Solas steering gear checks

I suggest you Google "ship emergency steering system" and peruse the many documents and drawings that are available.

If you are not familiar with steering systems it will be very difficult to describe the wide variety of systems and procedures.

Hi,

Without seeming rude can I ask what you are doing with the steering gear if you have never seen or dealt with one before?

Don't be rude young man, what does system knowledge have to do with anything?

That list looks like being part of a SOLAS Class certification checklist. If somebody approaches me on my ship with one of these checklists, I would make d*** sure that all amateurs stay away from this official, just to prevent them from giving stupid answers.

I was guest on a larger charter yacht in Palma in May, where a flag change was in progress. The new engineer was unable to answer some of these questions to the class inspector of the new flag state and was unable to switch the boat from normal electrical power to emergency power. The class check was ending in that moment and the class inspector left really p/o. So was the owner .

Hi,

SOLAS is not a class.

Also Flag is not Class either so if it was a class surveyor there he wouldn't normally be representing Flag.

The list posted in Post No 1 looks like and could be a pre sailing checklist, the reason I asked is if the op wants to know what each thing means should he really be checking them before sailing because if he doesn't not know what each is how can he hope to fix it if it stops?

There are too many guys who have somehow got CoCs or copied others and put their name on it who have no business even pretending to be engineers.

If as you (HTM09)say you are a ship owner and operator you would not want any of these types onboard neither would any knowledgeable yacht owner.

I thnk we may discover the gentleman is a licensed yacht engineer probably getting ready to upgrade or take a yacht through an annual survey ...

The captain should have followed the "engineer" down the gangway since he was undoubtedly the one who hired the pseudo engineer in the first place.

It is kind of hard to feel sorry for billionaires but they deserve better than they get in too many cases. It has become worse in the past 2 or 3 years.

I know SOLAS is not a Class and a simple flag change does not require a class survey. Sorry for my imprecise statement. This MCA compatible (non SOLAS, 4??? GT) yacht had an owner change. The new owner wanted a flag change and reclass from a private yacht to a commercial charter yacht under the new flag. For this purpose, the new flag state wanted a new class survey. I was accidentally on board as the owners guest during the survey.

I felt a bit sorry for the engineer, as it was his second day on this yacht. It was nothing wrong with the boat, the engineer was just not very helpfull . I would have kept the old crew as part of the contract until all paperwork had been completed. I think the former owner kept the old crew for his new boat.

Owner of larger yachts (if involved in the hiring process at all) and their skippers are hiring crew via what we call mouth propaganda. Most crew show up upon recommendation. If a new crewmember turns in his paperwork, appropiate action is taken to get more background knowledge about this person. The final go or no go is mostly given by the skipper after he has interviewed and checked the applicant. The chance, that a total greenhorn gets the job, is rather small unless personal reference overrides everything (a california dream boy for the Admiral ). And I can assure you, most owner (and skipper) of larger sailboats in Europe know each other.

Considering that absolutely nothing needs doing in order to put the ship on emergency power other than lose ship's power the "engineer" must have been a bit thick. And, since the instructions on how to start and connect the EDG and line up the E switchboard are supposed to be in plain sight whole story seems a bit odd.

Anyone who can find the EDG should be able to cause it to start and take the load on the emergency buss.

Sorry, thats all I can tell, I was not down in the ECR, when this awfull crime happend. But Marmot, I will try to get you a copy of the survey protocol. That will safe dozends of posts and will give you more time to concentrate on fighting NYCAP . I am not in your weight class.

Now I am confused.

Hi,

I don't think you are suffering this condition alone.