Vessel Audits & Trials
A major concern in the past for operators of specialist vessels has been the number, frequency and varying requirements of client audits. Clients obviously wish to place requirements on such contractors and will wish to ensure that those requirements are met. However, there are obvious benefits for contractors and clients alike if requirements are at least somewhat standardised.
IMCA's Marine Division has worked for a number of years on documents aimed at providing guidelines, standard formats and templates. These are aimed at:
- giving clients a standard document which they can either use 'as-is' or adapt to their own requirements; thereby
- standardising the way in which clients produce their requirements, reducing the variation in the documentation that a contractor is required to produce;
- providing industry standards for trials and audits, which can be undertaken periodically and, with appropriate buy-in from clients and client organisations, can help minimise duplication of such audits and trials
The key documents in this area are summarised below.
Common Marine Inspection Document (IMCA M 149)
The idea behind this audit checklist is to reduce the number of client audits on contracted vessels, as once an audit is performed in accordance with the guidelines, vessel owners are expected to make a copy of the audit report available to subsequent clients or prospective clients, along with details of corrective action taken. Whilst the document has been developed in collaboration with the UK Offshore Operator's Association (UKOOA) and the Chamber of Shipping, it is increasingly being used on a world-wide basis.
Guidelines for Auditing Vessels with Dynamic Positioning Systems (112 UKOOA Part 2)
This document provides an outline of procedures and requirements for DP vessel audits. IMCA holds a register of vessels which have been the subject of an annual audit within the previous twelve months, made available to clients on request.
Standard Report for DP Vessels' Annual Trials (IMCA M 139)
The publication 101 DPVOA issued in 1991 (Examples of a DP vessel's annual trials programme) and the joint IMCA/UKOOA trials document 112 (see above) form the basis of the well recognised system adopted for most DP vessels world-wide. In response to the difficulty found by some charterers in quickly assessing the results of the trials, leading to requests that the auditor or witness provide a concise summary/front end to the report on the annual trials, IMCA developed this document as a template that can be used for this purpose.
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