Craft can have a huge number of openings when you include hatches, skin fittings, drains, exhausts, bilge discharges, cooling water inlets, holding tank discharge etc. Any one of these might or might not be considered as a "downflooding opening" for stability assessment by ISO 12217. Some, like windows, might need strength testing under ISO12216. Some openings may be in cockpits and need to comply with requirements for quick draining cockpits in ISO11812. Skin fittings will also need to comply with ISO9093.
The consideration of openings is one of the more time consuming and complicated aspects of the RCD. The complexity is such that even different Notified Bodies appear to have differing interpretations. CE Proof has, however, achieved RCD certification from more Notified Bodies than any other organisation and the resulting CE Pro tool is based on this hard-won experience.
All openings are entered into one table whether they are downflooding openings, in cockpits, valves, hatches or any other appliance. A portion of the page is shown below. Firstly the user enters, in column F to I, whether compliance with the 4 applicable standards is required. Helpful "hover notes" aid the user to work this out on the basis of the following table:
The columns of the table (not shown above) ask the user to enter the information required for each opening. This may be glazing dimensions or location for downflooding calculation.
The data from this table is automatically fed into the relevant sections: opening strength, stability and cockpits.