JUNE 2010
In June, all surveyors attended the annual meeting which was held in Greece from the 25th to the 29th June. This happened to coincide with the marriage of Alasdair and Susannah who have run the Piraeus office for many years.

All surveyors from Shanghai, Panama, London and Philippines attended and it was a very worthwhile occasion.

Asia remains a very active location, and we are pleased that Mike Poole is now surveying ships in Asia and the Far East, to help Marinos in Shanghai who occassionally has visa problems with Taiwan and other locations.

No trip to Greece would be complete without a visit to the Acropolis and this picture was taken on a lovely day and shows the true beauty of Athens and its culture.


MARCH 2010
The winter lingered into March and provided us with contrasting climatic conditions, and large temperature fluctuations, sometimes within the same trip - it's so difficult when you don't know which clothes to pack! It's a good job we don't currently have any female surveyors.

One recent trip to Finland found the harbour completely frozen, see photo, both ships are afloat! This was followed by a job further south in the lovely island of Malta.

A trip to Bratislava was quickly executed in response to a casualty. - no Slovakia doesn't have a coastline but there was plenty of shipping on the Danube and this gave us a useful insight into this. Thanks to Ryanair, the survey was completed within one day from London at a reasonable price.

We also gained a useful insight into shipping on the Caspian Sea during a recent visit to Kazakhstan to survey some ferries. It has warmed up quickly in Kazakhstan and the wild camels, goats and horses were venturing out for all to see.


FEBRUARY 2010
Following the 1/1/2010 renewals, a familiar situation occurred whereby January was quiet and then towards the end of the month and throughout February, all of the surveys required within 30 days of inception needed to be completed. So February turned out to be a busy month. Shipping in the Philippines featured strongly, with various fleets needing surveys of one kind or another. We are grateful to our colleagues at Pioneer insurance for having so much faith in us.

Alasdair Watt was busy with a series of surveys for an offshore contractor in respect of their hull and machinery insurance. Richard Postles completed a number of key Technical Appraisals of European based fleets.

Marinos in Shanghai took a well deserved break during Chinese New Year. Simon Groves went to China to help out with surveys in Guangzhou, Rizhao and Tianjin during Chinese New Year to find that internal travel was surprisingly easy during this hectic period. All flights were on schedule and on time. Meanwhile the Chinese continued with their firework displays from morning till night.

A recent trip to Beira in Mozambique was of interest, because we found the country to be peaceful and well organised. A nice view of the port shows the fishing fleet there and the nearby drydock. See photos opposite. Mozambique is famous for its prawns and we were fortunate to sample these. One of the fishing boats had caught fire and sank shortly before we arrived.

Ezequiel Castro is fast becoming our tug and barge expert with jobs in the Turks and Caicos, Cayman and Galapagos currently being handled.


JANUARY 2010
Happy New Year to all our clients and colleagues, and many thanks to all for your continued support! 2009 closed with a busy period for all of us, so we apologise for not keeping the news pages up to date.
However, we all managed to take an extended break over the Christmas and New Year period and now look forward to continuing with the surveys into 2010, particularly with the 1st January renewals.
Marinos Wang in Shanghai remains busy with an increase in surveys as Chinese owners seemingly take advantage of favourable second hand prices and increase their fleets.
Mike Poole has been working extensively with a fishing company, trying to help improve maintenance planning and productivity.
Richard Postles has seen a lot of West Africa towards the end of 2009 with a variety of surveys, including distressed tonnage and single voyages to scrap.
Alasdair Watt has seen the effects of the economic downturn in Greece with vessels being laid up and requiring surveys for mortgagees.
Ezequiel Castro has seen probably the widest variety of survey types, which is typical in Panama, and he has managed his workload with tremendous maturity and capability.
Simon Groves was particularly pleased to be involved in a series of surveys for a new ship owner which is developing a fleet of bulk carriers for the first time and requested a review of the ships and the management companies.
Peter Tran rarely appears in the news pages but most callers encounter him on the end of the phone as he is the first point of contact. Peter is a special person and we express our thanks for his loyalty and hard work throughout 2009.

SEPTEMBER 2009
For the third year Inserve have sponsored the best new comer in the Rosslare Small Boats Fishing Festival. 2009 was the 24th annual festival attracting 45 boats and 120 competitors for the four day species hunt fishing from the picturesque harbour of Kilmore Quay. The event attracts boats from all over Ireland and the United Kingdom with the best new comer being a Burnham-on-Sea boat called “Heron” winning €250 for their efforts. The event is extremely well sponsored by various tackle and electronic manufacturers with the total prize fund being in the region of £15,000. 

Alasdair Watt from Inserve fished on Sea Breeze being skippered by the event co-organiser Phil Hallsworth (Jnr). They were taking part in the event for the fourth year finishing tenth out of the 45 boats with a total of 22 different species. The winners for the second year in succession were “Screaming Reels”, an Irish boat weighing in a total of 27 different species.  Alasdair also caught the best Irish specimen of the week with a Ballan Wrasse of 2.5kg winning the best specimen trophy. Although not allowed in the competition Phil caught several large tope that provided good fun and were all released at the boat.

A very good week was had by all with very enjoyable entertainment for the lads and plenty of Guinness!! For further details visit the website on www.rosslaresmallboatsfestival.co.uk.


AUGUST 2009
We are pleased to announce that Mike Poole is joining Inserve from the 1st September. Mike was the engineering manager at the FBM Shipyard in Cebu, Philippines. The yard is closing down, and Mike wants to remain in the Philippines, so we are pleased to have him with us.
His first work commitments will be assisting a local fishing company to review their fleet management and maintenance operations. This project will last a few months, but after that, Mike will be performing insurance related surveys throughout the Asia region. This will greatly support Marinos Wang in the Shanghai office. Marinos is not always able to travel outside of China at short notice due to visa requirements.

JULY 2009
I had the opportunity to sail as an engineer on a charity ship from Cardiff to London in June for a few days. Mv Logos Hope is operated by the charity Operation Mobilisation. She had only been in service for a few months after a two year refit to convert her to a mission ship. She was formerly a car ferry operating to the Faeroe Islands. Built in 1979, GRT 12,500 with a crew of 350 volunteers from over 40 countries. She has the world’s largest floating bookshop on board with books ranging from cookery, hobbies, children’s books and Christian books.

My wife Jo and my seven month old son James came with me. It was James’ first voyage on a ship.

He particularly liked wearing his little lifejacket at the boat muster when we left Cardiff.

Ironically the alarm bells sounded in the afternoon when a welder accidentally set fire to a store room containing the ship’s supply of toilet rolls!! The fire was quickly under control.

The sail up the River Thames into London was fascinating as I hadn’t been up the river on a ship. We berthed near Canary Wharf.


MAY / JUNE 2009
Simon Groves was fortunate to visit Paraguay to review a tug and barge operation, which was very impressive, but he took the time to photograph some of the waterfront in Asuncion and the ships on the Paraguay river.
Risk management surveys in Asia continue to feature heavily within our sphere of operation and are always a challenge. We try to approach these surveys with an understanding of the local issues while bearing in mind the minimum requirements of the international insurance markets. A recent coastal trading company in the Philippines presented quite a challenge. The worst we have seen? Possibly. How's this for a lifeboat, more like a deathboat?
Ezequiel Castro in the Panama office suffered a burglary recently and a lot of equipment was lost from the office including Ezequiel's passport. Our sympathies are with him at this time and we apologise for any delays in surveys in this region over the next few weeks. Knowing Ezequiel as we do, we are sure he will endeavour to get the office back up and running as soon as possible.
MARCH / APRIL 2009
So far in 2009, we have responded to survey requests in many parts of the world. A big contrast to this period in 2008. Central and South America have featured strongly and Simon Groves and Ezequiel Castro have been busy there. One tug and barge operation on the Orinoco River was a particularly interesting and pleasing experience, made all the more fascinating by seeing the Orinoco dolphin for the first time.

Asia is again a hot spot for surveys, and we are pleased to announce that Marinos Wang will be joining the Shanghai office from the beginning of June 2009. Mr Wang was a chief engineer with various ships and shipping companies and joined us for a short period last year. We are pleased to have him back after his interim period as a superintendent for a major shipping company in Shanghai.
On a non work related issue Alasdair and Susannah have recently returned from a holiday in the Philippines and Hong Kong that included feeding chickens to tigers from a caged jeepney (I’m not sure what happens if it breaks down!!) up in Subic Bay. We then returned to Manila for the Manila 10’s rugby festival that included New Zealand and Australian International representation in the form of Frank Bunce and Jeremy Paul (photo of Alasdair and Jeremy Paul after the final).

After the exploits of the 10’s a well earned rest was needed. We travelled south to a small fishing village called Donsol. Donsol is famous for visiting whale sharks. It was up early on two consecutive days for a three hour session. We swam with the wild sharks offshore diving from a banker boat seeing eight individual sharks on each day. Swimming alongside a 10m whale shark for 20 minutes is simply awe inspiring.

