NEWS

AIMS Executive Officer Susan Hull shares the latest in education & training.

   

Maintaining the AIMS reputation as a professional body

During the Hobart conference I had the opportunity to talk to quite a few members, some who have been with the AIMS since its establishment, some who have been members for some time and new members who have been with AIMS for only a couple of years.  When talking to long term members the conversation inevitably ends up about the old versus the new and I am often questioned on how I will ensure that our Institute’s reputation for high standards is maintained.

I agree that it is the general professional excellence and effectiveness of our long term members that provides all AIMS members with a certain status of professionalism which, in reality, is AIMS’ true value and best member benefit we can provide. I also agree this status is certainly one worth preserving and that some members do become concerned about how we will achieve that.

Conversations with newer members often focus on a perceived “gap” between the older more experienced surveyors and those coming up the ranks. They express concern over a closed door attitude to sharing knowledge and survey experience and feel that they don’t fit in with the master mariners and old sea dogs.

It’s perplexing for me as I personally find many of the long term members are so eager to work with new surveyors and we have quite a few who have put their hand up to mentor them, help students with practical experience and are happy to knowledge share. They often recognise that students might also be an attractive buyer base for those wanting to sell their practice and retire.

However, we have recently had a couple of member queries regarding the RTO and their concern at the number of new students coming through. The rationale is that since the institute owns the RTO, we have an obligation to only take the number of students the industry needs and to be mindful not to flood the market with people who can’t get any work despite successfully completing the course.

It should be noted here that the majority of our students are already working in the industry either as surveyors or in a related field. We have safety inspectors and auditors, environment protection students who want to know how the survey is done and how the legislation is applied, we have shipwrights and engineers and electricians and Master 5, Master 4 and Integrated Ratings. We also have a number of naval architects as students.

Many students are simply formalising their skills and knowledge against an accredited qualification, many do it for AMSA accreditation and to have another string to their bow so to speak. We also have a number of ‘students’ who are AIMS members and who are completing the course via RPL and some gap training as a CPD activity. Many more of our members should undertake this pathway.

On the one hand we have a large proportion of members who do not undertake CPD in any form and we have a large proportion, both new students and members who do.

As our recent survey results showed 48 per cent of all members (almost half) are aged 60 plus and in the next 5 years will most likely no longer be in the industry. We already have a shortage of skilled surveyors and yet here we are in 2016 with some members worried about students flooding the market.

This is a great contradiction as the survey also pointed out that members believe that surveyors require 5 to 10 years of practical experience to be considered professional. So in 5 years’ time or when 48 per cent of members are now 70 or older does the AIMS just begin to dwindle away as half of the membership retires?

Where are we going to get surveyors from if we don’t start to train them now? Isn’t this precisely why we developed qualifications in the first place?? Or like lemmings with our heads in the sand shall we just let the rest of the world train them and recruit skilled surveyors through 457 visas.

No, we should take the initiative, as we have done, and we should continue to be responsible for training and developing new surveyors TO OUR STANDARDS. The long term experienced professional members of the AIMS should be the ones driving this great initiative and they should be willing to mentor students as part of their own CPD program.

Professional development is not just about learning new skills, it also ensures that you keep ahead and informed of any changes around legislation, technology and new work practices. A good number of our members do not undertake CPD and yet there is an entire suite of new legislation around domestic commercial vessels that our members have no working knowledge of.

Our new students are for the most part experienced maritime workers and they have on average 5 years of experience in a maritime field and they bring much to the table in terms of new work practices, use of technology and a commitment to learning. They also have a thorough understanding of the National Law and how it applies to certificates of survey. Sadly, they are largest proportion of members that do.

It is a fundamental part of being a professional to undertake CPD.  Along with ‘on the job learning’, CPD helps to ensure your competence over the course of your career – not just your speciality or particular survey categories and it is not something that you got out of the way 10 years ago.

