Every negative observation in SIRE 2.0 gets classified two ways: what’s being reported on (the Subject of Concern) and what’s actually gone wrong (the Nature of Concern). For Hardware, that’s a defect classification tree. For Process, it’s TMSA-based coding. For…
The language barrier in RISQ findings starts with a question most fleets answer without thinking twice. RISQ Q2.3 asks whether all crew can communicate effectively in the working language of the ship. The guide beneath it is more revealing than…
Most ship managers who run RISQ inspections know the questionnaire inside out — statutory items, recommended items, the guide-to-inspection notes against every question. What fewer managers have on their radar is a separate document entirely: the RightShip STS Unit Questionnaire,…
A worn mooring winch doesn’t know which framework is inspecting it. But by the time it’s been through a TMSA self-assessment, a RISQ or SIRE inspection, and a PSC visit, it’s been recorded as four or five separate vetting inspection…
Ask most fleets how they do root cause analysis in shipping and the answer is usually the same: 5 Whys. Ask the same question about deficiency until you reach something that sounds like an explanation, write it down, close the…
Buried in Section 1 of RISQ 3.2, right after the vessel’s P&I club details, sits the RISQ DryBMS question — or more precisely, two of them. Q1.29.1 asks whether the vessel manager is a subscriber to the Dry Bulk Centre…
TMSA and DryBMS compliance get discussed as two separate obligations — one for tankers, one for dry bulk. In the audits I run across both sectors, they’re increasingly the same conversation. Both frameworks are built on the same premise: self-assessment…
Every VDR fitted to a SOLAS vessel is required to record continuously. What is less consistently managed is the ship’s ability to access that data when it matters — not after an accident, when a manufacturer’s technician is flown in,…
PFOS firefighting foam ships are now subject to a mandatory ban under SOLAS Regulation II-2, in force since 1 January 2026. The amendment came into force on 1 January 2026. For ships constructed before that date, the compliance deadline is…
ECDIS in tidal ports does not behave the way it does in open water. The system was designed to do one thing above everything else: warn you before your ship enters water that is too shallow. Every other function —…
The lookout during port approach is the one position on the bridge arrival team that the manning matrix requires and the audit rarely finds fully accounted for. Not because Masters are unaware of the rule. The rule is well understood.…
There is a moment in every port arrival where the procedural framework meets operational reality, and the two do not always agree. The pilot is inbound. The Master is managing the approach. The question of who receives the pilot —…