7Functional requirements

7 Functional requirements

7.1 Every SOLAS ship, while at sea, must be capable of meeting the functional requirements set out in Regulation 4 of Chapter IV of SOLAS.

7.2 Every non-SOLAS ship, while at sea, must be capable of providing for the safety of the ship, particularly the ability to:

  (a) perform ship-to-shore distress alerting by two independent means;
  (b) transmit ship-to-ship distress alerting;
  (c) transmit and receive on-scene communications, including appropriate SAR co‑ordinating communications;
  (d) transmit locating signals, unless the Manager, Ship Inspections, determines that the nature of the ship’s operations makes this requirement unnecessary; and
  (e) receive maritime safety information.
Note See MSC.Circ.803 – Participation of non-SOLAS ships in the global maritime distress and safety system.

7.3 The installation on the ship must be capable of assisting other ships in distress, including the ability to:

  (a) receive shore-to-ship distress alerting; and
  (b) receive ship-to-ship distress alerting.