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Showing posts from December, 2012

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATION:-             it is the transfer of one's ideas to another for mutual benefit. Communication is said to be effective when delivered at the right time. Communication provides a means by which human element of the system can be motivated such that the plans are executed willingly and enthusiastically, thus more effectively. Hence communication plays vital role in motivating a person even though there are differences in attitude of people.             Some of the communication barriers are:- 1) Badly expressed message 2) Defective and faulty translation/ interpretation 3) Media transmission loss 4) In attention of receiver 5) Premature evaluation 6) Distrust between communicator and receiver 7) Failure to communicate in time.         Above barriers should be removed while communicating and following guidelines should be followed for effective communication:- 1) Plan your communication properly 2) Know your own abilities and limitation 3) Cash on your abilit

IMPLICATION OF JOHARI WINDOW

The quality of interpersonal relationship is largely affected by the manner in which parties relate to each other.   How to relate to or affect other person reflects our personality. In order to develop a close and binding relationship all parties must expose themselves to each other, so that they can really get to know each other's strength and weakness.   JOHARI WINDOW:-                                                    KNOWN TO                                             UNKNOWN TO                                                      SELF                                                               SELF KNOWN TO                           ARENA                                                          BLIND SPOT OTHER UNKNOWN                           CLOSED                                                        DARK/GREY TO OTHER              Every person has to develop in such a manner that the area marked ARENA increases which will result in decrease of

HOW A SHIPOWNER CAN GET P&I INSURANCE

When a shipowner/ shipping company requires P&I insurance for a ship, the club underwriter will ask for information so that he can make a risk profile of the vessel. The underwriter is trying to understand what sort of risk or risks the vessel represent in its current trading pattern. So, the shipowner has to provide the following information to the underwriter:- 1) The tonnage of the ship in GT( Premiums are expressed in USD/GT) 2) year of build 3) Number of crew members 4) Type of vessel 5) Type of cargo to be carried 6) Areas of trading 7) Liner trade or tramp 8) Classification society 9) Management expertise 10) Compliance with national or international legal requirement 11) Number of ships in company 12) Previous P&I history          After getting all these information the underwriter assesses the risk and calculate a fair rate or premium. The premium should represent a fair charge to cover the risk involved and to make sure that the other members of the club

KEY AREAS TO INSPECT ON BOARD BEFORE A LONG VOYAGE.

As a chief engineer , under ISM code, I will inspect and check the following areas:- 1) Read the handing over notes of previous chief engineer thoroughly. 2) FO,LO,DO soundings to confirm and actual figures to match with log book figures and check for any new requirement 3) Consumption pattern, any special instruction for same. 4) Check ORB 5) Overdue certificates, surveys if any 6) status of M/E and A/E. 7) Since PMS is on the basis of running hours and time based, so record of running hours should be collected and checked from outgoing chief engineer 8) Check whether inventory is updated. There should be minimum number of spares stock available on board at all times, for carrying out maintenance as per PMS. if number of spares are not enough, then indent should be raised at earliest 9) Since vessel is going on the long voyage, so required stock of stores should be available on board. Inventory should be updated. Requisition should be raised at earliest. 10) Pollution preve

COMPANY AND ITS OBJECTIVE UNDER ISM CODE

In ISM code element 1.1.2 'Company' means the owner of the ship or any other organization or management, or the bare boat charterer who have assumed the responsibility of for operation of the ship from the ship owner and who on assuming such responsibility have agreed to take over all the duties and responsibilities imposed by code. OBJECTIVE:- Safety management objectives of the company should interalia (element 1.2.2) 1) Provide for safe practices in ship operation and a safe working environment. 2) Assess all identified risks to the ships, personnel and environment and establish appropriate safeguard and 3) Continuously improve safety management skills of personnel ashore and aboard ships including preparing for emergencies related both to safety and environmental protection  Company verifies the satisfactory implementation of the ISM code requirement and this written in element 12 of ISM code Company verification:- Company carries out internal audit over the shore

SURVEYS OTHER THAN STATUTORY SURVEYS CARRIED OUT BY CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES

Apart from statutory surveys other surveys undertaken by classification society for a ship are:- 1) Design appraisal of new building: - Class appraise and approves design for the ship which is going to be built. 2) Surveys during construction:- Attendance at the construction of the vessel in the shipyard by a classification society surveyor and to verify materials during the construction at shipyard, supervise the welding technique procedure, fabrication at all stages of construction, installation of essential machinery on board and witness during sea and other trials. They inspect the essential machinery and equipment at various stages of construction. 3) Surveys after construction:- Maintenance of class is assured by the system of periodic survey. Upon satisfactory completion of the above, the shipowner request for the issuance of a class certificate. This will be considered by relevant classification society and if deemed satisfactory, a certificate of classification is issued

