131 INTERVIEW Safe sailing Safety at Sea’s SRtP Onboard tool helps crews to coordinate emergency responses onboard and prepare for evolving IMO requirements, as Vittorio Vagliani explains to Laura Hyde Safe Return to Port (SRTP) requirements are designed to ensure passenger ships can maintain essential systems and safely reach port following a fire or flooding casualty, reducing the need for evacuation at sea. Safety at Sea has designed SRtP Onboard to help shipboard teams improve operational resilience and ensure everyone returns safely to port following an at-sea emergency. The tool presents casualty-specific actions in a structured form, assigns them to the appropriate personnel and provides a common view of response progress. The coordinating team can see what procedures have been completed, what is delayed and where a problem requires further attention, all in one place rather than relying on verbal reports and paper documentation. “SRtP Onboard helps bridge the gap between technical approval and operational response,” says Vittorio Vagliani, CEO of Safety at Sea. “Additionally, our onboard surveys provide an extra layer of assurance by comparing the documented arrangements with the actual vessel as built or modified. We verify equipment locations and consider whether the associated actions are physically practical, which is particularly important because new International Maritime Organization (IMO) guidance places emphasis on accessibility, identification, communications and the ability to complete manual recovery actions within the intended time. SRtP Onboard provides operators with the opportunity to make corrections before weaknesses affect an actual emergency response.” The solution can be installed during refurbishment projects, which Vagliani believes is an opportune time to reassess the ship’s original SRTP assessment. “Changes to electrical distribution, machinery, automation, cable or pipe routing, ventilation, fuel systems, compartment arrangements or equipment locations can alter system dependencies and invalidate SRTP assumptions,” he says. “We support refits with a structured before, during and after process, which does more than check whether equipment has been installed; it checks the modified vessel, its documentation and its crew procedures to ensure they work together as an effective SRTP casualty-response system.” Before a refit project begins, Safety at Sea will review the ship’s existing assessment, operational documentation and planned modifications to look for affected systems, dependencies, manual actions and equipment locations. During the refit, a team will review developing drawings and changes and undertake onboard verification of installation, access, labelling and equipment location, revising any necessary SRTP documentation. Once the refit is complete, Safety at Sea will carry out a survey to verify the practicality of relevant actions and update SRtP Onboard to ensure the information presented to the crew reflects the vessel that has returned to service. “As the IMO guidance will affect vessels from 1 January 2028, operators must reconsider their SRTP arrangements to ensure they remain accurate and compliant,” says Vagliani. “ Operators must reconsider their SRTP arrangements to ensure they remain accurate and compliant”
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