General Provisions for Workboats

This chapter is designed to provide a single source for habitability criteria suitable for workboats. This chapter may be applied to vessels falling under the following categories: offshore support vessels, tugboats, tow boats, dredgers, research vessels, anchor handling vessels, or other vessels providing service to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production industries. This chapter does not apply to vessels such as oil and chemical tankers, bulk or combination carriers, container carriers, multi-purpose cargo vessels, or MODU. These types of vessels are addressed in Part 3 of this book. In essence, this Part 4 has been written with the objective of improving the quality of crew member performance and comfort by improving working and living environments in terms of accommodation area design and ambient environmental qualities. These habitability criteria have been chosen to provide a means to help reduce crew fatigue, improve performance and safety, and to assist with crew recruiting and retention.