Prevention is the best ally for the safety of any boat.
Maritime inspections are activities designed to know the condition of a ship, its cargo, its equipment or its crew.
The reasons that make these activities necessary are diverse, the main reason being the safety of the crew and the physical condition of the boat; they obey different regulations under the protection of a national law or submitted to the arbitration of international law.
Historically, Insurance Agencies (P & I) and Cargo Handing Companies have needed an objective system to evaluate the state of the ships. This led to the creation of a vessel classification system by type and age. With the introduction of the Motorization of Flag States and certification at the end of the last century, classification societies have been responsible for the realization of such matters, with class validation and their necessary audits becoming the basis for issuance of the construction safety and navigability certificate. This Close relationship between Flag State and Class Regulation was declared mandatory in the modification of SOLAS Reg 1996. II-1/3 a 2.
Under this paradigm we can establish maritime inspections as a means in the industry that allows us to demonstrate the level of compliance of ships with respect to a certain norm and obligation.
Now, a class inspection is done in the name of a classification society, this to ensure that the vessel has the minimum requirements to navigate safely; It should be noted that these inspections are carried out with prior certification of said company.
Seven Seas, C.A., has certification from:
Ideally, class inspections are made in dry dock, this means, the ship in a dock is extracted from the water to proceed with a thorough inspection; this process as established in the SOLAS Convention and certified by the classes must be carried out without exception every 5 years, however, the reality is different, the time of realization remains the same, every 5 years the ship is submitted, in order to determine its useful life as endorsed by the class, what varies is that it is carried out instead, if in a dry dock or if it is done underwater in a port.
The fact that it is done in dry dock or on a port has a powerful reason, the action of taking a ship to dry dock (which are not accessible anywhere in the world) involves a huge and time-consuming, not to mention, that the ship must change its route for it, for this reason, the companies agreed that every 5 years the ship is subjected to such inspection in the water with help of certified diving operators, and saliling, if it requires repairs or if it must necessarily go to dry dock. This for the sole purpose of expediting the process and, in turn, not delay the operations of the vessel.
It is very important to clarify that every 10 years it is necessary to subject the vessel to a class inspection in dry dock. The formalities and legal procedures to carry out these operations vary depending on the legal regulations of each country, however, the process is the same.