Shipbuilding and Repair - Contracts, Trials, Guarantee and Class Items
Shipbuilding and Repair
This domain tests the commercial and technical management of newbuilding and repair work: contracts, specifications, surveys, trials, delivery and guarantee. Standard forms include BIMCO NEWBUILDCON and the SAJ form; PRC yards commonly work to a signed 技术规格书 and 建造合同, with classification society rules and MSA technical rules as the technical baseline.
Core rules
- Contract milestones: signing, keel laying, launching, sea trials and delivery; title and risk usually pass on delivery, and the guarantee period (commonly 12 months from delivery) covers defects.
- Plan approval precedes construction; any deviation from approved drawings needs revised approval, not a verbal agreement on the shop floor.
- Sea trials: speed and power corrected to reference conditions per ISO 15016; an inclining experiment or lightweight survey establishes KG and the stability booklet.
- Repair: gas-free certificate and hot-work permit before any burning in a tank; the repair specification (修理单) defines class items; major steel renewals need class attendance.
- PSPC: coating repair in ballast tanks must follow the manufacturer's procedure and be recorded in the Coating Technical File.
Worked example
A tanker delivered eight months ago reports cracks in a ballast tank under guarantee. Correct handling: the yard investigates; if the cause is a construction or material defect, the yard repairs at its own cost within the guarantee period; if the cause is the owner's operation, such as over-pressure or corrosion from an unrecorded cargo, the claim fails. Independently of the guarantee, the class society must be notified because the crack affects a class item, and a condition of class may follow. The guarantee is a contractual remedy; class requirements run in parallel and are not suspended by a commercial dispute.
Traps
Treating the guarantee as covering fair wear and tear; starting hot work without gas-freeing; dating the guarantee from keel laying instead of delivery; assuming the yard's acceptance of a defect binds the classification society.