Warranty surveying


Water Pipe-Lay - A Marine Warranty - Surveyor’s Perspective


By Cdr BALAKRISHNAN G NAIR COO, OCEANSTAR MARITIME Pvt Ltd


When one steps into a very sophisticated offshore construction barge, wearing the mantle of a Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS), one would hardly imagine that operations, as innocuous as pipe lay could throw the whole project team into a tizzy and render the entire schedule go haywire on account of the unknowns. Yet that’s exactly what happened during the first quarter of this year somewhere in the Indian waters.


Introduction It was a bright Sunday afternoon in January 2019. I walked up the gangway of a modern Pipe-Lay Barge. There, at the special enclosure on the main deck of the vessel, a smartly dressed (meaning cover-all clad) crew member with a printed list of on-signers was waiting to usher in those who were boarding the vessel.


I presented my credentials as MWS. I was greeted well and my Passport, Seaman Book, BOSIET and HUET certificates and Medical report were collected and I was guided to the safety-induction hall of the sparkling vessel. There stood the cheerful HSE officer who would “brief” you for an hour plus, on the subtle nuances of health, safety and environment and


48 | The Report • June 2019 • Issue 88


the laid down policies. Signatures were taken, tag issued and cabin allotted. The walk through that followed was even more impressive. The vessel was a floating factory complete with a 2000T capacity crane four massive Tensioners and a 500T Abandon and Recovery (A&R) Winch perfectly engineered to a ‘T’.


The Tensioner


That night I could hardly sleep, not as though there were any rolling or pitching that could otherwise pose a threat to a comfortable snooze, but as I was excited about the pipe- lay scheduled to commence the very next day. Next day morning I had a meeting with the project team consisting of the Offshore Construction Manager (OCM), The Field Engineers (FE) and the Client’s


Pitfall in Deep


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