Upon returning to Manila it was off to Hong Kong for the IRB World 7’s tournament. Scotland were unfortunately dispatched by local favourites Kenya by 50 points, who later beat New Zealand, only to fail in the semi-final. Fiji went on to win the competition. We were in the crazy south stand for both Saturday and Sunday that is famous for fancy dress and copious amounts of beer!! Not quite sure why I ended up there but another holiday was then required after a weekend of very little sleep! Anyway a must for next year.





JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2009
February - the changes in the world economy and particularly the shipping industry have had an effect on the survey activity so far in 2009. Vessels are being laid up and we have completed lay-up surveys in various parts of the world. This has been supplemented with distressed tonnage and other kinds of surveys where vessels are placed on port risks insurance and otherwise taken out of service in a casualty situation. It is surprising how quickly the shipping industry has experienced a downturn.

One large ferry company which we surveyed in Asia with 19 ships, took Alasdair Watt and Simon Groves overseas for two weeks in February. The company had suffered various losses over the last few years and it has been a challenging exercise to help the company review its management, maintenance, operation and crewing activities.

Ezequiel Castro has been busy in the Panama office with various visits to central and south America. The sea of Cortez has featured highly with two ferry companies being subject to the "Inserve treatment".

Richard Postles in the London office has been busy throughout Europe and Scandinavia with various fleets. Coastal shipping fleets remain a challenge for underwriters, although so far this year, the findings have been positive.
DECEMBER 2008
Christmas in Panama 2008

On 20th December early morning we went to a place called “Los Helechales” which is about 6 hours from the city. The distance is not more than 300 Km but the road is not so good and only a 4X4 can get there (the last 50 Km).




Here unloading the cargo




We did the activity in the local church. The bags have food, a little but at least something. We shared 55 bags of food.




People there are very poor




Some of the children have naked feet




Can you see their faces? This may be their only gift at Christmas




Sharing with children




My sister helping




They are poor but education is fantastic, about 60 children inside the church and all seated and waiting to be called ( I hope my nephews can learn from them)




Having fun, afterwards




From left to right: me, my sister, a neighbour, a girl friend, my friend’s mother and father. All were helping.



We all were deeply influenced by what we saw. Kids start working when they are 13 years old, some of them use shoes for the first time when they start working and of course the first shoes are rubber working shoes.

The girls after 12 are ready to have a family and when they reach 18 have already 4 or 5 kids. The area is hilly and they have to walk about one and a half hours to get to the nearest grocery store.

Anyway, we think it will be good to go back two times this year to share some used and new clothes and if possible take some food.


Ezequiel Castro

December 2008
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2008
Simon Groves sailed on a ship for the Great Barrier Reef pilotage in order to carry out a loss prevention study of the ship and the machinery. The condition of the machinery meant that progress was slow but the crew made the most of this, and their fishing exploits proved fruitful, see photo.

Alasdair Watt carried out a survey of a vessel in the Persian Gulf upon change of ownership, where the BV surveyor required the entire main deck to be chipped and painted before he would issue certificates. Quite extraordinary, and something which Alasdair tried to assist with by introducing some common sense into the situation.

Ezequiel Castro has been busy throughout Mexico in these last few weeks. It is notable that the Mexican coastline provides for a significant amount of shipping and the nature of the shipping varies considerably between the Caribbean side and Pacific side.

Terence Song has been working extensively on Chinese instructions, assisted by Peter Tran, who has been in Shanghai for the last two months. For those calling in to the London office, our apologies for not having Peter at his desk at all times to attend to your needs, but he has been in the Shanghai office since September and is due to return to London in time for Christmas. Peter is Chinese by origin and wanted to spend some time there, and with the wonders of modern electronic banking, this was possible.
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008
In September, Simon Groves presented a paper to the IUMI conference titled Ship Construction in Asian Emerging Markets. A transcript of the paper can be found here or on the Publications page.
In August, Richard Postles visited Sierra Leone for the purpose of surveying a fleet of tugs and barges. These were attached to a mining operation which had been closed during the civil war and more recently re-activated. Richard reports " Having lived in West Africa for a few years it was good to be back. Some highlights of the trip were a helicopter ride from the airport to the capital Freetown and a 25 minute flight to the mine. Unfortunately the little plane wasn’t available for the return journey to Freetown which meant a seven hour drive in a pickup truck, mostly on muddy jungle roads.


JUNE 2008
During July, all of the Inserve surveyors attended a meeting in London. Terence Song gave a presentation to underwriters on Chinese Shipyards and introduced them to some of the latests trends, developments and problems being experienced. The attached photo was taking following one such seminar. Left to right, Alasdair Watt, Ezeqiuel Castro, Terence Song, Simon Groves and Richard Postles.
A recent visit to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela provided an interesting insight into the risk exposure to shipping on the lake. The photographs below show a number of hazards. Firstly the green weed and algae which tends to accumulate and provide a home for debris, ropes, logs and various other floating objects. The lake contains hundreds, possibly thousands of redundant well heads, structures, disused platforms, mostly unlit at night. Then there are areas where gas leaks from the seabed reach the surface and as well as providing a gas cloud, the water density is reduced such that ships stability can be affected if sailing through.



MAY 2008
After a quiet start to the year, the survey activity has increased in recent months. Panama office has been busy with all manner of different vessels in a variety of locations. Fishing vessel casualties continue at a high level and Ezequiel is often in Vacamonte to the north of Panama, surveying machinery damages.

Whatever happened to the surface effect ships? The most popular surface effect ships were the Cirrus 120 design, built in Norway by Ulstein and other yards such as Brodrene Aa. Around 12 were built in the late 1980's early 1990's and for a while they operated with varying degrees of success. High speed diesels, waterjets, 50 knots, foam sandwich construction, the reliability proved to be very poor and the fuel consumption high, somewhat disproving the theory of surface effect transport. Two were found in Rio de Janeiro recently, see photo, we wonder where the others are?

Ships surveyed in recent weeks include livestock carriers, cruise ships, offshore supply vessels, bulk carriers / loggers. Logging activities remain a major concern for underwriters and we find ourselves being asked to comment more frequently upon logging, handling and stowage procedures.

APRIL 2008
Panama remained a hot spot for surveys throughout April, and Ezequiel visited Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia amongst other locations, for risk management and casualty surveys.

Simon Groves completed a series of surveys which took him on a two week trip to Indonesia, Hong Kong and Hawaii before returning to London. Said Simon "Indonesian tonnage can be quite challenging although it is pleasing to find that the company now recognises the requirements of the international insurance markets and puts their vessels through major refits before asking us to attend".

This was the first time that an Inserve surveyor visited Hawaii and it may not happen again. Hawaii Superferry is an ambitious project which we were pleased to visit on behalf of insurers. The ferry was constructed in the US to particularly high standards and is another example of an MTU 8000 series engine installation.

The MTU 8000 engine deserves a specific note of reference in our news pages, see photo. This engine sets new standards for performance, reliability and safety which other engine manufacturers will take some years to replicate. For those insurers which suffered losses due to the use and abuse of the 396 and 1163 engines for example, the 8000 engine is a well engineered product which is eminently insurable. Specific features include temperature monitoring and protection from the overheating of all crankshaft bearings, so crankshaft failures should be a thing of the past! Fire risks are also suitably reduced with beautifully engineered piping systems and exhaust systems of the highest integrity.

Richard Postles carried out surveys in Italy and Poland and has become a very valued member of the team. He is looking forward to a short cruise on a passenger vessel around the UK coast while he carried out a risk management survey. More next month.

FEBRUARY 2008
Inserve London office arranged a trip to a high speed ferry in dry dock in Portsmouth, see photos. Inserve were pleased to provide brokers and underwriters with a day trip to see a high speed catamaran ferry while undergoing repair work in the UK. Our thanks to HD Ferries for allowing us access to their vessel. We wish them well for 2008.

Fast ferries featured prominently in February and March with surveys in the Canary Islands, Central and South America. Machinery problems continue to dominate the losses suffered throughout the high speed ferry industry, due mainly to the extensive amount of highly stressed machinery in use. The relationship between the number of machinery losses compared to hull losses is also skewed, because of the tendency for high speed ferries to operate on fixed routes with known hazards and a good level of navigation equipment.

JANUARY 2008
China - Simon Groves visited the Inserve Shanghai office to see Terence Song and to meet the prospective new surveyor Mr Wang Yuan Lin. Mr Wang has been a chief engineer for some years on various ship types and now considers it is time to come ashore. He will be joining us after the Chinese New Year. Whilst there, Simon carried out a JH143 survey on a small boat building yard near to Dalian. The temperature was minus 7 and the staff were working in the boat construction shed with all the doors open. Leaving a mug of coffee in one place for too long would find it completely frozen! Amazing conditions to work in, but with few complaints from the enthusiastic workforce. Simon took this photograph of the Chinese fishing fleet laid up in Long Wang Tang fishing port for the winter months.

London - Richard Postles has settled in well and after initial familiarisation, has completed risk assessment surveys and a pre-purchase survey.

