Compliance & Standards
A plain-English guide to the standards you’ll see referenced on our listings, and what that actually means for secondhand kit.
SOLAS
SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) is the international treaty that sets minimum requirements for lifesaving equipment — lifejackets, immersion suits, EEBDs and similar — carried on commercial and passenger vessels. When a listing says something is “SOLAS approved” or built to a SOLAS buoyancy class, that’s the standard it was originally certified against.
MED & the wheelmark
MED (the EU’s Marine Equipment Directive) is the certification route manufacturers use to show their product meets SOLAS-level requirements for sale in the EU — certified equipment carries the wheelmark symbol. Most of the commercial-spec kit we sell was originally MED-certified new.
UKCA
UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) is the UK’s post-Brexit equivalent to the wheelmark for equipment placed on the UK market. Recognition of existing wheelmark certification is being phased in the UK — if UKCA marking matters for your specific vessel or use case, check current requirements with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency rather than relying on a secondhand listing alone.
What to check on secondhand safety equipment
Before relying on anything safety-critical bought secondhand:
- Check the service status stated on the listing. Inflatable lifejackets need annual servicing; immersion and abandonment suits need testing every 3 years (annually once past 10 years old). Where we don’t have a confirmed service history, we say so.
- On inflatables, check the CO2 cylinder and firing cartridge are in date and correctly fitted — these are consumable parts, not serviced themselves.
- Inspect physically for corrosion, mould, UV damage or degraded stitching before first use, regardless of what the listing says.
- Have anything with an unclear or lapsed service history inspected and, where needed, re-armed or recertified by a qualified marine safety service station before it’s relied on in an emergency.