The shipyard is!Įverything in the shipyard, every problem, every unforeseen problem, every misgake made by anyone involved turns into a poker chip which are swapped at the weekly meetings between owner and shipyard.
InSo to answer your question, no, the class inspectors are not incompetent, or crocked and on the take. You get excited and say! Can you write this up in a report! “I sure can he says!” and does but the mfg asks for a second opinion from another firm (which is booked solid for 8 months!) and you don’t say shit in response because you no longer care because you where run off that rig mo tha ago and sent to some pos floater in Brazil. You find that this inspector really knows his shit and he starts walking around the lifeboat (which, BTW looks like a giant rubber dildo from an old woody allen movie) whistling and muttering “I heard these new boats where bad but this is a goddanm death trap!’ Then he asks you questions like “how in hell did you make it halfway across the world without this thing cracking in two? Yeah, let’s do that, you say and, to tour surprise it happens! The guy shows up at the helo deck the next day. You find out that your bosun’s unclear’ cousin’s stepson went to kindergarten with this guy and he can pull a few strings and get him out asap. He says he’s backed up can show up in six months then calls once a month to keep pushing the date back. They schedule it for a few months down the road then keep pushing it back until all is forgotten.Īt this point, you call the local LB inspector and schedule an appointment. Your CEO shows that report to the client and tells them their marine inspector is wrong but welcomes the client to fly the marine inspection team back out. When the Class inspection report arrives the only thing wrong with the ship is you! It contains statements like “Captain reported significant stress cracking, blah, blah, blah but inspector did not notice major deficiencies (because he never entered the lifeboat or, if he did, has no clue what he’s looking at) but advises that if the captain is still concerned he should schedule and inspection with the local lifeboat surveyor. You show the surveyor the problem but he asks a bunch of really dumb questions like “It would be interesting to know how you determined the thickness of the lifeboats?” And makes a lot of stupid statements like “Nor do I believe that all Surveyors that must have inspected these vessels after delivery are either incompetent or crocked and on the take.” Hence class doesn’t care what you CEO says but when the shipyard calls them Class decides your regular inspector is way overdue for vacation (which is usually true) and sends a young surveyor in his place. The shipyard phones up class (if you follow the money shipowners of newbuilds may pay class but they don’t get to pock then… the shipyard does. The CEO gets really worried and yells at the shipyard for putting him in this mess. Then the client inspection comes and they go apeshit and threaten to kick you off contract and you say “finally some gives a shit” and you and the client inspector become friends and the client inspector tells his boss who goes nuclear on the CEO. No, it becomes a bargaining chip for the CEO to use to leverage something from the shipyard for one of the vessels behind you.
Then when you get home and the file a warranty claimĮxcept when you get home and file the claim it doesn’t become cash in the ship’s account. And your chief offers to “make it work somehow” so you make a side deal and accept it with a trial notation. So the yrs suggests they give you an old one from their warehouse and strap it to the deck. When dayrates for your vessel are north of $500,000 /day then guess what… your CEO does not even want to hear the “D” word.īut all parties agree to making a note of the problem and encourage you to try out the boat on your return to the gulf ( never-mind the fact that you don’t really need a lifeboat when you reach the Gulf and are constantly surrounded by stby vessels but you would really like one during the transit) and if it causes any problems they’d (the shipyard) be happy to honor a warranty claim. You can, of course, reject that entire model of boats but then you have to cut away the davits and find new ones to weld on… which the yard is happy to so IF you agree to a delay or give them a concession on another item. Sure, you can reject a boat but the yard is just going to swap it out with an identical model from the same mfg.
You can’t just put any boat on any davit. You’re really surprised that the yard, class, flag (not American), and the owner all accepted it? Well, I will say I’ve always had excellent experiences with norsafe boats.
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