Notice on Safe Return to Port published by Bahamas
The Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) has issued a marine notice providing guidance on the application of the Safe Return to Port provisions of the SOLAS Convention.
This notice was published on January 31st, 2023, and is addressed to all ship owners, managers, masters, approved nautical inspectors, recognised organisations, and surveyors.
This marine notice includes instructions to recognised organisations to be followed when conducting surveys of ships registered in The Bahamas to which the Safe Return to Port (SRtP) provisions apply.
This marine notice applies to all Bahamian passenger ships, including passenger ferries and passenger ro-ro ships, constructed on or after July 1st, 2010, having a length* of 120 metres or more, or having three or more main vertical fire zones (MVZ)**.
*Length (L) is the length as defined in the International Convention on Load Lines.
**All main vertical zones in the ship should be counted for the purposes of this regulation, irrespective of whether they contain accommodation spaces or not. Nevertheless, horizontal fire zone (special category and ro-ro spaces) should not be included in the count of main vertical zones. A main vertical zone may be extended to 48 metres (SOLAS Regulation II-2/9.2.2.1.2). This implies that any ship having an overall length (LOA) of more than 96 metres should normally comply with the SRtP regulations.
For more information, please see the document below (available only to subscribers):
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