Guides for ship technical teams.
Practical notes on dry docks, maintenance, surveys and inspections, for superintendents and technical managers.
Read the latest guide
Dry dock specification checklist
How to write a docking specification that every yard prices item by item: where the scope comes from, the usual sections, how to write each item and how to compare the quotes.
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Ship certificates: the full list and survey windows
The statutory certificates a cargo ship carries, who issues them, how long each one is valid and how the annual, intermediate and renewal survey windows work.
Read the guideFrom Excel to a planned maintenance system
How to move a ship's maintenance plan out of spreadsheets: what to prepare, how to clean the data, the order of the move and what to check after it.
Read the guideFrom maintenance gaps to PSC detentions
The deficiencies that most often start with maintenance, how a list of defects becomes an ISM finding and a detention, and what to test before the ship arrives in port.
Read the guideISM Code 10.3 and critical equipment
How to build the critical equipment list for your ships, the measures that keep that equipment reliable, how to test what stands by and what auditors ask.
Read the guideRoot cause analysis on board
How to find why a deficiency happened, not only what was wrong, with a worked five whys example from a PSC finding and corrective actions that hold.
Read the guideCritical spare parts on board
Which spares the ship must carry for its critical equipment, how many of each, and how to keep the stock records true so the part is there when it is needed.
Read the guideInternal ISM audits on board
How to plan an internal audit, what records to sample on board, how to write findings the ship can act on and how to close them with evidence.
Read the guideAnnual, intermediate and renewal surveys
How the survey windows run through a five-year certificate, what moves them, how class surveys fit in, and how to plan them for every ship so none is missed.
Read the guideDrills on board: plan and records
Which drills a cargo ship holds and how often, how to plan them over the year, and how to write records that show what really happened.
Read the guideNext guides.
ISO 23323 in plain words
What the standard asks of a ship maintenance system, and how to check your own against it.
Conditions of class: from notice to closure
What a condition of class means, how its due date is set, and how to close it on time.
Near miss reporting that works
What to report, how to make the crew report it, and how to turn reports into actions.
Superintendent visits: what to check
How to prepare a ship visit, what to look at on board, and how to turn the report into actions.
Vessel budget: planned against actual
How to build a yearly technical budget for each vessel and follow the actual spend through the year.
Running hours or calendar intervals
When each type of interval makes sense, and how to combine them on one vessel.