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Ladders

Embarkation Ladders

Embarkation Ladders is a group of 1 IMPA-coded item (code 232052) under Ladders in the Rigging Equipment & General Deck Items section (IMPA 23). It is priced per set.

Buying guide

An embarkation ladder is the rope ladder with wooden or equivalent steps that people climb down the ship’s side into a survival craft once it is afloat. SOLAS requires one at each embarkation station, or every two adjacent stations, for survival craft launched down the side of the ship.[2]

This group is a single item, "embarkation ladder, with further detail". The ladder is made to the ship’s freeboard, so the requisition carries the details. Lifeboat embarkation ladders are a separate group under survival craft accessories. The chief officer raises a renewal when a ladder fails inspection, or when a survey or port state inspection finds a ladder that does not reach the water.[2]

How to specify it

Give the length, or the number of steps, worked out for the station where it hangs. SOLAS III/11.7 requires a single length from the deck to the waterline in the lightest seagoing condition, with trim up to 10° and a list of up to 20° either way. Port state controls have recorded deficiencies for ladders that were too short.[2]

State the step material and the side ropes, and ask for the approval and certificate the flag requires. Under the LSA Code, steps are hardwood free of knots or an equivalent material, with a non-slip surface, not less than 480 × 115 × 25 mm. They are spaced equally 300–380 mm apart and kept horizontal. Side ropes are two uncovered manila ropes of at least 65 mm circumference each side, or an equivalent material, continuous with no joints below the top step.[1]

Rules and certificates

SOLAS III/11.7: the Administration may let approved devices replace embarkation ladders for access to waterborne survival craft, provided there is at least one embarkation ladder on each side of the ship. Other controlled means of descent may be allowed for the liferafts required by regulation 31.1.4.[2]

LSA Code 6.1.6.1: handholds must give a safe passage from the deck to the head of the ladder and back. The ladder must be built to 6.1.6 as a whole, so a replacement must keep the step size, spacing and rope standard above.[1]

Questions buyers ask

How long must an embarkation ladder be?
Long enough to reach the waterline in one length from the deck in the lightest seagoing condition, with up to 10° of trim and 20° of list either way (SOLAS III/11.7). Work it out per station from the ship’s stability data.
What is the step spacing on an embarkation ladder?
The LSA Code asks for steps equally spaced not less than 300 mm or more than 380 mm apart, each at least 480 mm long, 115 mm wide and 25 mm deep, secured so they stay horizontal.

Sources

  1. IMO Resolution MSC.48(66): International Life-Saving Appliance (LSA) Code (as adopted 1996)
  2. Lloyd’s Register Class News 11/2013 (31 May 2013): remotely located survival craft and embarkation ladder length, quoting SOLAS regulation III/11.7

Published by Sherif Awad, founder of GeoMarineHub — in ship supply since 1990, a family business since 1981 (45 years). Last checked .

At a glance

Part of Rigging Equipment & General Deck Items (IMPA section 23): Shackles, turnbuckles, blocks, wire clips, thimbles, hooks, hatch-cover parts, ladders and deck gear.

It is one of 22 groups under Ladders; the others include Accommodation Ladders Aluminium Alloy, Handrail Stanchions and Sockets for Aluminium Alloy Wharf Ladder, Handrail Stanchions and Sockets for Steel Wharf Ladder, Holding Magnets for Pilot Ladder, Ladders Bulwark and 16 more.

Post the ones you need as a requirement and verified suppliers activated at your port bid on them — sealed, so nobody sees another bid.

Items
1
IMPA codes
232052
Priced
per set

Items

IMPAItemUnit
232052LADDER EMBARKATION, WITH FURTHER DETAILSET

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