SOLAS-2012

Chapter V
SOLAS 74/78
page 2/34
Government, authorized Hydrographic Office or other relevant government institution and is designed to
meet the requirements of marine navigation. *
3 All ships means any ship, vessel or craft irrespective of type and purpose.
4 Length of a ship means its length overall.
5 Search and rescue service. The performance of distress monitoring, communication, co-ordination and
search and rescue functions, including provision of medical advice, initial medical assistance, or medical
evacuation, through the use of public and private resources including co-operating aircraft, ships, vessels and
other craft and installations.
6 High-speed craft means a craft as defined in regulation X/1.3.
7 Mobile offshore drilling unit means a mobile offshore drilling unit as defined in regulation XI-2/1.1.5.
Regulation 3
Exemptions and equivalents
1 The Administration may grant general exemptions to ships without mechanical means of propulsion
from the requirements of regulations 15, 17, 18, 19 (except 19.2.1.7), 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28.
2 The Administration may grant to individual ships exemptions or equivalents of a partial or conditional
nature, when any such ship is engaged on a voyage where the maximum distance of the ship from the shore,
the length and nature of the voyage, the absence of general navigational hazards, and other conditions
affecting safety are such as to render the full application of this chapter unreasonable or unnecessary,
provided that the Administration has taken into account the effect such exemptions and equivalents may have
upon the safety of all other ships.
3 Each Administration shall submit to the Organization, as soon as possible after 1 January in each year,
a report summarising all new exemptions and equivalents granted under paragraph 2 of this regulation during
the previous calendar year and giving the reasons for granting such exemptions and equivalents. The
Organization shall circulate such particulars to other Contracting Governments for information.
Regulation 4
Navigational warnings
Each Contracting Government shall take all steps necessary to ensure that, when intelligence of any dangers
is received from whatever reliable source, it shall be promptly brought to the knowledge of those concerned
and communicated to other interested Governments. †
Regulation 5
Meteorological services and warnings
1 Contracting Governments undertake to encourage the collection of meteorological data by ships at
sea and to arrange for their examination, dissemination and exchange in the manner most suitable for the
* Refer to appropriate resolutions and recommendations of the International Hydrographic Organization concerning the
authority and responsibilities of coastal States in the provision of charting in accordance with regulation 9.
† Refer to the Guidance on the IMO/IHO World-Wide Navigational Warning Service adopted by the Organization by
resolution A.706(17), as amended.