West Africa - Alasdair Watt is preparing for another visit to West Africa, to coincide with the Africa Cup of Nations. A keen Ghana supporter, Alasdair will no doubt have his Ghana football shirt at the ready. On a more serious note, if hull/machinery insurers or P&I Clubs have any further work in West Africa Alasdair will be there from the 13th February, contact

Indonesia - Simon Groves will be in Indonesia from the 12th to the 15th February, possibly going on to the Philippines. Again, if he can be of any assistance to any of our clients during this trip, then please get in touch

DECEMBER 2007
We are pleased to announce that Richard Postles will be joining the London office from the beginning of January 2008. Richard has a broad background of experience at sea and has degree level qualifications. Most recently, Richard was chief engineer with the Mercy Ships operation in West Africa and his experiences during this time were notable and rewarding. We hope he enjoys a long and fruitful career with us.

Simon Groves spent two weeks in the Philippines assisting one of the Phlippine's largest tuna fleets to establish a technical management division. The fleet had grown considerably in recent years and the company needed to move away from thinking of itself as a fishing company, to adopt a more commercial ship management approach. Whilst there he also carried out a risk management survey of one of the local ferry fleets.

Alasdair Watt has spent some considerable time in Nigeria in recent weeks, with a fleet of tugs and barges and a large tanker operation. Back in Greece, Alasdair has expanded his repertoire to include risk management activities on yachts, shipyards and yacht marinas.

Ezequiel Castro has been active thorughout Central America, with surveys in Costa Rica, Trinidad and Mexico.

NOVEMBER 2007
In November, Alasdair Watt spent some time in Nigeria surveying a large tug and barge operation. West Africa remains an important part of the world for marine insurers and Alasdair finds it relatively easy to travel there, given the ease at which he can obtain visas in Greece.

On the 8th November, Simon Groves presented a paper entitled "Mega Yachts - know the risks" at the Lloyds Library. The paper was organised by the Insurance Institute of London where a full transcript and the presentation is available to members. For others, the paper is available in the Publications page ...more
OCTOBER 2007
October was a pivotal month in our development. We said goodbye to Neville Harrison, Jon Gray and Roy Temme and consolidated our team to concentrate on the needs of the marine insurance markets.

In October 2007 I was fortunate to have visited the Kenyan port of Kisumu on Lake Victoria for the purpose of surveying a vessel. The vessel concerned was a rail ferry which was built in Kisumu in 1965 for the purpose of transporting railway wagons between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda across the lake, effectively creating an east African railway network ...more
AUGUST 2007
This month produced a very mixed bag of ships for surveys, mainly risk management surveys although casualty instructions were also received by the Piraeus, Panama and Shanghai offices. In addition to the more conventional tonnage, some of the more unusual ship types included dredgers, offshore vessels, car carriers, cable layers, power barges and high speed ferries. We had dealt with claims and casualties on power barges in the past, but this was the first time we had approached them looking at condition and risk exposure. One of them was in a particularly remote location in Bangladesh, which proved difficult to reach given the recent flooding there.

We were honoured to be asked by Hellenic Seaways to carry out a Safety Audit of their operations. This involved surveys of thirteen ferries of various types, audits of procedures, training and management supervision. This called for serious commitment from Jon Gray and Alasdair Watt over much of July and August and this was reciprocated by the Hellenic Seaways staff. The audit proceeded successfully and will hopefully be of great benefit to all involved.

JULY 2007
Africa is emerging as a popular location for surveys during 2007. The Red Sea ferry operations have seen a change in the size, type and complexity of vessels following the ferry casualty in 2006. Sudan is seeing an increase in the amount of trade on the White Nile upon cessation of the internal conflicts there. Kenya was visited recently for a review of a ferry operation which must rate as the busiest in the world, with around 60 million passengers per year, see photo. Nigeria, Ghana and Togo have been visited a number of times for commercial shipping, and there are further surveys planned in Cameroon. It is often possible to plan surveys and combine two or more jobs in one visit, so clients with a need for surveys in African locations are invited to contact us for details of our next planned visits.

JUNE 2007
Inserve were represented by Jon Gray and Alasdair Watt at a dinner in Valencia. We were privileged to be invited to a dinner along with leading underwriters involved in the yachting and marina insurance market. Jon Gray had previously surveyed the marina in Valencia as it was preparing for the Americas Cup challenge. The dinner was preceded by a tour of the marina where Jon explained some of the risks involved.

Simon Groves presented a paper at the Willis Marine Shipping Insurance Seminar entitled Risk Management Surveys - friend or foe. The paper addressed some of the fundamental high risk areas which remain the greatest categories of claims in terms of quantum and frequency - fires and crankshaft bearing failures.

MAY 2007
Job Vacancies - technical management. We are acting on behalf of a shipowner client who currently owns two capesize bulk carriers. He wishes to establish his own ship management company in London and is initially looking for the following personnel:
Technical Manager - must have experience of ship management (preferablybulk carriers) at a senior level.
Engineer Superintendent - will be required to travel extensively, attend ship inspections, dry dockings etc.
Marine Superintenent/DP - must have knowledge of ISM, ISPS and regulatory matters.
A very good salary and benefits package is on offer, and this is an exciting opportunity for people seeking to progress within ship management. We would be pleased to hear from suitable personnel interested in these roles.

Our yacht management division which runs from the Southampton office is pleased to announce that they have taken another new yacht, a 67 metre Feadship, into management for ISM, ISPS and general shore based support.

Jon Gray and Alasdair Watt carried out a series of surveys over a two week period for a large ferry company in Greece. Alasdair who is resident in Greece advised us "The company asked us to quote for what they termed a "Safety Audit" and we produced a tailor made service which included operational safety, safety training, an evaluation of drills and practices, a navigational risk assessment, mechanical reliability and loss prevention. " The outcome was positive, and during the closing meeting, everybody was surprised at the findings and the benefits that the audit produced.

MARCH / APRIL 2007
Simon Groves visited Sudan to undertake a review of shipping on the White Nile. Quite a remarkable place to visit, and with the outbreak of peace in the central region, provides underwriters with a new area of business should they be interest. The port of Kosti, 200 miles up the White Nile from Khartoum is the main location for tugs and barges, and there is a lot of activity. Sadly, the condition of the existing fleet is quite poor.
Alasdair Watt surveys the Black Pearl. Pirates of the Caribbean fans will understand the chuckling that took place during a skype call when Alasdair recounted his arrival on the Black Pearl. He went to the Captain's cabin, introduced himself and said "I suppose the last Captain on here was Jack Sparrow". To which the Captain replied blankly, "no actually it was Andrew somebody, I've got his name here somewhere..."

We are please to announce our 4th Anniversary Party to be held at the cellar bar of the New Moon in Leadenhall Market, on Thursday 19th April from 1600. All friends and clients are welcome.
Jon Gray spent nearly two weeks on board a large bulk carrier, assisting with an ISM review and crew training. Jon joined the vessel in South Africa and left on arrival into Brazil.
FEBRUARY 2007
During February, Jon Gray visited one of the largest yacht marinas in Spain to carry out a risk assessment of the liability exposure for insurers. During the exercise Jon met with local insurers and brokers, see attached photo. Jon gained his experience in marine property liability and physical damage surveys through extensive port surveys, of which marinas can be considered similar in nature. Jon also has an insight into the workings of large yachts, being that he is head of Inserve yacht management division, see www.inserveyachts.org
We are very pleased to welcome Dominic Jones to Inserve Panama office. Dominic is a Master Mariner and has been resident in Panama for the last few years, having settled there since coming ashore from a varied and experienced sea going career. After Dominic has completed his induction training in London, he will join Ezequiel Castro in the Panama office by mid March, and provide a good blend of skills and experience. Panama remains a focal point for Inserve, being an important location for shipping and a major hub for travel to central and south America.
Fishing vessels featured strongly in February activities, with Simon Groves spending a few days in eastern Canada to assess the risk exposure to insurers of the kinds of fishing vessels which operate there. Regions vary, and risk exposure varies with region, weather, types of fish or shellfish and methods of fishing. Other factors also play a part but readers will understand that we cannot publish full details. While the UK enjoyed one of the warmest winters in many years, eastern Canada remained true to form, with temperatures of minus 14, and in some areas the entire fishing fleet was tied up pending an improvement in the weather, see photo.
Pedro Moss who joined us in January, will take up his post in Shanghai in mid March. Pedro spent time with Alasdair Watt surveying a ferry fleet and a gas tanker in Italy, with Simon Groves in Holland looking at a fleet of container ships, and with Neville Harrison in Ireland. Pedro is now ready to join Terence Song in the Shanghai office where their work will comprise condition surveys for P&I Clubs, risk based surveys for hull and machinery insurers, and shipyard "Builders Risk" and "Ship Repairer's Liability" surveys.
JANUARY 2007
We are pleased to announce that Pedro Moss joined Inserve during January 2007. Pedro is a Master Mariner having undertaken his training with BP Tankers and gone on to gain experience on a wide variety of vessels. Born in Panama and educated in New York and the UK, Pedro is a fine example of the shrinking world. From the middle of February, Pedro will take up his new position as a surveyor in the Shanghai office of Inserve, working with Terence Song.
Roy Temme spent time in Mauretania looking at fishing and fishery vessels. The trip involved a 6 hour car ride from Nouakchott to Nouadhibou, broken only by late night diversion into the desert to sit on the ground and eat roast mutton. Roy took the photographs below of the condition of the vessels in Nouadhibou, something of a graveyard for ships.



