Clever Marine Services Ltd completed a ‘buy, upgrade and operate project’ of an 11200 dwt Container vessel for a client which took from pre-purchase survey to operation 4 month.
This fact alone does not sound impressive but if we look at the details of the project all the factors mention in the introduction above are becoming apparent.
The project started with the request for the pre-purchase survey which was received with the usual lead time of 5 days and the usual description and information for the task which consist out of the information you can gather in the World Wide Web. The provided time to survey the vessel, its equipment and documentation were 24 hours of which 10 hours could be spend on board the vessel during cargo operation. This meant that certain areas and compartments of the vessel couldn’t be surveyed or even visibly inspected. The vessel was bought on Memorandum of Agreement 48 hours after our report was received at the client’s office. In the period until takeover of the vessel the client placed his own Chief Engineer as his representative on board but due to limitations in the satellite communication and due to the remote part of the vessels trading area (Mauretania) most of the required information, drawings and manuals could not be transmitted or send to the sellers office, in time.
The client than contracted our Superintendent again to be in charge of the physical change of ownership of the vessel as well as the adjacent dry docking period for the purpose of class renewal. The change of ownership from all involved audits, surveys, the establishing of the new Communication System, initial outfitting of the vessel down to changing of ships name and markings on the vessel structure and its safety equipment was completed within 48 hours. From the port of takeover to the appointed ship yard the vessel had a voyage of 8 days of which the maximum of 6 days could be used to prepare the Dry Dock Specification for the vessel docking period. This task was successfully completed including spot check UTM, drawing specifications of areas of steel exchange with repair instructions and procedures as well as the estimated total amount of steel exchange required.
The initial specification for the dry docking period of the vessel already included major overhauls of Main Engine and Auxiliaries (x2), complete blasting and painting of the hull and all cargo holds as well as steel exchange and all routine class renewal tasks. After the vessel been dry in the dock and the bottom survey started it became step by step apparent that the complete Bow Thruster Arrangement, Propeller Shaft and Hub, as well as Rudder with Rudder Stock had to be withdrawn and reconditioned. It was now the task at hand to gather the relevant parameters such as permissible clearances and material specification and to prepare a quality and cost effective repair procedures demanded by Class before possibly inflated and time consuming repair procedures from 3rd parties are hastily accepted.