Entry & progression
The engineer's half of the ship's paperwork. The master owns the deck certificates. You own the machinery ones — and a vessel with an expired machinery certificate does not sail.
Two different sets of paper
| Classification society | Flag state (statutory) | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose rules | The class society's rules | International conventions, given effect by flag |
| Concerned with | Structural and machinery integrity, systems as built and maintained | Safety, pollution prevention, manning, security |
| Who surveys | Class surveyor | Flag, or class acting as a recognised organisation on flag's behalf |
| Consequence of lapse | Class suspended or withdrawn — and insurance follows class | Certificate invalid; the vessel may be detained |
In practice class often surveys on behalf of flag, and the two arrive in the same visit — which is why crews conflate them. Do not. They are different bodies with different powers, and a class recommendation is not a statutory deficiency.
The engineer's survey items
- Machinery and shafting — main engines, gearboxes, shafts, propellers, sterntubes.
- Pressure vessels — boilers, air receivers, hydraulic accumulators, safety valves.
- Electrical installation — insulation, protection, emergency power.
- Fire systems — detection, fixed extinguishing, fire pumps, emergency fire pump, quick-closing valves and remote stops.
- Pollution prevention equipment — oily water separator, sewage plant, incinerator where fitted, and the record books that go with them.
- Steering gear — including the emergency arrangements and their tests.
The continuous survey trap
Machinery is commonly surveyed on a continuous cycle: items are opened up and examined over a five-year rolling period rather than all at once. It is a sensible system with one lethal property — it is easy to fall behind quietly, item by item, until the final year arrives with three years of work in it. Track the continuous survey status monthly. It is the chief engineer's most easily neglected duty.
TIP — A survey is passed in the twelve months before it, not on the day Surveyors look at the maintenance records as much as the machinery. A well-kept planned maintenance system, with measured clearances and honest deferral notes, makes a survey a conversation. A thin history makes it an excavation. The paperwork you did in February is what gets you through the survey in November.
Conditions and recommendations
A surveyor may leave a condition of class or a recommendation — a defect you may sail with, on stated terms, until a stated date. Two rules. First, the terms are real: if the condition says reduced power, you run at reduced power. Second, the date is real, and it arrives. A condition of class that expires unactioned suspends the class, and a suspended class ends the insurance.
CAUTION — Survey and certification detail is flag-, class- and vessel-specific The survey regime that applies to a particular yacht depends on its flag, its class society, its size and its trade — and none of that is specified in Marine Order 72, which governs your certificate of competency, not the vessel's certificates. This lesson teaches the shape and the engineer's role. For the certificates a specific vessel must hold and the survey intervals that apply to it, go to the flag administration and the class society. If the vessel is Australian, ask AMSA.