Simon Groves spent a week in the Philippines and in Bangladesh. The trip to Bangladesh was in connection with a fleet loss prevention study which Inserve are carrying out for London underwriters, involving a large fleet of specialised container vessels.
Fatigue is hot topic at present, with various industry publications focussing on this issue. It is something that we come across quite often during our risk management surveys, but like a lot of other common problems, we as an industry, are in danger of missing the point. It is important to recognise that Flag States set the minimum safe manning levels, and the way in which they do this is fundamentally flawed. Minimum manning levels consider the number/rank of officers and crew needed to take a ship from point A to point B. They do not consider the demands made on the crew by extensive coastal trading, working cargo, cargo lashing, machinery maintenance etc. Extensive coastal trading and short sea trades are the most common areas where we find fatigue, particularly among deck officers, yet on at least one vessel surveyed during 2006, the Flag State (in this case the UK) had allowed the number deck officers to be reduced by one, when on short sea trades. In our view it should have been increased by one! So it can be seen that manning levels are not being derived with any consideration of the trading pattern and risk exposure of the ship, and until this changes, we can;t see any real hope of fatigue being properly dealt with. For more information on the realities of fatigue in shipping today - contact jon.gray@inserve.org
DECEMBER 2006
Firstly we wish all of our clients and customers a Happy New Year and a healthy and prosperous 2007. For us, 2006 ended on a busy note, and we look forward to welcoming two additional surveyors to the company during January.

Roy Temme was in Miami looking at two rather unusual vessels from a hull and machinery risk exposure perspective. Jon Gray surveyed a large yacht marina in Italy on behalf of London insurers. Jon has extensive experience in surveying marine property, having previously been responsible for surveys of ports and terminals worldwide. This experience makes Jon the obvious choice for marina work, and we are committed to providing insurers with the service they require on this new category of work.
Jon and Neville enjoyed the best job of the month - a Christmas cruise. Inserve have been acting as advisers to owners of a speciality cruise ship and Jon and Neville sailed on board to act as owners representatives for a few days following a recent drydocking period.

Fire risks remain a huge concern for Inserve in the course of our work. Fires remain the largest category of loss for insurers in terms of cost. Most if not all, fires can be prevented, some quite easily by removing the heat source or ignition point. SOLAS goes some way to address this issue and one of the most effective pieces of SOLAS requires all surfaces above 220 C to be insulated. The classification societies are supposed to administer the SOLAS requirements but on this particular issue we would say that 95% of the vessels we survey, do not comply. This a photograph of an IACS classed vessel showing a total lack of insulation and lagging to the main engine exhaust manifold, with the corresponding risk of fire. This is by no means an isolated case, and we would just like to draw attention to this particular point. It is quite a fundamental part of fire prevention, but unfortunately it seems to be being overlooked.
NOVEMBER 2006
During November, all Inserve personnel downed tools and came to London for the annual gathering. The opportunity of having all surveyors under one roof was taken to meet clients and discuss various jobs. We then adjourned to the Holiday Inn in Farnborough for our annual meeting. These annual meetings focus upon quality and uniformity throughout the offices, the application of best practice, and any local trends and developments. This year each surveyor gave a presentation on a subject of their choice. We all agreed that it was most interesting to listen to Terence Song speaking about bulk carrier construction in China and some structural issues which we were not all aware of. Please click here to view short presentation.

During November, Simon Groves spent a week in Indonesia looking at some of the domestic ferries. He spent time on Lombok, Bali and Java islands. During the surveys he sailed on one of the ferries between the islands, and took this photograph of typical Indonesian ferries, just before sunrise on a balmy morning in Lombok island.

Jon Gray completed a marina survey in Italy. Jon has a lot of experience in risk assessment surveys of ports and terminals, in respect of physical damage and liabilities. More recently Jon has been employed to survey yacht marinas. Said Jon "Marinas can be quite demanding, particularly when they get to a size where they include ship repair facilities, refuelling berths, public areas, retail, sports facilities and sometimes even helipads. The risk profile can be quite complex."

Neville Harrison was employed to carry out a pre purchase survey for a shipowner client. Fortunately he was able to sail with the vessel as it soon became apparent that the main engine would need a lot of corrective maintenance in the future.

There's no oil and water in our office! After last month's joke about Jon Gray's technical skills when it came to hanging the Inserve sign on the door. Jon would like it known that, as the only mariner on the team, he single handedly beat all of the engineers at 10 pin bowling. Well done Jon! We take back everything we said.

OCTOBER 2006
We would like to express our thanks to all applicants who responded to our advertisements for marine surveyors in shippingjobs.com and the NUMAST paper. We have yet to process them all, and we are unlikely to be able to respond to them all individually. Further applications are encouraged as the advertisements are still open.

Being a technical services organisation, we continue to grow and expand to meet demand for marine surveying and consultancy in the 21st century. Our primary focus is to survey ships and shipping companies and do all we can to help prevent losses and casualties. We have a track record to show that the approach we adopt is effective. However, there are some common and fundamental issues which arise during our Technical Appraisals and these are worth highlighting:
Fires - the biggest category of loss for insurers. All fires can be prevented and the most effective way is to remove the ignition point. Hot work is a big risk, particularly in shipyards and more controls are necessary. The biggest risk on a ship in service is provided by exposed exhaust pipes. Nearly every ship we survey contains exposed hot surfaces on engine exhaust pipes, hot spots, ignition points. We find we are continually reminding shipowners to apply lagging and insulation.
Who was it that said " a good superintendent is worth his weight in gold" ? This is never more relevant than today. Shortages of marine skills in general are finding their way into ship management. When we carry out our loss prevention surveys, we are doing little more than a traditional superintendent inspection, concentrating on fire risks and machinery reliability. For today's superintendent the emphasis has shifted towards operational issues, trying to keep the vessel in a state where charterers, port state control and other regulatory bodies are satisfied. We would encourage superintendents to be more risk based in their inspections, and to look more at machinery maintenance and fire risks.
Lubricating oil sampling and analysis is widely available from oil suppliers and most companies make use of this on a regular basis. However, our Technical Appraisals commonly find that there is too much reliance on the laboratory to advise corrective action. In a lot of cases, poor results are reported but the laboratory does not raise an "alert" or "caution" and therefore nothing is done. We would like to remind superintendents that close scrutiny of results is needed and they need to apply their own knowledge for corrective action, and not rely on the laboratory who have no real knowledge of the machinery and the oil criteria.

When carrying out risk based surveys we are often asked why we require shipowners/managers to carry out certain tasks when class or other regulatory bodies have not required it. The answer is that marine insurers expect some kind of minimum standards to be met. Until a few years ago the only tools available to marine insurers were condition surveys. These would take a snapshot of the condition of the ship but would do little to assess risk and future reliability. It is now expected that fire risks should be low, a preventative maintenance system should be in place, oil sampling and analysis should be in place - sometimes using an onboard test kit, medium speed engines and crankshaft bearings are receiving sufficient attention, engine monitoring and protection devices are in order, etc. We do not have a checklist or set of standards as they change on a ship by ship basis but these are some examples.

SEPTEMBER 2006
Vacancies - we currently have vacancies for marine surveyors in Shanghai, Greece, Panama and the UK. Applicants should be willing to work overseas, be able to converse and write extensive reports in English, have a maritime background with qualifications and experience to senior officer level, a formal qualification in marine engineering or naval architecture or experience in a shipyard or classification society. Those interested in pursuing a career in marine surveying are invited to send their CVs to jobs@inserve.org.

The month of September saw Jon Gray applying his auditing expertise in two ways. Firstly a navigational audit of a ferry company to assess working hours, bridge procedures and fatigue related issues, followed by an audit of a recognised organisation in the Ukraine.

Alasdair Watt travelled to Manila for a JH143 shipyard survey and was there during the typhoon which caused such devastation to Manila and the surrounding areas. This was followed by a more tranquil visit to Taiwan for the purpose of visiting and shipping company and assessing their ship management operations.

We have previously written about crewing issues, the lack of sufficient officers and crew throughout the world fleet, the rapid promotion that exists when there are shortages and the lack of experience and expertise which goes hand in hand with this. Add to this the apparent lack of authoritative superintendents and infrequent management supervision and it is not surprising that standards can fall and we find so many high risk issues during our surveys. While not wishing to make light of this, we are introducing a new feature to the news page, "photo of the month". It might be a high risk item which while being serious also has a humourous element, or it might be otherwise educational or informative. This month, the crusty old issue of watertight doors. This particular operator was so determined that the watertight doors would remain open at all times, they welded a large heavy cantilever weight to permanently hold the handle in the "open" position.

