SMACS – Small Craft Emergency Response and Survival Training for Arctic Conditions

Research Project, 2012 – 2014

As part of development of the SMACS Training Programme, partners SSRS and Chalmers University carried out a unique exercise where 11 volunteers, including SMACS team members Matthew Fader and Fredrik Forsman, literally abandoned ship in Swedish waters and spent over 30 hours in an 11-person SOLAS liferaft before being ‘rescued’ by helicopter and lifeboat. Their experience was filmed and documented and valuable lessons were learnt about survival in a liferaft, training for use of liferafts and rescue from a liferaft at sea. Two students ( Karl Nordström and Joachim Reif) from the Chalmers University “Examensarbete inom Sjökaptensprogrammet” (Master Mariner programme) carried out a review of the exercise and prepared a detailed report including interviews with all participants. This report is now available for download in original Swedish and in English (not perfect English as it is via Google Translate but with some editing for clarity).

For more information on the report, please contact Fredrik Forsman at Chalmers. A short overview video of the liferaft exercise can be downloaded from the SMACS Training Programme (Module 4, Resources, Video and Photos “English Master SSRS Life-raft”).

Se video from one of the studies made on the expeience of being in acrouwded life raft for more then 30 hours: https://youtu.be/fte9xtZrEDI