Whilst it is acknowledged that a certain amount of learning can be achieved ‘on the job’, it is widely recognised that regular formal education and training is necessary to supplement and enhance such learning. Hence the RTO and formal qualifications as well as maritime experience!

Providing a means to obtain CPD allows the AIMS as a professional body to demonstrate that all members (at each level – Probationary, Associate, Member and Fellow) are competent and are keeping their knowledge and skills up-to-date yet many do not take advantage of this.

CPD can add to the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that you already have. There is always a need to learn and develop – age, seniority and expertise are not barriers to undertaking CPD. All of the professional institutes these days encourage CPD for two main reasons (1) gaining new knowledge and (2) improving professional practice.

Mentoring a student or helping a new surveyor with practical experience is CPD and it will help maintain our professional standards. It is a worthy use of your time and will improve and broaden your skills plus those of the student. Mentoring a student or providing work experience attracts AIMS CPD points.

Get on board – maintain our high standards and do yourself and your industry a favour.

Susan Hull

Executive Officer

AIMS President Peter Murday updates members on all the latest news at AIMS.

Being a leader

With all of the talk in Canberra over the past week I have thought much about my own role as President of the AIMS.

Leadership is a common and truly simple word but I have found it quite difficult to come up with a meaningful way of explaining it. According to Bass (1981) leadership can be defined in different ways but the definition that best fits my role is the one that says that leadership is “an act of influencing the activities of an organised group in its quest to set goals and also to achieve certain goals”.

A good leader is one who doesn’t know everything or purport to know everything  and as much as the final decisions and responsibilities often lie with one individual, effective leadership entails finding the means to gather other peoples’ opinions or views and give them due respect before making a final decision on an issue.

It’s important to take into account all points of view and willingness to change a policy, program, or cultural tradition that is out-dated, or no longer beneficial to the group as a whole.

The AIMS conference is now behind us and its success has invigorated the team and motivated us all to keep the feeling of success in all that we do.

The Institute is truly finding its feet now and for the first time in our history we have secured a permanent office which we will move into in the next few weeks. Meetings can be held here, members can visit and our records are secure in one place and all Executive members have access. We have systems in place to better manage our membership and students and our financial situation is good. It feels like the time is right to set our sights a little higher.

I turn to my AGM promise to our members that we will work to be more inclusive, provide value for money through benefits to members and generally promote our industry and its members to our region.

In order for the Executive team to do this we need to find out what members really want from the Institute. Good leaders also need to see feedback as gift.

Our EO has finalised the operating budget and it is intended that an amount of funds be set aside to provide services to members. In the coming weeks another survey will be sent to all members asking how you would like to see this money spent. Your input will determine the activities we carry out over the next year.

Over the past month or two I have had conversations with members and there has been talk of branching into other parts of our region, most particularly New Zealand and Singapore. Some of our members believe this will encourage a more diverse membership which will enable a greater exchange of ideas and work practices as well as hopefully provide practical business opportunities for members. This appears to be a good idea and certainly the time is right to get more involved in our region and promote our high standards of survey. What do our members think of this? Could we tie this in with our 30th Anniversary?

Our Executive Officer has continued to press insurers for a better deal for members and has two firms now actively working on a deal that includes income protection and public liability cover as well as sponsorship. Determined as she is I often point out to her that many have gone before and failed but, should we keep trying? Anecdotal evidence says this is what the members want so, yes we will.  

Now is the time to let us know what issues are important to you. Our survey earlier this year showed that an overwhelming majority of members want more networking opportunities - how, what why and when? Please send your ideas to execoff@aimsurveyors.com.au and we will do our best to put some of them into action.

 

Peter Murday

President

AIMS Vice President John Holden updates members on the future of marine surveying and the role played by AIMS.

“It’s time to future proof your business”

For many of us in the Marine Surveying Community the steady increase in the requirements to maintain a Quality and Safety Management System for yourself and/or business has become a very onerous affair. The traditional values espoused, which include such classic clichés as ‘this is just common sense’, are fast becoming obsolete in a world which demands documented systems, recording, reporting, accountability and corrective actions.