In China, Terence Song carried out a Risk Assessment survey of a vessel in Bangkok, Thailand. Until now, Terence has concentrated on ship and shipyard surveys in China, Singapore and Hong Kong. This was mainly due to visa requirements and the length of time it can take for Terence to obtain a visa for other countries in the Far East. We are pleased to say that this process is getting easier for Terence. The Risk Assessment survey in Bangkok involved a vehicle carrier, a vessel with quite a high risk profile.

Roy Temme now heads the yacht division in the Southampton office. Roy attended the Monaco Yacht Show during September and met new and exisiting clients. Roy assists in the provision of ISM and ISPS services to two charter yachts, and this will be increasing to four in the next 12 months.
JULY/AUGUST 2006
We are sorry to announce that one of the founders of Inserve, Jim Halligan, has decided to leave the company and return to working on his own. Like many of us he has family commitments that make life as a surveyor travelling the globe difficult. His new role should give him more of what he needs and less plane hopping - we wish him well and will stay in touch.

Inserve has held a Document of Compliance as related to the ISM Code for more than two years now and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency carried out their audit of the company's safety management system on 5th September. The MCA auditor raised no non conformities nor observations so it seems that the system runs satisfactorily. Inserve provides safety management for two commercial motoryachts over 50 metres at the moment and is in the process of taking on two more.

Jon Gray recently carried out audits of two Recognised Organisations on behalf of one of a Flag Administration. Jon carries out a number of these each year, assisting in improving the standards of some of the organisations that are authorised to issue statutory certificates on behalf of Flag.

Simon Groves spent two weeks in South America on loss prevention activities. Simon visited fishing fleets in Chile, Peru and Ecuador as well as a fleet of bulk carriers in Brazil and Chile. During his trip he visited the Atacama Desert in northern Chile and took this photograph of the salt mining operations. Talking about his recent trip, Simon commented "People often ask which ships we prefer to survey, expecting us to say cruise ships or ferries, but I am never happier than when I am surveying fishing vessels. Fishing vessel design is traditional and develops over many years to suit the conditions, the available materials and the skills in that part of the world. Change does not happen quickly and very often we find ourselves able to make great improvements in vessel safety by re-apraising traditional practices which are no longer relevant."

In the Panama office, Alan and Ezequiel have been keeping busy with in-house auditing for a large container ship operator. The purpose of the audits is to ensure that chartered tonnage operates to a certain minimum standard and complies with company requirements.

Vacancies - we are urgently in need of surveyors to work in Greece, Shanghai and Panama. We encourage applications from those with a sea going background in a senior officer position who want to pursue a career in marine surveying and take up an overseas posting. We pride ourselves on the quality of our reports, so a thorough understanding of English is essential. Please contact us on jobs@inserve.org
JUNE 2006
During June, Jim Halligan travelled to the Dominican Republic for two unusual jobs, both involving to some extent wind storm loss prevention in response to recent hurricane activity in the area.

Alasdair Watt spent quite some time in West Africa for various clients, at one time sailing on a ship between Cotonou and Lagos, being the most effective way of travelling between these two ports. It took 12 hours but it was better than the rigours of flying.

Ezequiel Castro from the Panama office is spending the month of July on secondment to Piraeus. Ezequiel is making a fine surveyor and will benefit from the experience of surveying Mediterranean tonnage. Meanwhile Alan Downs will "hold the fort" in Panama, although there may be occasions when he is too busy to respond at short notice. We hope clients will understand. It is important for our surveyors to benefit from the international office network and gain experience of ships and shipping in other parts of the world.

Roy Temme completed his initial training and familiarisation period and enjoyed a visit to Cameroon to oversee a log loading operation. He then embarked on surveys for hull and machinery and P&I insurers in the Ukraine. Roy's wife is from the Ukraine, but unfortunately there was no opportunity for her to join him for a brief visit to her homeland on this occasion.

The rigours of shipowning in the 21st Century - it is apparent when carrying out surveys that the role of the shipping company superintendent has changed significantly in recent years. It is a difficult position to fill, and at times a thankless task, but a good superintendent is huge asset. Management supervision and superintendents inspections - or the lack of them - is something we comment upon quite frequently. In June it was heartening to see that a long term major shipping company client whom we had requested increase levels of management supervision in the past, had gone to the trouble of setting up a complete new department solely for the inspection of ships with the aim of arresting deterioration, and improving safety and reliaiblity - and asset value.
APRIL 2006
Technical Appraisals remain ever popular among our clients. They arose from the understanding that most casualties arise from the way in which ships are managed, operated, manned and maintained than purely their physical condition. The traditional approach of surveying a single ship sitting alongside a berth is never going to identify risk in the same way as a visit to the company and sailing on a ship in service does. A review of recent exercises shows a continuing worrying trend in two main areas, manning and machinery maintenance. Companies often think that minimum safe manning levels as set by the flag state are the optimum manning levels. Unfortunately, minimum manning levels are set when considering a voyage from A to B, they do not consider the demands made on the crew by extensive coastal trading, cargo operations and machinery maintenance. Some of our recent appraisals have shown a reluctance by companies to properly assess manning levels in relation to the operation of the ship. Insufficient numbers of navigating officers on vessels engaged in extensive short sea voyages is a particular concern.

In April, an article by Simon Groves appeared in the Marine Engineer’s Review, the magazine of the Institute of Marine Engineers, Scientists and Technicians (IMarEST). The article was requested by ImarESt in order to raise awareness of the ineffectiveness of crankcase oil mist detectors in the prevention of physical damage, and the need for a more common sense approach to the two main categories of loss, crankshaft bearing failures and engine room fires. A copy of the article is available here.

Terence Song has been asked to supervise a series of newbuildings in China. Terence trained as naval architect in Chinese yards before moving to Singapore to become a shiprepair manager with Sembawang. Since returning to Shanghai, Terence worked for classification society BV for four years before joining Inserve in 2005. The Shanghai office has been very busy generally, since it opened last year, and we grateful to clients for their support.

During April we completed a series of 8 condition assessment surveys for an eastern European bulk shipping company. The surveys took place in the US, Central and South America. Said Simon Groves “It was an honour for us to be entrusted with this work from such a prestigious company. The surveys were tailor-made to meet specific client requirements such as trade disruption risks, rather than being straightforward condition surveys.”

We are often asked by clients if we ever tire of the extensive traveling which is an essential part of our job. Generally not is the answer. Long haul flights are put to use, relaxing with a good book. It is perhaps the short journeys which should be straightforward, that give the most problems, eight hours to fly from Oslo to London for example. Regular readers will remember our experiences in taxis. The latest comes from Simon Groves as he made his way to the airport from the hotel in Mexico City. “I sat in the back but the taxi driver insisted in striking up a conversation. As we approached the airport I was recounting my experiences on a Mexican yacht some years ago. The taxi driver was looking more at me in the rear view mirror than he was looking ahead, just as I got to the punch line we smashed into the car in front and the car behind ran into us!”
MARCH 2006
In March 2006, Inserve celebrated their third anniversary. In fact the anniversary date was in February but we were kept quite busy after the January renewals so it was postponed for a month. We were pleased to see so many clients and friends attend. Our thanks to Lloyds List for including the event in Last Word. We continue to see success in our risk based surveys, and our flagship product the Loss Prevention Study, as well as slimmed down versions of this such as the Technical Appraisal and for single ships the Risk Assessment Survey continue to give good results in the reduction of claims and casualties. We hope that our risk management services will become an integral part of marine insurance to the benefit of the insurers and their clients, rather than being seen as an additional burden on the shipowner, as condition based surveys have been seen in the past.
Winners of the free prize draw of business cards were:
1st Prize – a weekend for two in a European city of their choice - Richard Bridges, Wurtt.
2nd Prize – a weekend for two in any location in England - Amanda Sykes, SSL
3rd Prize – a presentation bottle of whiskey - Clive Dolby, RFIB

March was a busy month which took Jon Gray, Lefteris Balavouris and Simon Groves to Italy to carry out a Technical Appraisal of a large fleet. All went well and we enjoyed the exceptional Italian hospitality until Jon and Simon were struck down by what can only be explained as some dodgy shellfish.

Most notable taxi journeys in the world. Regular readers will remember that Jon Gray holds the record for an 11 hour epic taxi journey in Ukraine, which beat the previous records of six hours, Sofia to Varna (including crossing various fields) and five hours Manila to Subic Bay, by a large margin. Since then we have handed the prize to Jon and do not envisage it being beaten. Recently though, Simon made claim to the most hazardous taxi journey in the world from Guayquil to Manta. Said Simon, the condition of the road changed dramatically upon entering the state of Manabi where the lack of tolls meant the roads are not maintained. Within a few miles the rear tyres of the taxi started to break up and rubber was beating against the wheel arches. He completed the journey with the taxi running on the wire reinforcement, the rubber tread had completely gone.
FEBRUARY 2006
Jim Halligan has seen a change of continents this month, spending time in South America conducting surveys in Argentina, Panama and Venezuela. He was able to spend some time with Ezequeil on joint surveys and managed to get a photograph of him on a survey with Panama in the background

A lessoned learned, Alan Downs recounts an experience whilst on a recent job..."I was in Manzanillo terminal in Cristobal at 11pm on a friday night waiting to see a container ship, the bus duly dropped me off at midships at the gangway with the allocated boarding agent. When I sat down with the captain he did look a little blank,not at all expecting a survey and all his initial answers,regarding flag,class etc were not what I expected. Indeed I had been expecting Ukranian crew and not Indian. It all became clear when he gave me a copy of ships particulars ............wrong ship ! Agent had taken me to the wrong berth. Note to self, read big letters on bow...... do not trust boarding agent !"

