Designed by Norfloat International, the emergency towing system (ETS) buoy is a high visibility float filled with closed cell foam. Moulded in either fluorescent orange or signal yellow, the buoy provides excellent day time visibility and, for poor light conditions, the buoy has light reflective night strips and a waterproof programmable 15cd LED flashing lamp activated by a photocell switch for automatic operation.
When required, the buoy is deployed through a standard Panama fairlead for ETV retrieval. The buoy and pennant line are taken on board the ETV enabling a towing cable to be transferred from the ship to the ETV. The concept of this product is very simple, making it easy and reliable to use. As of 2012 all vessels over 20,000 DWT are required to have an ETS in place.