(a) The master shall conduct sufficient drills and give sufficient instructions to make sure that all crew members are familiar with their duties during emergencies that necessitate abandoning ship or the recovery of persons who have fallen overboard.

(b) An abandon ship drill must be conducted as follows:

(1) Each member of the crew shall participate in at least one abandon ship drill each month; and

(2) If more than 25% of the crew have not participated in an abandon ship drill on board that particular vessel or sister vessel in the previous month, a drill must be conducted before the vessel gets underway with passengers aboard.

(c) Each abandon ship drill must include:

(1) Summoning the crew to report to assigned stations and prepare for assigned duties;

(2) Summoning passengers on a vessel on an overnight voyage to areas of refuge or embarkation stations and ensuring that they are made aware of how the order to abandon ship will be given;

(3) Checking that life jackets are correctly donned;

(4) Operation of any davits used for launching liferafts; and

(5) Instruction on the automatic and manual deployment of survival craft.

(d) Each abandon ship drill must, as far as practicable, be conducted as if there were an actual emergency.

(e) Each rescue boat required in accordance with §117.210 of this subchapter must be launched with its assigned crew aboard and maneuvered in the water as if during the actual man overboard situation;

(1) Once each month, if reasonable and practicable; but

(2) At least once within a 3 month period before the vessel gets underway with passengers.

(f) Onboard training in the use of davit launched liferafts must take place at intervals of not more than 3 months on a vessel with a davit launched liferaft.

(g) Abandon ship and man overboard drills and training shall be logged or otherwise documented for review by the Coast Guard upon request. The drill entry shall include the following information:

(1) Date of the drill and training; and

(2) General description of the drill scenario and training topics.

[CGD 85-080, 61 FR 935, Jan. 10, 1996, as amended at 62 FR 51353, Sept. 30, 1997; USCG-2014-0688, 79 FR 58283, Sept. 29, 2014]