Does a boat need PAT Testing

[Jess--]

On 18/02/2019 at 13:46, Loddon said:

Testing is just an ass covering exercise, you have to be able to prove that your equipment is electrically safe in the case of an accident and PAT has become the accepted way.

You could equally have a meticulous inspection record which may also stand up in court depending on the item.

PAT testing is very much ass covering, even more when you are bringing your equipment into someone elses premises.

 

We had many arguments with one sites electrician about which pieces of our equipment fell under PAT testing, in one case he was trying to tell us a small winch used for lifting some parts of a ride into place during assembly MUST be pat tested, we explained to him several times how the winch was powered but he insisted on testing it.... so we left him to get on with it.... somehow a 12v winch powered by a car battery failed the test (Oddly 3 days later he was no longer employed by the company and they were quietly retesting all of their equipment).

 

Another silly one involves ADIPS testing (ADIPS is a voluntary annual inspection scheme that covers fairground rides etc).

after the 1st year we always had all of the rides inspected at the end of the season, working on the theory that it was better to have the inspection done on a ride that is in daily use and has been assembled for several months rather than a ride that is fresh out of storage and has just had all of the deep maintenance jobs done (A fairer representation of the ride on any given day if you like).

anyway... new year, new site

we arrived having already given the usual copies of insurance, adips certificates, and pat test certificates and assembled the ride ready to operate a few days later, only to be told that the owners of the site wanted the ride re-inspected since it was freshly assembled on their site, reluctantly we agreed (mainly because we didn't want to lose the site and we were the first people to bring in a big bit of equipment). We managed to arrange an inspection for the next morning, an inspection on the ride in question involved about 3 hours of checks with the ride assembled and then about 6 hours of component testing on various parts of the ride while it was disassembled (so a full days work) and cost us in the region of £2000. at the end of the inspection the ride was given a clean bill of health. the ride was left disassembled to be rebuilt the next day since daylight was fading fast.

The next day we reassembled the ride and went into the office only to be told that they wanted it inspecting again because they had just watched us build the ride again, they didn't realise how in depth the inspection was (in that it took 9 hours to carry out and needed the ride dismantling) or how much it cost in cash, they assumed it was a case of someone quickly looking and saying that looks OK. they then decided that our inspection report was acceptable.

A few days later they watched as our staff carried out their daily safety checks and commented that our staff were checking a lot more than they thought would be tested by ADIPS and they never queried our inspections again.