handle (which primes the hook) and the hook automatically releases when the raft hits the water (ie: the weight comes off the hook).

Only in this case, one would assume you pull the release handle and it will only release the hook when the hydrostatic device on the bottom detects its in the water - which is essentially how all on-load release systems work anyway - the only difference is theirs might let you pull the handle to the release position before its in the water - but it wont actually release until the hydrostatic is activated.

As opposed to the current system where it is impossible to pull the release handle (without breaking the glass of course) until you have submerged the hydrostatic release device in the water.