Editor’s Letter Dear IIMS Member


Welcome to the March Report Magazine 2019, edition 87. Is it me or do I detect a growing mood of optimism generally in the shipping and yachting world amongst surveyors? If feedback and comments received from members are anything to go by in recent weeks, then the answer is yes. Indeed, Capt Zarir Irani refers to an upturn in the Middle East region in his President’s column on page 5.


I have chosen to publish an opinion article in this issue written my Capt Rich Madden. This first appeared online recently at gCaptain.com and I subsequently shared it on the IIMS LinkedIn feed. The article prompted the biggest reaction imaginable and one of the largest number of comments for any post we have shared on social media ever. It was instant and the stark views of some were thought provoking. In his article, Rich considers the truly awful start to the year, which saw an unusually high number of major accidents and incidents at sea in January resulting in huge loss of life to dozens of seafarers and multi million pounds worth of damage to vessels and cargoes. If ever one needed reminding of the treacherous and at times unforgiving nature of the marine world, this is surely it? Rich’s article starts on page 58. It is a sobering read, but I recommend it to you.


For the second time, Lee Wartlier bemoans the lack of marine surveyors at the annual London Expert Witness conference, held late last year and cautions against the assumption that some people might have that undertaking expert witness work is straight forward – see pages 47 to 49.


Continuing on with the theme of expert witness, the article on page 42 entitled ‘Ten Golden Rules of Loss Prevention for Expert Witnesses’ has been written by ITIC. Helpfully, they have also published their standard trading conditions for expert witnesses too.


Nippin Anand has written for the Report Magazine before. In his article from page 68, Nippin once again presents an alternative and different view to many of safety management and the culture that often lies behind it.


I am grateful to veteran, retired surveyor, Jeffrey Casciani-Wood, for his in depth article entitled ‘Considerations on the Metacentric Stability of Narrowboats’. As Jeffrey told me himself just a couple of weeks ago, this topic has particular relevance as there are reported instances of owners attempting to take these vessels into the open sea, a purpose for which they are most certainly not suited to!


Recently I had the pleasure of co- hosting our Baltimore Conference alongside James Renn. He introduced me to Craig Norton, President of InspectX. Craig, an upcoming second generation surveyor, got to the point where he was fed up of scribbling his surveying notes down whilst on board the vessel only to have to come home to burn the midnight oil preparing his report, thus duplicating his work. He felt his work/life balance was wrong. With this in mind, he set out to create a solution to this age old problem. The result is certainly impressive and, for those surveyors who want to get ahead with technology, InspectX seems to offer an interesting possibility – see page 50.


In our occasional look at business matters, we have published two articles in this edition. The first is ‘The Golden rules for writing good, persuasive website content and how to present it’ – see page 64. And for UK organisations registered for VAT, the article about the Making Tax Digital system, set to launch in April, could prove invaluable (page 62).


Survey well.


Mike Schwarz Chief Executive Officer International Institute of Marine Surveying


President: Capt Zarir Irani (FIIMS) Immediate Past President: Mr Adam Brancher (FIIMS)


Chief Executive Officer: Mr Mike Schwarz Head Office Team


Mrs Camella Robertson ....Membership Secretary & Office Manager Mrs Tania Bernice .............Certifying Authority Administrator Mr David Parsons .............Administrative, Services & Social Media Co-ordinator Miss Cathryn Ward ...........Education, Training & Events Co-ordinator Mr Craig Williams.............Graphic Designer


Vice President: Mr Geoff Waddington (FIIMS) Deputy Vice President: Mr Peter Broad (FIIMS)


Miss Jen Argent ................Management Accountant Miss Elly Bryant ................Accounts Support Administrator Mrs Hilary Excell ...............Marine Surveying Academy Business Manager Mrs Pui Si Chung ..............MSA Accreditation Scheme Administrator Mrs Sharon Holland .........MSA Events & Course Co-ordinator


Tel: +44 (0) 23 9238 5223 | Email: info@iims.org.uk | IIMS, Murrills House, 48 East Street, Portchester, Hampshire, PO16 9XS, UK | www.iims.org.uk © The International Institute of Marine Surveying 2019 - The Institute and authors accept no responsibility for any opinions, statements or errors made in any article, feature or letter published in this Magazine.


4 | The Report • March 2019 • Issue 87


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