Working within the shipping and maritime industry has always carried a measure of risk, once managed through application of ‘common sense’; however, despite the obvious need to use this ‘common sense’ in everything we do, it just won’t cut the mustard in the world of today. If you wish to provide your services and experience to a corporate client, you may need to have implemented an accredited quality and safety system, before they will even consider engaging in discussions, let alone using your services.

For many small operators and ‘one man bands’ this becomes a burden too much to bear, often seeing the demise of small businesses and the consequential loss of experience from the profession. Nonetheless, this does not have to be the case, with QA and SMS becoming more accessible to all business operations, no matter what size they are. There are numerous options available from businesses specialising in provision, implementation and maintenance of such systems; many themselves being small business operators. 

AIMS is keen to assist all our members to meet quality and safety system requirements and obligations to enable their businesses to grow and prosper, offering a member benefit offer in this regard. Our Executive Officer is now finalising a QA kit specifically for our members and this should be available for sale by 1 January 2016. This is also the date that the second phase of the National Law comes into play.

So, how should I develop a small business system?

Our new kit will document everything for you but first your part is to write down what you normally do – put your common sense ideas and actions on paper and these will be reflected in the final system that is created for your particular business. Include what you consider to be the most important points, including risks and how to control them. This will then be used as a base from which to build a work instruction, a pre-start risk assessment, reporting and invoicing formats and document control procedures. You may choose to include the standard AIMS terms and conditions into your quotes and invoicing.  

How does having a management system help your business?

It will firstly make your operation more consistent when undertaking any business activities, from initial phone call to final invoicing, providing a great opportunity to put yourself or business under the microscope, revealing what you are doing well, what you are not doing well, why and how to improve. You could say “this is just common sense” and yes, it probably is, but it is accountable, traceable, reportable ‘common sense’ – and it will open doors to corporate clients as a bonus.

It will also provide you with a template for best practice in not only the quality of service provided to clients, but the safe, incident free way in which the service is delivered. This should not be taken lightly as it can provide a firm basis on which to build a successful business that can use its safety record to advantage. In a world where business running costs continue to spiral, having a good safety record built upon a proven, robust safety system will immensely improve your negotiating position when it comes time to justify your fees. Okay, you will lose clients who want a ‘cheap’ job, but do you want those clients? You should aim to be the best provider in your area or particular field; perhaps targeting a niche market where quality, accurate outcomes are more important than price.

This should be a serious consideration for us all. The old saying, ‘You get what you pay for’ is applicable across all aspects of life and particularly in our profession, where multi-million dollar transactions may hinge on our ability to undertake the task well and properly report our findings. The need to maintain high standards is of utmost importance and AIMS is currently reviewing the longstanding Code of Common Practice and our Code of Ethics to ensure that we remain the leading Marine Surveyor representative body within the Australasian region. This review will also look at our policy and procedures in regards to complaints against members and subsequent disciplinary action that may result. The review is being conducted in line with process as set out in the AIMS Accredited Quality System.

Do I really need to have such a system?

This depends upon what you are doing or plan on doing, but I would suggest that it will benefit your operation in all areas, if you do it right and use it properly. If you plan to become a DCV surveyor by gaining accreditation with AMSA, then you should have it, along with PI insurance cover which will provide peace of mind and let you concentrate on servicing clients.

In summary, although you may choose, as many currently do, to operate without a quality and safety management system, the future growth and success of your business may benefit enormously from such a system. Yes, it will take some time, money and effort to implement and maintain, but if well considered, it will be easy to use in daily operations, opening new opportunities and future success. Those who chose not to do so may eventually find that they are unable to continue operating in their traditional markets as clients requirements evolve.  

Will you proclaim your safe working culture to underpin a best practice service for your current and future clients?

 John Holden

Vice President

AIMS President Peter Murday's President's Report speech.