ROLES OF CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES AND IMPORTANCE OF IACS

ROLE OF CLASSIFICATION SOCIETY:-            Classification societies are organizations that establish and apply technical standards in relation to the design, construction and survey of marine related facilities including ships and offshore structures. These standards are issued by the society as published rules. They publish rules and regulations concerning:- 1) The structural strength of all essential parts of hull and its appendages. 2) The safety and reliability of the propulsion and steering system and other auxiliary system 3) All machinery (including electrical) 4) Materials of construction 5) Rules for special types of vessel 6) Rules for ship equipment etc The classification society service is mainly on setting/ updating and monitoring hull structure and essential shipboard engineering system, during construction and throughout a ship's service life. A vessel must be in class all times while in service. For this vessels are being surveyed by classification societ

STRESS, STRATEGY TO BEAT STRESS & MOTIVATE STRESSED PERSONNEL

 Stress is equivalent to tension/pressure caused by emotional strain. It is an adverse reaction of people because of excessive pressure or demand placed on them. It arises when people feel they can not cope. The strategy for coping with stress affected personnel consists of three steps:- 1) Identify stress affected personnel-- They may be identified by their physical behavioral effect such as  a) Chronic worry or anxiety  b) Inability to relax c) Problems with sleep d) Emotional instability demonstrated by aggression/uncontrolled anger e) nervousness f) Physical disorder like high blood pressure/ digestive problem g) Uncooperative attitude h) Addiction to smoking/ alcohol i) Such individual may have a reduced morale and commitment to work j) Poor judgement and poor relationship with colleagues 2) Identification of the problem -- (STRESSORS)  Stress may be due to following reasons a) Excessive workload without break b) Time pressure for work completion c) Insecure jo

ISM RELATED DEFICIENCIES AND DEFICIENCIES LEADING TO DETENTION

ISM RELATED DEFICIENCIES:- 1) Company safety and environment protection policy is not on board the ship or the ship personnel are not familiar with it. 2) Safety management documents are not readily available. e.g. SMS manual not kept in library 3) SMS documentation is not in ship's working language 4) A senior officer does not identify DPA 5) Emergency situation contact procedures and contact number details of shore management not in place 6) Emergency drill programs not available on board 7) Master and senior officers not knowing their responsibility and authority 8) NC raised during internal audit not reported to company and if reported no action taken 9) ship maintenance is not as per maintenance routine and no record available 10) Newly joined crew member is not familiar with his duties and necessary instructions which should be given to him prior sailing are not available 11)  Senior ship officer is not aware of company responsibility and its policy 12) Vessel ha

ACTION OF PSCO TOWARDS NON PARTY STATE

CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY NON PARTY STATE:-          If a flag state is not party to a convention and has not ratified the convention and has issued a certificate , it does not give freedom to the state to violate the standards of convention. PSCO will make sure that equivalent survey and inspection are conducted and an equivalent level of safety and protection of marine environment are ensured. This is called no more favorable treatment. INSPECTION OF SHIP BELOW CONVENTION SIZE: -        Most maritime convention have progressive limits of application for each category of size of ship. Those may be related to tonnage, length or other ship parameter. Such limits of application involve not only certificate but also their equipment. As ships of non party and below convention size are not provided with SOLAS, LOAD LINE  or MARPOL certificates, as applicable, or the crew member may not hold valid STCW certificates, the PSCO , taking into account the principles established in this document

CLEAR GROUND FOR DETAILED INSPECTION DURING PSC INSPECTION

CLEAR GROUNDS:- Evidence that the ship, its equipment or its crew does not correspond substantially with requirement of relevant convention or that the master or crew members are not familiar with essential shipboard procedures relating to the safety of ship or prevention of pollution.     Clear grounds to conduct a more detailed inspection include:- 1) The absence of principal equipment or arrangements required by convention :- e.g. MARPOL annex 1 requires that ship above 400 GRT and above must have an OWS with automatically stopping device, if effluent exceeds 15 ppm. Absence of this principal equipment will lead to detention. 2) Evidence from a review of the ship's certificate that it is clearly invalid: - e.g. Safety equipment certificate found invalid since no renewal survey was carried out. 3) Evidence that the ship's logs, manuals or other required documentation are not on board, are not maintained or falsely maintained:- e.g. ORB part 1 not present on board or in