We are pleased to annouce that Roy Temme has joined Inserve, based in the Southampton office, Roy has a commercial Class 1 Motor (Chief Engineers ticket) and combines a commercial shipping background with experience of large yachts. Roy was project engineer and project co-coordinator on a number of yacht builds all over 50meters and before joining Inserve was chief engineer on the prestigious "Virginian".

Livestock carriers featured heavily during February. Simon Groves traveled to Syria and Jim Halligan to South America. Simon bought new surveying boots for the occasion, expecting the worst. They held up well, until he stepped into a pit on the quayside and had to spend the rest of the day squelching around with a boot full of effluent. Simon commented after his survey “It was only while walking past bulls in the cattle pens that I realized the choice of bright red for the Inserve boilersuits was not such a good idea”.

Africa was visited on three occasions in February with Jon Gray traveling to Cameroon, Neville Harrison to Libya and Lefteris Balavouris to Gabon. Africa remains an important location for shipping but it is unfortunate that travel between one country and another is not easy. With the need for visas and very few interconnecting flights, we generally have to visit one country at a time, which can make surveys there quite expensive.

Neville and Simon completed four condition assessment surveys on a fleet of bulk carriers in the US. Some of their work coincided with the Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans which was a modest affair this year following hurricane Katrina. It seems that New Orleans is suffering from increased traffic congestion as people no longer live and work in the city, but live away from the areas most at risk from flooding and drive to work each day. Getting from A to B is therefore so much harder, so the surveyors were pleased to be able to live on board the vessels as much as possible during the surveys.
JANUARY 2006
2006 got off to a flying start with Jim, Alasdair and Simon traveling to Asia and the Far East. Countries visited included Taiwan, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. Jon remained in Europe and completed a Loss Prevention Study for a large multi-national chemical company. The company owns a number of chemical tankers and part of the exercise involved Jon sailing on one of them between two North Sea ports. The weather was typical for January and it took some time for Jon to find his sea legs again. Of course, he received no sympathy when he got back to the office.

Simon Groves replied to an article in Lloyds List and was surprised to find his letter published. His letter was in response to an article on oil mist separators, and is included here:

“Sir,
I was prompted to write after reading the article on crankcase explosions, Lloyds List January 10th 2006.
It seems we are in danger of missing the point on this very important issue. I was particularly alarmed at the comment within the article that 65% of machine room fires are the result of oil mist. This is complete nonsense. Fires are the biggest category of loss to insurers in terms of cost. The majority of fires in machinery spaces are caused by flammable liquids escaping and coming into contact with an ignition point such as an engine exhaust pipe which has not been properly insulated. All such fires can be prevented by sufficiently insulating the hot surfaces and eliminating all possible ignition points. A simple requirement to have water jacketed exhaust systems on marine engines would eliminate this risk altogether. Crankcase explosions are thankfully quite rare in terms of the number of marine machinery failures in general. However, installing oil mist separators will not remove the cause of the explosions and will not cut onboard risk as is claimed in your article. Crankcase explosions are a symptom that something within the engine is overheating, usually a crankshaft bearing but on four stroke engines it can also be a piston. Oil mist detectors have traditionally been used to identify the oil mist produced by an overheating component but these react too late to prevent damage. The only way to prevent damage and improve engine reliability and safety is for engine manufacturers to install bearing temperature monitoring on all crankshaft bearings, i.e. main and connecting rod bearing. Such equipment can be configured to slow down or stop the engine at the earliest sign of an overheating bearing, and is very effective. We encourage all engine manufacturers to install this equipment as standard. Marine engine manufacturers have to improve the reliability of crankshaft bearings as these remain the largest category of loss for marine insurers in terms of claims frequency. There should be a lot more pressure placed upon them by shipowners, classification societies in addition to ourselves, to install crankshaft bearing temperature monitoring as standard equipment.”

Since reading this letter, the Institute of Marine Engineers has asked Simon to write an article for the March issue of their magazine. Watch this space.

DECEMBER 2005
A Happy New Year to all of our clients and regular news readers.

We made the most of the short week between Christmas and New Year with nearly all of us taking time off and having an extended break. Lefteris worked beyond the call of duty over the New Year period by traveling to Singapore for a ship survey. Terence worked on regardless, but we are sure he will make up for it during the Chinese New Year!

Among the jobs completed in December, Inserve carried out a Loss Prevention Study for a large fleet of bulk carriers. It required ship surveys in Europe, Korea, Middle East and Australia and included sailing on one of the vessels for a navigation audit. The findings and risk control measures were given in the form of a final presentation to the technical management and in the form of a written report, which we hope was well received.

Shortest taxi rides of the world. Jon and Simon arrived into Hong Kong at 1am in the midst of the protests surrounding the WTO conference. The streets were cordoned off and deserted. After waiting an hour at Central Station for a taxi, they were taken a mere 200 metres and told that this was the closest the taxi could get to the hotel. Jon and Simon then had to walk for miles along the deserted streets of Hong Kong with only riot police to provide directions to the hotel. Said Jon “This was my birthday, and it was a most memorable but peculiar feeling. Hong Kong is not a city designed for people to walk long distances and having to climb over riot barriers and walk in the middle of roads which would usually be crammed with traffic, is something we are never likely to experience again”

Ultra sonic testing of hatch covers. To provide a better service, particularly in respect of P&I insurance we have equipped Shanghai, Piraeus and Panama offices with ultra sonic hatch cover testing equipment from Class Instrumentation. The surveyors all say that it is easy to use and very accurate at pinpointing potential hatch cover leaks.

Jim from our Southampton office has been busy with some large yacht work and conducting insurance surveys in the Middle East with visits to Egypt, Iran, Dubai, and Qatar covered in recent months. He starts the year travelling to India for surveys in Tuticorin.

We extend our congratulations to Jim's son Chris who has recently qualified from Warsash as a Deck Officer and has since joined the "Radisson Seven Seas Navigator" as Second Officer - perhaps a future Inserve surveyor in the making?
NOVEMBER 2005

Alasdair Watt spent the first week in December carrying out a total of five Hull and Machinery Risk Assessment and two P&I condition based surveys all in Tema, Ghana. All vessels were anchored offshore with the quickest means of access by a local fishing vessel of which can only be described as a slightly up market dug out canoe. Propulsion is supplied by an outboard motor mounted to the side of the canoe with steering normally undertaken by the largest member of the crew wilding a large oar at the stern.
With high temperatures and humidity being experienced it was nice to climb into the "canoe" at the end of the day for a refreshing trip home.

Simon Groves spent most of November in Asia and the Far East. His visits included ship surveys, technical appraisals as well as a loss prevention study. Simon even had time to drop into the Asian Marine Surveying and Insurance Forum in Kuala Lumpur and present a paper. The paper was titled “The Failure of Regulation” and was written earlier this year by Jon Gray. With no real reduction in losses in the face of increased regulation the paper extols the virtue of a risk based approach to surveying as being a more effective approach. Certainly Inserve can cite numerous fleets where losses have significantly reduced and sometimes completely disappeared after our involvement in a risk based exercise.

Problems with laundry…. Have you ever considered it odd that you book into a hotel for a night, yet your laundry is only done during the day? When surveying ships and only staying for one night at a time, this can cause problems. On one occasion Simon collected his laundry upon checking out of a hotel in Trinidad and Tobago, all nicely wrapped in a brown paper bag. He carefully placed this in his suitcase and flew to the next destination. In the morning, looking forward to a change in clothes he opened the bag in expectation only to find the laundry hadn’t been washed at all. A more recent event will make you smile. Upon calling housekeeping, there was a knock at the door and Simon handed over his laundry to a casually dressed, non English speaking person with a rather surprised look on his face. A few minutes later there was another knock on the door and the smartly uniformed housekeeper was there, asking for the laundry. Simon tried to explain that he had already given it to them. Then he realized that he had just given his dirty laundry to a passer by and not somebody connected with the hotel. Anybody seen an Asian chap with a salmon pink shirt and an Inserve boilersuit?
OCTOBER 2005

During October, all Inserve employees and their IT support company and their partners gathered together for a weekend in Southampton. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss and agree the latest approaches to surveying, the latest IT applications and the importance of uniformity from all offices around the world.
It was the first time that all ten employees had gathered together in one location and had the chance to meet each other, discuss ideas and experiences etc. Saturday was spent in a conference room followed by an evening dinner. Sunday was a more relaxed affair, with everybody trying their hand at golf. Some employees such as Terence from China and Ezequiel from Panama, stayed on for a few more days for a short holiday. Everybody agreed it was a great success. It is hoped that next year’s meeting will be in Greece with a guest speaker to explain what the market wants from surveyors - any volunteers?
SEPTEMBER 2005

Ezequiel Castro is recently returned from the Caribbean where he carried out both P&I vessel inspections as well as a technical appraisal of a company which specialises in tug and barge operations, see photo.