"Welcome one and all to the 29^th AIMS AGM.

Thank you all for making the effort to be here and to be a part of AIMS history - the first ever AIMS AGM to be held here in Hobart. Welcome to our Tasmanian members.

I would like to thank the Tasmanian branch for organizing this year’s AGM (and the Conference). 

Once again I have had the privilege to be your President in yet another important and busy year.

The last 12 months have been anything but boring.

RTO:

The RTO was discussed at length at the Council meeting just held. The Treasurers Report will highlight the positive contribution the RTO made to the AIMS this financial year. The Council is 100% committed to the RTO and its place at the forefront of AIMS future growth and in its ability to deliver benefits to the membership. There are presently 80 students enrolled. To date we have had 20 graduates. The Advanced Diploma is under development as are the portfolio of short courses.

Membership:

Our membership presently stands at 332 – an annual increase of 51. On a positive note we have been very active in upgrading the membership rolls and chasing members for their unpaid dues. Non-financial member numbers have reduced significantly as a result.

Finances:

The Treasurer will provide all the necessary information here but we finished the year in a very healthy condition given all the RTO development costs we have had to absorb over the past two years. This year we are in profit.

Council Meeting:

The Council met yesterday and this morning. As usual a broad range of issues were discussed and many plans made for the next 12 months. A full report on the Council deliberations will be released on the website once the EO has a chance to catch up.

In summary some matters discussed were:

 A Q’re was recently sent to all members. There were more than 170 respondents – or about 60% of the membership – so it is a very good snap shot of who we are. The EO has the results back – some of which I am sure will surprise you.

The Council committed to achieving the following goals:

The next AGM & Council and 30^th birthday party – the Executive will approach the state reps for their ideas and feedback after this event.

In closing it has been another very busy year and one that has required huge input and discussion between the EO, executive members and council. 

For all of us on the executive managing the RTO and a growing membership base remains a steep learning curve.

Change is difficult and times and can involve some cost.  But we have remained focused on achieving our ultimate goal which is quite simply – to position the AIMS to be the premier surveying organization in Australia and New Zealand. In this way we can better serve our members.

Many thanks to all my fellow executive members – few as we are - present and past.  VP John Holden and Treasurer Brian Peters. Also to Frank Kaleveld who has resigned as Secretary and will be missed for his salutary and wise advice.

Finally to Susan Hull – who – despite many challenges has got us to where we are. Words alone are not enough. It has been a particularly tough and robust year. We as an executive were unprepared for the additional work load posed by the development and administration of the RTO. Susan did not have the necessary resources required – but somehow stuck with us and got us through another 12 months.

In closing we believe that the work of our Institute is not only a service to our members but also of benefit to the maritime industry through the sharing of knowledge and the raising of professional standards.   

For the Record:

2014 Council goals:

AIMS President Peter Murday's Welcome address.

 

"Good morning and welcome to Hobart.

Thank you to Her Excellency, Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, Governor of Tasmania, for officially opening our conference this morning.

As President of the AIMS I take great pleasure in welcoming you all to our 2015 Conference – the theme of which is “Marine Surveyors – A Lynch-pin in the maritime industry?”.  

Let me first and foremost congratulate Anne Rutherford and her dedicated support staff for planning and organizing this conference. 

Our conference sponsors also deserve recognition for their generous support:

At a guess I’d say that everyone here today has a fair idea of what a marine surveyor does and where he fits into the maritime scene.

A job description from 1834 defined marine surveyors as “persons who appeared most competent to discharge the important duties of their situations with fidelity and ability, and to strict and impartial justice to all parties whose property shall come under their supervision”.

Put simply – honest, straight down the middle, tell it as it is - for better or for worse.

Yet while the description is straightforward, our core business is varied. Our conference will cover subjects that are all encompassing – from marine engineering, marine insurance, marine surveying specialties, ship and boat building, ship hold cleaning and safety management systems – both afloat and ashore. There is a veritable smorgasbord of maritime knowledge on offer. 

