Accessibility of Passenger Ships MGN 295 (M) Designing and Operating Smaller Passenger Vessels: Guidance on Meeting the Needs of Persons with Reduced Mobility Notice to all naval architects and ship designers, owners, operators, builders and marine surveyors.

The rising population of disabled people has a spending power of around £80 billion each year.

Disabled people account for some 10% of the population, and they will have higher expectations for travel. There is a huge potential market of additional passengers for the shipping industry.

The current level of awareness of the needs of disabled people postdates the time that many current vessels came into service, and therefore was often not fully reflected in their design.

The purpose of this document is to help ensure that the design and operation of smaller passenger ships meet the needs of people with reduced mobility as effectively as possible. It applies to smaller sea going passenger vessels of less than 500GT operating on public transport domestic voyages in UK waters, regardless of registry, when certified to carry fewer than 250 passengers.

There are many simple changes that owners and operators can achieve to improve accessibility.

For example inexpensive equipment could aid people with sensory impairments. Operators should be aware that even if it is judged to be too difficult to make every possible improvement for wheelchair users, access needs for other passengers with reduced mobility can often also be met.

The accessibility guidelines in the Annex are intended to allow reasonable access to all public and service areas of the vessel.

Medication at Sea MGN 296 (M) Medication at Sea Notice to ship owners, ship operators and managers, manning agencies, masters, officers and seafarers.

Recent accidents at sea have highlighted impairing medication as a contributory factor.

This Note alerts ship operators, employers and seafarers to the potential effects on performance of prescription and/or over the counter drugs, and the need to review and monitor a seafarer's fitness for service at sea whilst they are being taken.

It highlights the personal responsibility of seafarers to notify employers when medication likely to affect performance is being taken.

It recommends that companies develop management systems to minimise the risk of adverse effects of medication at sea whilst respecting the need for confidentiality and discretion.

Appendix 1 gives examples of medications with the potential to cause side effects that might significantly affect performance.

Appendix 2 provides a model for a carry card for seafarers, incorporating a declaration on any medication used.

Defibrillators on Passenger Craft MGN 297 (M) The Carriage Of Defibrillators On Ships Notice to ship owners, ship operators and managers, masters and officers of passenger ships and high speed craft and all seafarers.

This Note provides updated guidance on the carriage of defibrillators. It provides advice on risk assessment, for operators of UK passenger ferries and high speed passenger craft to determine whether to carry defibrillators as part of their emergency medical equipment.

Technological advances now mean that defibrillators are straightforward to use, relatively low cost and their use requires only basic training. In particular, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) assess the patient's condition and indicate when the shock should be administered.

Since they are now widely available in public places on shore there may be an expectation that they are similarly available on board ships.

The MCA recommends that operators of passenger vessels undertake a risk assessment, with external advice if necessary, to determine if AEDs should be carried. If risk assessment indicates that there is a likelihood of using an AED more than once in five years, operators should consider carrying one as part of their medical equipment. As a general guide, vessels in regular operation carrying in excess of 100 persons, will be those which can be expected to fall within this range, especially if the average age of those carried is high.

Regulations for Yachts Embraced MSN 1792 (M) The Large Commercial Yacht Code (LY2) Notice to all designers, builders, owners, operators, employers, crews, skippers, and classification societies.

This Notice provides the revised text of the MCA "Code of Practice for Safety of Large Commercial Sailing & Motor Vessels", published in 1997 (LY1). The revised text is to be known as the Large Commercial Yacht Code (LY2) Since its original publication, LY1 has made a significant impression on a maritime sector which previously found great difficulty in embracing conventional regulation. The provisions of LY2 require standards of safety and pollution prevention, which are appropriate to the size of vessel.

The Code applies to motor or sailing vessels of 24m in load line length and over or, if built before 21 July 1968, which are of 150 gross tonnage and over which, at the time, is in commercial use for sport or pleasure and which carries no more than 12 passengers. The Code only applies to vessels of less than 3000GT. Sail training vessels are included in this application.

Vessel Stability Re-Assessed for Heavy Passengers MIN 218 (M) Domestic Passenger Vessels of Classes III to VI(A), Freeboard and Stability Re-Assessment for an Assumed Average Passenger Weight of 75kg Notice to all domestic passenger vessels owners and operators.

This note is concerned with the need to have the freeboard and stability of vessels re-assessed if previously calculated using an assumed passenger weight of less than 75kg per person.

Following the recent MAIB report into the loss of the cabin cruiser "Breakaway V" and current discussions at IMO on the need to revise the assumed weight of 75kg per person in the light of a general increase in the average weight of the population, it is deemed important now to review the small passenger boat fleet and standardise the assumed passenger weight at 75kg per person throughout.

To minimize the disruption arising from re-testing or re-approving the stability booklets of any vessels still using an assumed passenger weight of less than 75kg per person it has been decided that the fairest and most equitable way of dealing with the issue is to re-check first those boats most at risk.

This note sets out the action plan that was agreed at the Domestic Passenger Ship Steering Group on 23 of March 2005.

NOTE: MCA Notices are not available from the Maritime Journal.

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The MCA's 24hr UK public information line is 0870 600 6505.

Further information is available from the MCA's Marine Information Centre, Tel: 023 8032 9297 or www. mcga. gov. uk