Sea Trials for Motor Ships

Taking a boat for “Sea Trials" is one of the essential parts in the purchase & sale operation with marine vessels. Also, in particular cases, such as specialized vessels serving to the offshore oil and gas industry, this service is also required to close lease contracts.

The purpose of this test is to identify any deficiencies and have them corrected in order to ensure that the vessel meets and exceeds what is required in the technical specifications of the contract, to guarantee the physical and functional mechanisms of the vessel. As the owner of a ship, it would be expected that the ship be delivered to the corresponding requirements set out in the contract; otherwise, the feasibility study for revenue would fail and will lead to spending a lifetime paying back loans to the bank.

Those who participate in these tests are the technical representatives from the shipyard who constructs the ship, representatives of manufacturing companies for the operational systems of the ship, representatives of the classification societies and government officials who will grant the corresponding statutory certifications as well as the ship-owner.

It is recommended that the individual that represents the shipowner is the crew that will receive the ship when it is delivered by the shipyard, this way the new operational crew will be able to familiarize themselves with the operation of the ship and the as built.

It is essential that the crew that executes the operation of the ship at the time of the sea trials have a strong attention to detail with this practice, since it is required to recognize and analyze the deficiencies that the ship may have. During sea trials, the crew will face the use of the ship for first time eve and will require all attention to solve certain issues that might surge during this voyage. In my experience one of the major problems that I have observed is that the crew was not conversant with the latest software updates for both the navigational equipment and operational systems which caused a delay of the test or could cause an accident.

The areas that are generally inspected in the sea trials are as follows:

• Hull inspection

• Navigation and Communication Equipment

• Machinery and Electrical Installations Equipment

• Safety and Rescue Equipment

• Nautical tests (performance in navigation)

Those areas would be within the framework of the contractual specifications, class society recommendations that will grant the ship class certifications and also to the minimum requirements by the IACS and the international rules for ship constructions SOLAS.

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