We have planned a comprehensive program with distinguished speakers from around the country and further afield to make this an exciting journey covering all the important aspects of our speciality.

A special welcome to Ray Gillett who has flown in from the UK to deliver a paper on LNG as a marine fuel. This is particularly topical as the next generation of Bass Strait ferries will use LNG. Dale Emmerton from Searoad will be telling us more about this in his paper – LNG for Bass Strait Freight Service.

Safe to say that an LNG quantity survey won’t entail dropping a steel sounding tape down a sounding pipe - as we now do for bunker fuel oil surveys. Yet another sign of the changing times and another job gone.

And I ask is there a better back drop in Australia to hold a Maritime conference - Constitution Dock, Hobart. 

I have heard it said that when you think Tasmania you think maritime.

As Australia’s second oldest European colony, Hobart has a long and famous (many would say infamous) maritime history.

The Derwent was discovered by the Dutch back in 1642 and was visited on and off over the next several hundred years by the French (D’Entrecasteux and Kermadec) and the English (Furneaux, Cook and Bligh) – all of whose names you will find to this day adorning navigational charts of the area.

The English did eventually settle here in 1803 – just to make sure the French didn’t.

Hobart started life as a port servicing the whaling and sealing vessels.  There was also quite a large ship building industry - an industry and a skill that is still here today. In time other exports such as wool, wheat and apples took over from whaling and sealing.

Being a natural deep water port Hobart for a time was a vital southern ocean re-supply stop for international shipping and trade.

Today Hobart is the last port of call for Australian expeditions to Antarctica. 

The Hobart of today is a very different port to the one I visited as a deck cadet in 1973.  On my first voyage, around this time of year, very late one night, we made fast at Macquarie wharf – just opposite this Hotel.

I was sent forward for the tie up. It was snowing. The vessel was named Darwin Trader. She called at all east coast ports from Hobart to Darwin. We didn’t have much by way of cold weather gear mainly being kitted up with tropical rig – shorts and T-shirts. No one was too happy with the slow tie up that night.

We used to load big rolls of news print destined for Brisbane. It took about a week back in those days. 

Over the years I have called in here on the passenger ro/ro ferry Australian Trader and on the ANL “Lake” class bulk carriers - discharging cargoes such as wheat and salt. We discharged the wheat at Salamanca Place. Not a bad place to tie up for a few days. 

Also Union Steam Ship Company and Holymans ran ro/ro vessels into the Port. 

Yellow hulled P&O reefer ships would also be here loading cartons of apples for the UK - every single carton, every single tier painstakingly drawn on a stow plan by the deck cadets - lots and lots of little rectangles. How was that for specialist training??

In those days we had a vibrant shipping industry – young seafarers learnt their trade from the bottom up.

The big rolls of newsprint were supported in the cargo holds with timber dunnage. The timber dunnage was put up by gangs of chippys (shipwrights). Wharfies loaded the paper rolls using the ships gantries. It was labor intensive work. It was noisy, it was chaotic, it was fun. That was our class room.

At our last conference in 2012 in Brisbane - Kent Stewart – who has joined us here again today - delivered a paper titled surveyors must “change and adapt”.

So now - what do you all see standing here on the podium – 60 (well close), grey, slightly wrinkled, crook knees and failing eyesight – well you are looking at 50% of the AIMS membership. 50% of our members are over 60.  90% of our members are 50+!!  

Another significant statistic is that 90% of members under 50 do not possess Master Class 1 certificates.

The new generation of marine surveyor has a different classroom – and different lessons. The days of marine surveyors evolving from ex-C/O’s and Masters who were fully conversant in the workings of a ship is rapidly coming to an end.

In response to the growing shortage of experienced industry entrants and the mooted NSCV changes the AIMS executive has put plans in place for the future.

 The RTO (Registered Training Organisation) is now delivering diplomas and certificates and in response to industry demand an advanced diploma is now being developed. 

