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SV-CHIEF-500-L1.1

The Chief Engineer's role and planned maintenance

The Chief Engineer is responsible for all the vessel's machinery and for the engineering department, so the role moves from operating the plant to managing it. This lesson covers the role and the planned-maintenance system that is its main tool.

Entry & progression

Certificate: MCA SV Chief Engineer <500 GT / <3000 kW — the management-level engineering CoC to serve as Chief Engineer of a small commercial vessel or yacht within these limits. Entry: hold SV Engineer Officer of the Watch, complete the required qualifying service, the management-level modules and ancillaries (STCW basic safety, AFF, PSCRB, ENG1); verify current requirements against MSN 1904 / MIN 642. Progresses to SV Chief Engineer <3000 GT / <9000 kW.

Leading the engineering

The Chief Engineer plans, organises and supervises the operation and upkeep of all the machinery, sets the maintenance programme, manages the spares and stores, and ensures the machinery is safe, compliant and reliable. This is a change of mindset from the watchkeeper's: the Chief thinks ahead, resourcing and scheduling work so that failures are prevented rather than chased. A planned-maintenance system schedules the work by running hours and the calendar, records what was done and what was found, and keeps the vessel out of breakdown mode.

  • Set and run a planned-maintenance system based on the makers' schedules and running hours.
  • Manage the spares, consumables and critical-spares holdings so the work can be done.
  • Supervise and support the watchkeeping engineers and any crew doing engineering work.
  • Keep the technical records, manuals and certificates in order.

NOTE — Plan the work, work the plan Management-level engineering is foresight: scheduling and resourcing maintenance so failures are prevented, not chased. A planned-maintenance system with honest records is the Chief's main tool for keeping the plant reliable.

WARNING — Critical spares must actually be aboard A maintenance plan is only as good as the spares to carry it out. The Chief manages the critical-spares holding so that a foreseeable failure can be repaired at sea, not discovered to be un-repairable when it happens.

Practice questions

5 questions
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recall · core

A planned-maintenance system is driven mainly by: (a) Waiting for things to break (b) The makers' schedules, running hours and the calendar (c) Guesswork (d) The weather

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recall · core

The Chief Engineer's role, compared with the watchkeeper's, is to: (a) Only stand watches (b) Plan, resource and manage the machinery and department, thinking ahead (c) Ignore maintenance (d) Avoid the engine room

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recall · core

Critical spares are managed so that: (a) They are never carried (b) A foreseeable failure can be repaired at sea (c) The store looks full (d) Nothing

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Work done and defects found should be: (a) Kept in the Chief's head (b) Recorded in the planned-maintenance system (c) Never written down (d) Told only to the owner

recallcore

recall · core

The purpose of a planned-maintenance system is to: (a) Create paperwork (b) Prevent failures by scheduling work before things break (c) Slow the ship (d) Replace the crew

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