What is on load and off load launching/ mechanism of the Lifeboat?

Off load mechanism:

• The off load mechanism releases the boat after the load of the boat is transferred to water or the boat has been lowered fully into the sea.
• When the boat touches the surface of water, the load on the fall and hence the hook releases and due to its mechanism the hook detaches from the fall. If the detachment dose not takes place, any of the crew members can remove the hook from the fall.
• Most of the times the offload mechanism is manually disengaged in case of malfunction; however, in case of fire, it is dangerous to go out and release the hook.

On load mechanism:

• On load mechanism can release the lifeboat from the wire, with the boat above the water level and with all the crew members inside the boat.
• The load will be still on the fall as the boat would not have touched the water. Normally the height of about 1 m is kept for the on load release, so that the fall is smooth without damaging the boat and harming the crew inside.
• A lever is provided inside the boat to operate this mechanism. As the lever is operated from inside, it is safe to free the boat without going out of the lifeboat, when there is a fire on ship.
• On load mechanism is normally used  when sea is rough and unable to lower the lifeboat by off load mechanism.