MCA code & escape routes
The British Coast Guard agency has drawn up a large set of rules for big yachts, generally referred to as MCA Large Yacht Code 2. While we plan to bring our ship under class, class societies tend to focus on construction issues whereas MCA focuses more on safety and people (including crew requirements). MCA also has stricter rules on damage stability. Since we want to be MCA LY2 compliant, we have to add a watertight bulkhead which is not required by Germanischer Lloyd for instance.
We are now looking at escapes. Every ‘confined space’ should have 2 escape routes according to the MCA rules on means of escape but there’s some grey area here, in particular on how close to each other the hatches have to be.
Well, we’re working on it.