To date 20 students have obtained a Diploma and 80 are doing the course.

AIMS is responding proactively to several industry drivers:

 Our industry is increasingly demanding trained, qualified and accredited surveyors.  And why not?  When you go to a doctor, or dentist or lawyer you expect to see a degree hanging on the wall.

We are also aware that we must make our industry more appealing to the “Millennials” – those born between 1980 & 2000. “Millennials” are lost without IT and have an affinity for virtual learning. They have an “I don’t want to wear your pants” mentality.

They are independent thinkers and don’t want to do it the way we do it.  We must package our courses to attract the new generation accordingly.   

Of course conferences are not just for information – they offer a great opportunity to meet others in the industry, to put faces to those voices on the phone or names on an e-mail.

In the maritime world personal relationships are still very important and we hope that marine surveyors and other professionals will have the opportunity to interact, network and exchange ideas. Make sure you meet as many people as possible over the next few days.

We want to elevate the science and art of marine surveyors to a new level and tonight we hold our very first Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner which is our chance to reward those of us who have excelled over the past year.

We live in an era when the profession is undergoing rapid and dramatic transformation. While we want to retain the values of the straightforward surveyors of the last century we must evolve to meet the demands of these changing times. 

For AIMS, leading these changes has been a little like leading an orchestra – and we want to continue to produce good music that satisfies our audience.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy the conference.

I would now like to introduce Mr Stuart Richey, AMSA Chairman of the Board, to deliver his keynote address."

AIMS President Peter Murday's Opening address.

 

"Welcome one and all to the 29^th AIMS Council meeting. It is good to see everyone here together again. May I also take this chance to welcome new council member Russ Behan from Queensland.

I make mention here of the absence of the Tasmanian state representative Anne Rutherford who tendered her resignation to the executive last Friday (07 August 2015). The executive thanks Anne for her input over the previous 12 months. We would also put on record our thanks for her organization of the AIMS conference and dinner.

It also means that Tasmania will be represented by Brian Peters at this Council meeting.

Last year in Adelaide we stated it was the intention of this executive to continue to take the AIMS Council and AGM to Ports far flung. This we have done – despite some earlier doubts from a few members. 

As it was in Adelaide – this is the first AIMS Council meeting to be held in Hobart in those 29 years. Tomorrow the 29^th AGM will be held here. The following two days will see our Conference and Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner held as well. It will be a big few days for the executive and council members.

The conference has some very high profile industry speakers presenting and delegate numbers are very good. The dinner is extremely well attended and I am sure we are all looking forward to the presentation of Awards for the various categories.

We came away from the Adelaide Council meeting with the full support of the Council move the Institute forward.

Two important areas highlighted were the development and marketing of the RTO and the Incorporation of the Institute.

Since then both have been the main focus of our efforts in 2014/2015.

The growth of both the RTO and AIMS membership caught us somewhat unawares. The workload on the EO increased dramatically. A part time admin person was brought in to assist. Outside assistance was also sought from a variety of people – mainly to do with the accounting and taxation aspects. 

I can say we - both as an executive and an association - were not adequately prepared to handle such rapid change. 

Membership numbers have increased to 322. Up some 271 from 2014 and 215 in 2013. A fair percentage of the increase can be attributed to new “student members”. This is not a bad thing in the long term as hopefully they will stay on as members once they have graduated.

There have been questions asked as to whether we were too focused on the pursuit of growing member numbers at the expense of member quality.

I remind all here that one of the prime objectives of our Association is:

“To provide a body of knowledge arrived at from lengthy periods of theoretical and practical training, in conjunction with extensive practical experience”.

It is my belief that increasing membership of the Association will only lead to improvement in the overall competency and quality of members in the long run.

In time this will be achieved by the gradual implementation of CPD and the requirement in time for all members to hold some formal qualification through the RTO. 

