Building under class
Yesterday we had preliminary visits of surveyors of both ABS and Lloyd Register as part of the process to get accepted to class. Some background info on ‘class’ first.
Classification societies are organizations that establish and apply technical standards in relation to the design, construction and survey of marine related facilities including ships and offshore structures. The vast majority of commercial ships are built and surveyed to the standards laid down by classification societies. These standards are issued by the classification society as published rules. A vessel that has been designed and built to the appropriate rules of a society may apply for a certificate of classification from that society. The society issues this certificate upon completion of relevant classification surveys. As an independent, self-regulating, externally audited, body, a classification society has no commercial interests related to ship design, ship building, ship ownership, ship operation, ship management, ship maintenance or repairs, insurance, or chartering. In establishing its rules, each classification society may draw upon the advice and review of members of the industry who are considered expert in their field.
In the second half of the 18th century, marine insurers, based at Lloyd’s coffee house in London, developed a system for the independent inspection of the hull and equipment of ships presented to them for insurance cover. In 1760 a Committee was formed for this express purpose, the earliest existing result of their initiative being Lloyd’s Register Book for the years 1764-65-66. At that time, an attempt was made to ‘classify’ the condition of each ship on an annual basis. The condition of the hull was classified A, E, I, O or U, according to the excellence of its construction and its adjudged continuing soundness (or otherwise). Equipment was G, M, or B: simply, good, middling or bad. In time, G, M and B were replaced by 1, 2 or 3, which is the origin of the well-known expression ‘A1′, meaning ‘first or highest class’.
Bureau Veritas (BV) was founded in Antwerp in 1828, moving to Paris in 1832. ‘Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping’ was reconstituted as a self-standing ‘classification society’ in 1834; rules for construction and survey were published the same year. Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) dates from 1861; American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) traces its origins back to 1862.
Adoption of common rules for ship construction by Norwegian insurance societies in the late 1850s led to the establishment of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in 1864. Germanischer Lloyd (GL) was formed in 1867 and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) in 1899. The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) was an early offshoot of the River Register of 1913. More recent foundations have beenYugoslav Register of Shipping (now the Croatian Register of Shipping (CRS)) in 1949, China Classification Society (CCS), 1956; Korean Register (KR), 1960; and Indian Register of Shipping (IRS), 1975.
The purpose of class notations is to specify what requirements a vessel must satisfy when being built and throughout its operational life.
Such a certification does not imply, and should not be construed as an express warranty of safety, fitness for purpose or seaworthiness of the ship. But is is attestation that the vessel is in compliance with the standards that have been developed and published by the society issuing the classification certificate. Needless to say those rules are based on many years of experience so building under class does guarantee that the ship in question has a lot of built-in safety and quality.
More than 50 organizations worldwide define their activities as providing marine classification. Ten of those organizations form the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). It is estimated that these ten societies, together with the one additional society that has been accorded associate status by IACS, collectively class about 94 percent of all shipping tonnage involved in international trade worldwide.
If you to bring your vessel under class AND be credible, the IACS societies are the only way to go. They are much more expensive and very busy (= delays) but if you want the real deal and if resale value is an issue, anything less than an IACS Society and you might as well forget about class.
International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) currently consists of 10 member societies and one associate
Brilliant!