The Sub-Committee regarding Ship Design and Construction of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) granted their seal of approval for the amendments to SOLAS along with other various international documents during its second session (SDC2) that was held in the time frame between February 16th and 20th, 2015 at the IMO Headquarters located in London, as reported by the RF Ministry of Transport press center.

The Sub-Committee has further examined and granted its seal of approval to the SOLAS chapter II-1 amendments that regard intact stability, data and info related to stability provided to masters, determination of Subdivision Index «А», along with calculation of the survival factor si regarding passenger and cargo vessels, requirements on double bottoms in passenger and cargo vessels other than tankers, water tightness of vessels, as well as structure and test procedures of passenger ships’ watertight doors.

Draft amendments related to SOLAS regulation II-2/13 have been granted approval in order to make all evacuation analysis mandatory for passenger vessels that carry over 36 passengers and Ro-Ro vessels, as well as draft SOLAS regulation II-2/13.6 which focuses on the aspects and various details of escape when regarding ro-ro spaces.

Along with that, the Sub-Committee has agreed upon to amend the OSV Chemical Code draft. More specifically, SDC 2 agreed to forward the final complete text of Chapter 2 of the above-mentioned OSV Chemical Code draft, regarding vessel survival capability as well as the location of cargo tanks, to the PPR Sub-Committee.
Additionally, the Sub-Committee managed to agree upon the draft of ‘Interim Guidelines for use of Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) elements within ship structures and draft Unified Interpretation (UI) of the ‘Guidelines for Safe Access to Tanker Bows’ (resolution MSC.62(87)).

SDC 2 agreed on a draft amendment related to part B of the 2008 IS Code concerning ships that are tasked with anchor handling operations. The committee also agreed on draft amendments regarding ‘Guidelines for the application of plastic pipes in ships’ (Resolution A.753 (18) with amendments by Resolution MSC.313(88)).

The documents that were drawn up at the SDC 2 are to be forwarded for potential MSC95 approval. The MSC95 will meet on June 03-12, this current year.
SDC 3 has been scheduled for the time period of January 18-22, 2016.