CARGO INSURANCE AND OPEN COVER

CARGO INSURANCE:- It covers physical damage to or loss of goods whilst in transit by land, sea and air. There is no standard cargo policy and most policies are tailored for the individual risk. However, most policies incorporate the Institute cargo clauses A,B,or C. Risks covered under these clauses are :- 1) ICC C- - Gives cover only against major casualties like fire or explosion, vessel or craft stranded, grounded or sunk, capsized, overturning or derailment of land conveyances, collision or contact, discharge at a port of distress, jettison, general average sacrifices. 2) ICC B - - Extends the 'C' cover to include earthquakes, volcanic eruption, lightening, washing overboard, entry of sea, lake or river into the vessel, total loss of package in unloading or loading. There is deliberate damage exclusion,  requiring the addition of the malicious damage clause. Theft is not covered. 3) ICC A -- Give cover 'against all risks of loss of or damage to the subject matter

H&M COVER [HULL AND MACHINARY COVER]

HULL AND MACHINERY COVER:-             Hull and machinery cover, commonly known as H&M cover insures against --- 1) Actual or total constructive loss of ship's hull, machinery or equipment 2) Accidental damage to hull, machinery or equipment 3) Liability against owner of other vessel with which ship collides, commonly known as collision liability. Normally collision liability is 3/4th of total liability but can be extended to 4/4th. 4) Liability for general average charges 5) Liability for salvage charges             H&M policies are generally time policies, the maximum period of insurance usually being 12 months. Coverage for a vessel under H&M policy is written with a vessel value, which has been agreed upon between the shipowner and the policy underwriter. But it is not necessary to insure property for its full value, and some assureds, in return for a lower premium, prefers to carry part of the risk themselves. A H&M policy might state the insured value

P & I INSURANCE

P&I INSURANCE:-  Ship owners insure against loss of or damage to their ship with hull underwriters. They look to P&I clubs for insurance against their liabilities to others. P&I stand for protection and indemnity. P&I clubs offer ship owners and charterers various degrees of cover e.g. Protection, Indemnity, Strikes, Freight, Demurrage and defence etc. Individual clubs may offer slightly different types of cover, although in the main, most will offer the same basic cover. Most clubs offer two principal classes of cover. Protection and Indemnity ( P&I) known as class 1 and Freight, demurrage and defense  FD&D) known as class 2. P&I cover includes the following liabilities:- 1) Cargo claims (short delivery, loss or damage to cargo etc.) 2) Crew claims( medical expenses, repatriation, compensation of death) 3) Collision liability( the extent not covered in H&M policy) 4) Fixed and floating objects( damage to docks, wharves and buoys) 5) Third p

CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES AS RO, LIMITATION AND STATUTORY SERVICES

CLASSIFICATION SOCIETY AS RECOGNIZED ORGANIZATION Classification society is an independent organization which publishes its own classification rules including technical requirement, in relation to the design, construction and survey of the ship. It has the capacity to apply, maintain and update those rules and regulation with its own resources on a regular basis. Class is not controlled by and has no interest in ship owners, ship builders or other commercial aspect of repair and maintenance of ships. SOLAS and other international convention permit the flag administration to delegate the inspection and survey of ships to a recognized organization. Classification societies play the role of recognized organization and play an role in implementation of national and international regulations. LIMITATION;- While the authority to carry out statutory surveys and inspection on behalf of flag administration may be delegated to RO, the powers of enforcement of RO are limited. When required

PMS UNDER ISM

IMPLEMENTATION OF A PMS ON BOARD SHIP UNDER ISM:- 1) CORRECTIVE ACTION PROCESSES: - Chapter 9 of ISM code requires the company's SMS to include reporting and analysis of accidents with the objective of improving safety and establishing procedure for implementation of corrective action to prevent recurrence. Corrective action processes such as root cause analysis help identify and eliminate the underlying reasons causing machinery failure, thereby preventing recurrence.       Corrective action process can be shown in following flow chart:-                                  IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM                                    ESTABLISH THE CAUSE                                     PROPOSE SOLUTIONS                                                                    EVALUATE SOLUTIONS                         ACCEPT ONE                      REJECT ALL( Go to propose solution)                   IMPLEMENT SOLUTION             EVALUATE EFFECTIVENESS                EFFEC

