Anxiety

I am getting anxious!

One never knows what a survey will throw up. Five years ago SONFLOWER floated into the dry dock and recieved a report that indicated that it would not float out again! The problem was the weed hatch. There was NO ULLAGE (air space). Although the weedhatch was bolted down and sealed the water under the bolted cover was below the water line! If the cover had been taken off the boat would have sunk! A new weed hatch was fabricated and fitted to give 6 inches of ullage  below the hatch to the waterline. This could well have been the problem that caused CRT's Problem here . We also removed a considerable amount of ballast to ensure that the swim was, correctly, only just submerged. It looks like the tug was too deep inthe water too!

I wonder what the surveyor will find this time!

Lots of little things

Getting back to a pile of post always leads on to a time of catching up. One item that needed attention immediately was the Boat Insurance renewal. Due the 4th September, I did it over the phone. One thing puzzled me however. There was no reference in the renewal document to the need for a survey. Having recently spent out a lot of money on a hull survey and the work to comply with the surveyors recommendations, this seemed a serious omission. I queried it with the customer advisor. She told me they now did not require a survey for vessels under 25 years old. As SONFLOWER is at least 25 years old, my puzzlement continued.

It is our responsibility to keep the insurers up to date with 'material facts'. I pointed out the fact that they had made a mistake by reading 1984 as 1989! This morning I spent writing a letter and getting together the report, invoices to show recommendations have been carried out and a copy of the Boat Safety Scheme examination certificate for good measure. One thing I do not want is to find myself uninsured because the 'material facts' are incorrect!