Alan Downs was in Costa Rica for a machinery breakdown on a fishing vessel and then onto Venezuela to carry out a condition evaluation of a perforation drilling barge in the Maracaibo area

In the local news recently was the sinking of a ferry "Isla Contadora 1" with 153 passengers and 7 crew, luckily all aboard were rescued without real problems,many of the passengers were holidaymakers. The Maritime Authority is now investigating the incident, a routine survey conducted before the incident by the same authority noted several deficiencies which were not rectified and the ferry did not have permission to sail but left anyway.

JULY 2005

Jon Gray presented a paper at the 31st General Assembly of IFSMA entitled “Missing the point – the failure of regulation” The paper highlighted the fact that shipping has never been so heavily regulated. In the aftermath of ISM, ISPS, SOLAS amendments and increased Port State Control activity, the risks have not reduced. We still find ships which have high fire risks and poor maintenance levels. For a copy of the paper please contact info@inserve.org.

Jim Halligan was recently commissioned to undertake a study of “building and through-life costs” for a number of large yacht options which a prospective owner was considering. This complemented Jim’s activities with large yachts and small craft. The Southampton office remains the yacht resource centre and Jim is often asked to certify all sizes of yachts and boats where they are intended to be used for commercial purposes. This should not detract from Jim’s expertise in the offshore industry where he is an expert in a number of areas such as FPSOs and is a recognized expert witness in this and other areas of marine engineering.

Simon Groves visited Sakhalin Island in Russia and other locations in the Far East in connection with offshore energy projects and their dredging aspects. He found Sakhalin to be a fascinating location. An island almost the size of Italy with temperatures perhaps minus 25 C in the winter and plus 25 C in the summer - few roads and with just a single track railway running north/south. Logistics can be difficult. The people are very friendly but not forgetting it was a penal colony years ago in the same way as Siberia. Prices are very high, but there are signs that it will become a “different” holiday destination with evidently good salmon fishing, whale watching etc.

Terence Song is being kept busy in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Terence runs the Shanghai office on his own, and he is at present, the only one-man office that we have. We hope to add a second surveyor in the near future. For anybody visiting Shanghai Terence will be very pleased to hear form them and introduce them to this wonderful city. His contact details are on the website.

Skype – for those clients or contacts that use Skype, please contact any of the offices using this facility, our addresses are:

London
Inservejon
Inservesimon
Inserveneville
 Southampton
Inservejim
 Greece
Inservealasdair
Inservelefteris
 Panama
Inservealan
Inserveezequiel
 Shanghai
Inserveterence

We will be pleased to take your calls over this free internet based service.

The Technical Appraisal remains a popular service for insurers and their clients. Having a single ship surveyed on a condition basis is rather ineffective compared to a service which includes a brief review of the company and a survey of a representative sample of the fleet. The costs are not so great but the benefits in terms of loss prevention can be shown to be very beneficial for all parties.

APRIL 2005

During April, Inserve signed a management agreement to provide technical and safety management for the 56 metre yacht Sarafsa.

Jon Gray represented Inserve at the launch of the 62 metre Lady Christina, (see photo) a new build which we have assisted with ISM and ISPS and general technical support. It is envisaged that we will be providing shore support for ISM in the future.

Shanghai office open! We are pleased to announce the opening of the Shanghai office at the beginning of May, manned by our resident surveyor Mr Terence Song. Terence is a degree qualified Naval Architect with a background in ship design, ship repair and conversion in Chinese and Singapore shipyards. Terence has spent the last four years with a major classification society and we are sure that Terence will be a fine surveyor as well as bringing an extra dimension to Inserve in view of his qualifications and experience.

Jon Gray and Jim Halligan combined to survey a fleet of river cruise vessels in Europe. Jon used his experience as a Master Mariner to look at navigational and operational issues while Jim concentrated on “systems engineering” an area which Jim has specialized in for some years, since carrying out FMEA studies on ships and offshore installations in the past.

Alan Downs surveyed two large catcher/processing fishing vessels under conversion in Panama from a physical risk point and in respect of conversion work being carried out at the yard.

Simon Groves continued his loss prevention efforts with one of Europe’s major ferry operators. Neville Harrison spent most of the month working on a yacht management project. Not forgetting Alasdair in Greece, Alasdair continued with his heavy workload dealing with risk assessment surveys in Greece and other parts of Europe/Africa.

Last but certainly not least, we are very pleased to welcome Ezequiel Castro into the Panama office to work alongside Alan Downs. Ezequiel complements Alan by being a Marine Engineer and having a lot of seagoing experience with prestigious companies like Evergreen etc. The work in Panama continues to be focused on brown water tonnage, fishing vessels etc, both from a risk assessment point of view and dealing with claims and casualties.

When dealing with casualties, Inserve continue to work as marine loss adjusters whereby we report on the casualty in a way which allows the insurer to settle any claim promptly without the assured needing to consult or use the services of other parties.

MARCH 2005

Jon Gray visited the Far East and Asia, which remains an important area for us, and we are pleased to say that our Shanghai office will be fully operational in May 2005. More details will appear on the website in due course. Simon Groves spent two weeks in South America and continues his quest to learn Spanish to the extent that he can carry out surveys in that language. In the meantime, Simon relies upon Alan Downs in the Panama office who is a fluent Spanish speaker. Alan continues to be heavily involved in Central and South America where his work encompasses a wide variety of ships, tugs, barges and fishing vessels.

Alasdair Watt left the somewhat chilly conditions in Greece, to visit the Philippines. Jim Halligan in Southampton has had a busy time during February and March conducting surveys and assisting clients in Monaco, Istanbul, El Ferrol, Singapore and Jakarta on projects ranging from large yacht code compliance work to mobile offshore unit (MOU) upgrade works.
Jim will be exhibiting Inserve services at the SEAS 2005 exhibition in Nice from 24-26 May 2005, our stand is on the ground floor number N3, where we will welcome past and existing clients and field future enquiries.

FEBRUARY 2005

February 10th was Inserve’s second anniversary. Celebrations were held at the City Cellar Bar in Leadenhall Street, and all clients and colleagues were invited.
We were delighted to see so many people attend, and our thanks go out to everybody we have had the pleasure of doing business with in the last two years. Examples of jobs in 2004 were on display, including some of the remote locations we have found ourselves when carrying out surveys.
We are grateful to those at Lloyds List for including a brief review of the party. Said Jon Gray, “It doesn’t seem possible that two years have passed since we began our efforts to become an alternative technical resource for the marine insurance market. We will always be grateful to receive surveying instructions, and we treat every new job with the importance it deserves.”
The free prize draw resulted in:
1st Prize – a weekend for two in a European city of their choice – Mark Warren
2ns Prize – a weekend for two in the Isle of Wight – Stephen Fossey
3rd Prize – a bottle of whisky and two glasses – Peter Taylor

JANUARY 2005

The New year has proven a busy time for Jim Halligan from our Southampton Office conducting Safety Code surveys in Istanbul and Nice, a Mobile Offshore Unit (MOU) condition assessment survey in the Far East for potential conversion and subsequent shipyard attendance.
Jon and Jim in Singapore

As well as conducting some flag and ISM work Jon Gray found himself conducting pre-risk and technical appraisals in the Far East on a tour chasing ships that encompassed Borneo, China, Singapore and a number of stops in between . Jon & Jim crossed paths in Singapore and managed to fit in some quality time together to catch up on some work.
DECEMBER 2004

December is the cod fishing season in the UK. There is no better day to catch cod than New Years Day when the water temperature is low but spirits are high. Alasdair Watt left Greece for a few days to see his family in the UK, but unfortunately the early morning cod fishing session was curtailed by the excesses of the night before. By the time Alasdair and Simon arrived at the fishing mark three miles south of the Needles Lighthouse, the weather had deteriorated and the entire trip was aborted.

The monumental act of nature causing such devastation to the Indian Ocean region on December 26th by the Tsunami is felt by all at Inserve. Life must go on as they say but at these times we should always reflect on life itself and be constantly aware of our vulnerability.

Neville Harrison visited Hanoi and Jon Gray went to Saigon, both for risk assessment activities. It appears that Vietnam is joining China (Shanghai) as a hot spot for marine surveyors, and Inserve will respond to demand as required.
NOVEMBER 2004

Over the past 12 months Jim Halligan has provided his services as an expert to a shipyard involved in a maritime dispute, his role finally came to a conclusion in November after attending 3 days of hearings at a London arbitration. Jim has rejoined the fold of surveyors and virtually the next day found himself back in the thick of things setting off for Jakarta for an offshore FSU survey - Jim says "after being desk bound for most of the year he looks forward to getting his boiler suit back on and having some steel back beneath his boots".

In November Jon Gray was in a very cold St Petersburg, carrying an audit of a classification society on behalf of a flag state administration. Jon did find time to visit the Hermitage and some of the other main attractions. The river was frozen and the shipping was reliant on ice breakers for access to the port.