"WAR RISK CLAUSE" IN MARINE INSURANCE

WAR RISK CLAUSE  :- Marine insurance act 1963  section 2(e) defines war peril as maritime peril. A charter party may include a war risk clause under which a vessel may be prohibited to be used in war zones or to carry goods which will expose her to the risk of capture.         War risk cover is normally excluded from the H&M cover, so it is necessary for the assured to buy cover separately against war risk. Similarly Institute cargo clauses A,B,C also exclude the cover against war and strike. War risk clause covers the following perils:- 1) War or war like situations, including civil war, use of arms in course of military exercise in peace time. 2) Capture at sea, confiscation and other similar intervention by a foreign state power. 3) Riots, sabotage, act of terrorism or other social, religious or politically motivated use of violence or threat. 4) Piracy and mutiny.   However insurance does not cover:- 1) Insolvency 2) Damage due to any nuclear weapon, chemical, biolog

"DEVIATION" IN MARINE INSURANCE

DEVIATION : - According to Indian marine insurance act 1963 section 48(1), when a ship, without lawful excuse, deviates from the voyage contemplated by the policy, the insured is discharged from the liability as from the time of deviation and is immaterial that the ship may have regained her route before any loss occurs.       As per section 49(2) there is a deviation from the voyage contemplated by the policy 1) where the course of the voyage is specifically designated by the policy and that course is departed from. 2) where the course of the voyage is not specifically designated by the policy, but the usual and customary course is departed from.      Section 48(3) says the intention to deviate is immaterial, there must be a deviation in fact to discharge the insurer from his liability under the contract.          So, the effect of deviation is that any loss arising during or after the deviation will be borne by the ship owner. Section 49(1) says where several ports of disch

WARRANTIES IN MARINE INSURANCE

Section 35 of India marine insurance act 1963 and section 33 of UK marine insurance act 1906 defines a warranty as a promissory warranty, that is to say a warranty by which the assured undertakes that some particular thing shall or shall not be done, or that some condition should be fulfilled, or whereby he affirms or negates the existence of a particular state of facts. A warranty, as above defined, is a condition which must be exactly complied with, whether it be material to the risk or not. If it be not so complied with, then, subject to any express provision in the policy, the insurer is discharged from liability as from the date of the breach of warranty, but without prejudice to any liability incurred by him before that date. There are two types of warranties:- 1) EXPRESS WARRANTY:- An express warranty is the warranty, which must be included in, or written upon the policy, or must be contained in some document incorporated by reference into the policy.       There are a num

SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE OF A CHIEF ENGINEER

Success is the achievement of one’s goals, at a higher efficiency i.e. minimum input and maximum output. An organization aims at best returns of its assets. The ship much like an organization is an open system that occurs with and interacts with environment. A voyage turns out to be successful when the chief engineer adopts well chocked out plans to mobilize and utilize the resources both physical and human. One of the most important tasks of the chief engineer is to utilize the vessel assets effectively to avoid delays at port and control cost to enhance voyage contribution.    To achieve a successful voyage a chief engineer should follow the following:- A) To achieve trouble free run of machineries he should have and should do:- 1) He should have sound knowledge of operation of machinery 2) Ensuring that maintenance routines are carried out as per PMS 3) Carrying out regular training and familiarization for new joiners and existing staff 4) By recording and analyzing mac

FIRE IN DRY DOCK AND DOCUMENTED PROCEDURE

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Chapter 8 of ISM code deals with emergency preparedness and requires the company to identify potential emergency shipboard situation and establish procedure to respond to them. It also requires the company to establish programs for drills and exercise to prepare for emergency action. Fire on board a ship is also a documented procedure in the SMS of every company. But during dry dock the procedure will be changed. FIRE DURING DRY DOCK DOCUMENTED PROCEDURE:- Due to nature of dry dock repair activities, it is a challenging task to device a fire fighting plan that will satisfactorily operate under all condition. Thus, necessarily in such a situation a suitable fire fighting plan should be able to frequent changes and thus should be highly flexible in nature. To prepare a documented system following should be kept in mind:- 1) Earlier primary station may not be suitable for muster due to repair work 2) Vessel general emergency alarm may be under repair 3) Ship’s crew may have

MAJOR NCs AWARDED DURING SMC AUDIT

We sometimes during an ISM audit get major NCs and because of that SMC cannot be endorsed annually or renewed. As a chief engineer it becomes our duty to inform and suggest the remedial actions which can be done to downgrade the major NCs into NCs or correct them so that undue delay of vessel can be avoided and the vessel can sail smoothly. Below in an example of such an audit in which 3 major NCs are awarded and as a chief engineer you are framing the report to your superintendent suggesting the steps which should be taken as earliest as possible for early sailing of ship. To, Mr. ……….. The superintendent ………..  company                               Subject:- Major NC awarded during SMC audit Good day sir,                          This is in reference to earlier report number ………….. in which you have received the list of major NCs awarded to this good vessel during SMC audit. I would like to suggest the steps which should be taken for early sailing of vessel. Following are