I guess some of you may already have read about the new, world record-breaking Palfinger lifeboat in maritime news, but if you haven’t, here is a quick run-down.
About two months ago, on April 20th 2017, Palfinger (formerly known as Harding Safety) tested their new lifeboat concept in Norway, and made at the same time a world record in lifeboat barding: 440 passengers boarded in just 5 minutes 21 seconds. Check it out, there is even a youtube-video online to prove their record attempt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPQ0YfApDs4
The Palfinger MPC49 is a 15 meter long, 5,2 meter wide and 4,3 meter high lifeboat which is expected to be able to carry up to 450 passengers seated across two internal floors! When empty, the lifeboat is calculated to weigh in at 20 tons, but at full capacity, the lifeboat is weighing in at a whopping 53 tons. A new lifeboat hook with 28 tons capacity had to be developed, as well as a new lifeboat davit capable of carrying 55 tons.
In order to achieve the minimum required speed of 6 knots, the propulsion system consists of two 40hP engines.
Palfinger already has a customer for the 12 first boats: STX shipyard in France have them on order for three ships they are building for Celebrity Cruises (the Project Eagle). Additionally, Palfinger also has firm orders for 24 combined lifeboat / tenderboats in the same serie, for the same project, 8 for each ship. Even though the combined boats have less capacity, they are slightly larger with catamaran hulls, and an overall length of 17,5 meters.
With Palfinger MPC49’s capacity of up to 450 people, they now have the exact same capacity as each of the two tender-boats that were on the cruiseship "SS Norway", named "little Norway 1" and "little Norway 2". The tender- boats of the "SS Norway" were 88 feet long and each had a tonnage of 97 grt. Their capacity was also 450 guests, as well as 4 crew members. They were however own registrered ships independent from the mother ship, and even had their own call signs (C6MY8 and C6MY9).