Alasdair Watt completed his second visit to China and the Inserve office is now established. Philip Bo will be joining Inserve from the 3rd January 2005, and will start with a period of training in the UK and Europe, before going back to Shanghai and taking up his position there. The office address, Philip’s CV and contact details will appear on the website from January 2005.

Neville Harrison spent 10 days overseeing the drydocking of a cruise ship on behalf of prospective purchasers.

OCTOBER 2004

October saw the annual Inserve gathering when all surveyors (and Peter the administrator) meet in the UK to discuss latest developments, changes in survey requirements, reporting procedures etc.

October also included Simon Groves traveling to Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, Alasdair Watt in Shanghai, Jon Gray in Iran and Ukraine, and Neville Harrison in India.

Simon had not been to the Solomon Islands before and the vessel was not in the main port of Honiara but loading logs off a remote island. Internal travel involved small planes and canoes. One canoe trip lasted three hours! Sun cream and mosquito repellent were essential. The scenery when traveling in the canoe was quite spectacular, see photo.

Alasdair completed the procedures for establishing an office in Shanghai and is now back in Greece. The response to our advertisement in the Shanghai Daily for a surveyor was very good, and everything is on course for the end of the year.

“Epic taxi journeys of the world” – Michael Palin comes a poor second place, and the prize goes to Jon Gray for an 11 hour journey to visit a vessel in the Ukraine. This far exceeds the previous best for Inserve surveyors, Sofia to Varna (6 hours including diversions across fields), and Manila to Subic Bay (5 hours in heavy traffic).
SEPTEMBER 2004

Panama update.
Alan Downs attended the grounding of a fishing vessel in Costa Rica. It was in a rather remote part of the country. Alan drove for two hours from San Jose airport to the fishing port, took a six seater plane accompanied by two owners representatives to a farm landing strip, and the onward transport to the grounding site was by means of three horses. Said Alan “.I had never ridden before so I chose the likeliest looking one, but it turned out to be the slowest and least obedient. With the tide rising, we made it 7 km down the beach to where the vessel was, BUT the horse could not cross the lagoon, so I then had to swim with my digital camera over my head and walk another few hundred meters...to get to the vessel. One piece of advice, unless you have some Boots cream on hand, do not attempt the 7 km ride back with wet boxer shorts!”. Alan included the attached photograph.

Monaco Yacht Show
Jon Gray and Jim Halligan furthered their services to the yachting industry when following their attendance at the Monaco Yacht Show, Jon was subsequently invited to attend a 60 metre yacht and to start the process of ISPS and ISM Code compliance.

Shanghai.
Alasdair Watt will spend two weeks in Shanghai during October, where he will start the process of establishing a surveying office there and interviewing applicants for the new surveyor position, following the recent advertisement in the local newspaper.
AUGUST 2004

Monaco Yacht Show – 22nd to 25th September 2004.
Inserve Southampton office will be exhibiting at the Monaco Yacht Show for the first time. This follows a year when Inserve has seen a lot of consultancy work, assisting Captains and Owners with cost-effective compliance to the “Mega Yacht Code” for large charter yachts. The year has also involved compiling specifications for a new build, conducting marine surveys and trial attendance and providing technical oversseing services at a major refit. Charter yachts over 500gt are now also having to comply with ISM and ISPS this has allowed Jon Gray to use his auditing skills and ISM knowledge to the full and allow Inserve to provide technical support to Yachts in accordance with their Safety Management Systems. We hope to meet past, existing and new clients, in the Superyacht UK Pavillion, Stand QT12.

Inserve acquire “Helm Boy”.
Sitting in quiet corner of Hamble village is a shop selling marine curios, run by a well known local compass adjuster. During a recent visit, Jim Halligan was so intrigued with a carved wooden figure with the distinctive message “Mind Your Helm" on his cap that he bought it as an Inserve mascot. “Helm Boy” is the only known replica of a binnacle compass holder carved from wood in the shape of an American boy seaman. The original dates from 1875 and was installed on the N B Palmer, but the helmsmen were so spooked by the staring eyes of the boy, that after only one voyage they refused to sail. So the statue was removed from the vessel and is now in the New York museum. Helm Boy will be on show in the Southampton office and will be accompanying Inserve at the Monaco Boat Show and future exhibitions.
Jim says "the message prompt to "Mind Your Helm" in 1875 was probably a pre-cursor to todays ISM -which was one of his attractions".

Panama update.
Alan Downs has been busy traveling in Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba on a variety of new work, including tugs/barges, port pre risk surveys, general cargo vessels and fishing vessels. Alan advises that there must be thousands of fishing vessels operating out of the west coast ports of central America, mainly for Far Eastern operators. Breakdowns and casualties keep Alan busy. These are often just minor breakdowns but sufficient to require a tow back to port. “Machinery maintenance and loss prevention do not seem to take high profile within some fishing fleets” advises Alan. Often the vessels do not carry engineers or mechanics, and when something goes wrong, there are not the resources on board to carry out a repair at sea.

JUNE 2004

Neville Harrison oversees a large yacht re-fit.
Recognising the complexities of re-fitting a large motor yacht to exacting standards, Neville was delighted when his first project was completed within 2% of the original budget figure. The six month re-fit had been overseen by Neville on behalf of the yachts owner. Neville, who joined Inserve in January 2004, was clearly very pleased that after such a lengthy re-fit, the vessel was delivered just one week later than planned.

Jon Gray auditing in Asia.
After a busy period with ISPS consultancy and certification, Jon returned from auditing recognized organizations (RO’s) in Taiwan and Singapore. Such recognized organizations are often classification societies or other bodies authorized to issue certificates on behalf of flag state administrations.

Simon Groves, Alasdair Watt, Rob Cotter.
The demand for risk assessment surveys particularly on potentially high risk vessels such as high speed ferries, gas tankers, passenger vessels and older tonnage remains quite high and was keeping Simon, Alasdair and Rob busy throughout the month. Inserve remain dedicated to the future of the London insurance market and hope that their practical approach to risk assessment provides a useful service to insurers and their clients. Simon advised “ We do not go looking for problem areas, and we are delighted when we find vessels which attract very few risk reduction recommendations. However, there are always improvements which can be made, and on average we will make perhaps 12 risk reduction recommendations per vessel. When you consider the number of vessels that we survey, these risk reduction measures will have a cumulative effect and we are confident that over time, there will be benefits to insurers and their clients” Already, Inserve can demonstrate significant loss reductions a year after a fleet-wide loss prevention study or a series of vessel risk assessment surveys.

Jon Gray, Neville Harrison
Jon and Neville assisted the 56 metre private yacht, Sarafsa, to achieve ISM compliance. The Inserve London office was audited by the MCA on behalf of Bermuda Flag State and Jon and Neville continue to fulfill the role of Designated Person for the yacht.

MAY 2004

Inserve appoint a company accountant.
We are pleased to announce that Peter Tran joined Inserve at the beginning of May. Peter has a degree is business finance and is responsible for the financial administration of the company. Born in China, Peter has lived in London since a young age but is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese and will be a great benefit to the company in the future. Says Jon Gray “We are lucky to have somebody like Peter, and his appointment will allow us to concentrate on what we do best, marine surveying, rather than get bogged down in administration.”

Jon Gray and Simon Groves visit China.
In May, Jon Gray held an ISPS training course in Macau. Attendees came from as far away as Korea and all agreed that it was a very worthwhile course. There was a practical audit session on board a ship and the course finished with an examination. At the same time Simon Groves was dealing with ship and shipyard surveys in Shanghai, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both Jon and Simon agreed that due to the demand for survey services in China, this will be the next location for an Inserve office – watch this space!

Alasdair Watt visits Durban
Alasdair Watt was requested to carry out another pre purchase condition survey of a vessel, this time in Durban. Says Alasdair, normally based in Greece “Ship-owners sometimes complain when surveyors are instructed to survey their ships in connection with their insurance, however they realize that Inserve surveyors are fair but thorough, and it is nice when they recognize this and appoint us to survey a vessel on their behalf in a non-insurance situation, such as prior to purchase.”

Jim Halligan at Seas 2004
Jim put down his legal case for a couple of days and attended the Seas 2004 conference. Armed with various references of large yacht work, ISM, ISPS, MCA Megayacht Code, new build and conversion supervision, attendance at acceptance trials, Jim put himself at the forefront of the megayacht industry.

16/03/2004 - Inserve celebrated their first anniversary

Inserve celebrated their first anniversary with a party in the New Moon, Leadenhall Market on the 26th February 2004.
During our first year we received over 240 instructions of work, surveyed 140 ships of which 27 were high speed ferries. We attended 30 casualties and carried out 12 loss prevention studies. Out thanks to all who attended and who have supported us in our formative year.

Winners of the free prize draw were:
1st prize - a weekend for two in Paris - Gary Duck, Lochain Patrick
2nd prize - a weekend for two on the Isle of Wight - Kim Went, HSBC
3rd prize - a bottle of whisky and two glasses - Mike Reynolds, ACE