In closing – we move forward in 2016 with the following goals firmly in sight:

1.    Improving industry standards for the betterment of all

2.    Making the AIMS to peak surveyor body in Australia

3.    Growing the RTO to provide the necessary training packages required by our industry both now but importantly in the future

4.    Communicating with the membership to enable the provision of such benefits as they want

5.    Provide proper forums for such matters as dispute resolution and complaints against members

6.    Develop an enforceable Code of Conduct and Ethics

7.    Conduct a full review of membership categories

 Some of these goals are carry-overs from last year. We need this year to establish working committee’s to assist with some of these goals.

With all this comes the necessity to provide much more assistance to the EO – by way of an office and additional staffing.

In a few minutes I will hand over to our EO who will summarize what has been achieved since the 2014 Council in Adelaide and also provide us with all the necessary information upon which you can base you decisions – membership numbers, the state of the treasury, how our day to day operations have changed and will change, the expected growth of the RTO and the provision of CDP. 

The audited accounts for 2014/2015 – when presented will show clearly how quickly the Institute has grown in the past 12 months. A new business plan will be presented for the next financial year for your consideration and input.   

There are two major decisions to be made here at this council meeting.

The first is to make plans for taking the proposed changes to the Constitution to the membership via a special resolution.  This has to be done as soon as possible so that we can complete the Incorporation process.

The second is the future of the RTO in light of the above changes and in light of continual negative feed-back from some areas of the membership over the past two years.

The RTO concept needs total support from the executive, council and ultimately the members. The question posed is simple – does AIMS want the RTO – or not?  

I now declare the 29^th Council Meeting open.

Without further ado I shall move on:

1)   Are there any apologies?

2)   To the Minutes of the previous Council Meeting held on the 14-15 August 2014. You should all have a copy of these. If there are no additions or corrections I ask that they be accepted.

 I will now hand over to the Executive Officer who will explain the order of business.

For the record - notes from 2014 Council address:

When Steve Beale handed over the mantle last year his parting words at the AGM were - I have achieved my goals for AIMS by way of:

 The plan we now follow was born in 2006 when the theme “Going Forward” was adopted. The aim of “Going Forward” was to enhance the industry profile of AIMS and thereby promote its membership.

In 2008 “Going Forward” was replaced by the “3E” project – Energising, Educating, Exclusivity - designed to increase the participation of AIMS members with the wider industry, develop Codes of Practise and self education, and to promote the quality of surveying services offered by members.

2011 saw the first discussions about the appointment of a “business development officer”, the search for a replacement for long serving Admin Officer Capt. Mike Bozier, the potential of the newly passed Domestic Commercial Vessel Law for AIMS members and Quality Assurance.

In December 2011 a submission in favour of the RTO was received by the executive. The author concluded his submission with this sentence – “If we don’t change things then I fear AIMS will become like the Master Mariners has become over the last few years, where retired old sea dogs go to chat and relive old times”.

At the May 2012 executive committee meeting a proposal to employ a BDO was put forward. The 2012 Council and AGM agreed that the executive seek out and appoint a suitable “EO”, investigate becoming an RTO, move ahead with an AIMS website, broaden membership types and consider affiliations with organizations that supported the AIMS vision.

In April 2013 Susan Hull was appointed as our first EO.

In August 2013 the Council agreed unanimously to move forward with achieving RTO status and obtaining QA. The new AIMS Logo and the AIMS website were launched.    

In 2013 the “3E’s” were replaced by “Talent, Integrity and Excellence”.   

At both the 2012 and 2013 Council achieving RTO status was unanimously supported by the executive and council. The Council deliberations and decisions were then presented at the AGM’s for comment from the membership.

The business plan finally adopted - AIMS Business Plan – Version 5 – issued on the 29^th January 2013 - clearly identified the need for the provision of education and training in our industry and the growing importance of professional development and ethical practices."

Entering the marine surveying profession from non-traditional pathway: John Holden

AIMS Deputy President John Holden made the following address about non traditional pathways into the profession at the AIMS Conference, Hobart.
 

