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Hi,
I didn't go out of my way to cause either of you two any offense with what I wrote.
I deal with decisions made by Class on a regular basis as part of my work.
I originally wanted to know if there was actually a second set of rules that were being applied in one location and not in others.
There are numerous examples of something a Class Surveyor will allow in one yard and one of his colleagues will not allow in another yard- each claim that they have made their decision based upon their interpretation of the rules.
They are also able to make a decision one day and months later when their "interpretation" of the rules has changed reverse that decision with no recourse from the yard or Owner.
It should also be pointed out that during a build the yards are the customers of the Classification Societies in 99% of cases. The Owners only become customers after delivery. This situation seems to give rise to a very cosy relationship between yards and their Class surveyors in a number of cases.
Just having your boat classed and fitted with a lot of Class approved equipment doesn't mean you have the very best thing you could have, you have the minimum level of construction ad outfit required to meet an interpretation of the Class Rules.
Here is an example:
A 75M Motor Yacht from a reputable yard has an MCA Approved Rescue Tender Crane fitted to it. On the Maiden Voyage of 10 days a fairly good stream of water is found to be leaking from the Crane Base down below all over the Hydraulic Valve and Emergency Operation Station.
First use after this 10 day voyage a golf ball sized bubble appears in the outer casing of one of the Hydraulic Hoses and the safety cut out at the end of the boom proves to be badly corroded and contacts rotted out.
The manufacturer is sent to the boat by the yard, said manufacturer blames crew for the hose and cut out even goes as far as to say Crew changed the wiring of cutout switch.
Within first month Crane is again US as the Cable has become badly damaged from coming off the spool whilst unwinding, this was caused by the length of cable when boom is raised to allow room to lower cable being greater weight that the bit sticking out to pull it down. A request for some tech assistance to remove and replace the cable and to add some extra weight was met with scorn as this was a Class Approved Crane what could anyone onboard possibly know or be able to do to improve it.
Within 6 months it had been removed from the vessel and returned to the factory because amongst a whole host of failures and problems the plasticine used to make the slewing gear was too soft and it stripped out- all this on a crane that had probably only been used 50 times max.
Another problem with this class approved piece of Rescue Equipment was the Control Pendant, the lever control switches had a max running current fractionally below the actual current that the circuit was subject to hence they lasted about 2 or 3 months and burned the little arms off inside the switches- everything was blamed crew, water ingress, act of god, natural disaster, wear and tear etc etc every time there was a replacement issued ( once the warranty was over the Owner was billed for these) it was always the same POS that was Class Approved.
It took about 4 hrs and €500 Euro of parts from Telemecanique to build a new controller onboard that has now seen 2 yrs service without a problem although the crane itself has had to be removed from the vessel twice to rectify design and reliability issues and the drama continues on this Class Approved Item.
If anyone who was/is on that boat reads this they will know exactly what boat it is.
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Cheers,
K1W1
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