"I have always told my children that life will occasionally provide opportunities and they should never knock them back – well at least not until given due consideration. Statistics suggest that the average person will change careers 5-7 times during their lifetime and that by age 40 you may have had 10 jobs. Perhaps these statistics reflect that many people are not content with their working situation and strive to achieve that nirvana job which ticks all the boxes for an individual’s situation.

So when an opportunity comes along, out of the blue, it could be the way to reach this mythical place where work, life and the universe all gel to form a perfect galaxy of happiness. Okay, maybe I have overstated the case, but it serves to remind us of the importance of living a life fulfilled. When I was offered the chance to become a marine surveyor, I really had no idea what I was letting myself in for; however, it sounded like a career change that would allow me to broaden my horizons, challenge my intellect, learn new skills, meet new people and continue to work past the standard use by date. Oh boy was I in for some surprises!

I had always enjoyed and done well at school, never really finding the academic requirements to be too challenging. This left me with time to join in any social activities on offer and enjoy time playing sport or doing things with my father whom I consider to be a very clever and innovative person. During my childhood, dad built two boats at home, so I was fascinated by the process and the results, including the use of these boats! I firmly believe that this influenced my decisions in later life.

After successfully completing high school, I gained entry into a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology at James Cook University, my first choice of university studies. I loved university, but for all the wrong reasons and my first year results were dismal. Leaving home and enjoying the freedom that it brings is a challenge for most people and I really did not manage it well.  I then decided to change tack and study Geology which I had really enjoyed during first year. I transferred studies to QIT in Brisbane and found that the things I had enjoyed most in Townsville were also on offer in Brisbane on a much grander scale – no prizes for guessing what happened there!

After some reflection on where my life was going, I applied for and gained an apprenticeship as a boilermaker. Given my natural, possibly inherited talent for practical work and my academic ability, I excelled at this trade, completing my apprenticeship with a whole range of new skills. These new skills were soon put to the test when I was having some work done to my car and offered to assist by doing some aluminium welding that was required. I had never worked with the metal before and the business owner was most surprised that I picked it up so quickly – he offered me a job and I transitioned onto working with non-ferrous metals, mostly aluminium and stainless steel. After a few diversions into the construction, heavy engineering and mining fields, this eventually led me down a path towards boat building and marine fabrication.  

Several years were spent working around Queensland’s Sunshine Coast building and repairing boats, including some successful ocean racing yachts, before moving into the fabrication of bright work for the likes of Kevla Cat and Noosa Cat. I probably worked on most boats or marine fabrication works undertaken during my time at the Sunshine Coast.

A colleague with whom I had worked on a new build construction at Caloundra had moved to Gladstone in the early 1990’s and after a brief day trip from Bundaberg where I was then living, I returned home to announce to my wife that we were going to move. She continued in her Bundaberg based job until a replacement was trained while I set up my own marine fabrication business in Gladstone 1992, commuting most weekends to be with wife and son. Helen moved to Gladstone about six months later and we settled into town, soon making many new friends, both personally and in business. Business was brisk and, despite the never ending demand for the services I was providing, I started to consider where my life was heading and began doing some work with a friend on his harbour launches.

This was like a breath of fresh air for me and I quickly moved to doing more deckhand work and less fabrication. My very understanding wife was most supportive during these years and based upon previous sea time spent during the preceding years and time I was building up working on the lines launches, I gained a Coxswains Ticket which enabled me to skipper the launches. There is a certain pattern building here!!

 In August 2000, we moved to a new home and I met a neighbour, Mike Hanson, who was to radically alter the course of my life.

Mike, a retired Master Mariner and ex Harbour Master had, since his public service retirement, been undertaking marine surveys for a local Gladstone operation for many years and after getting to know each other, he asked if I would be interested in learning something new. This came at a perfect time for me as I had been considering my future. I took the opportunity in both hands and have never looked back!

Mike was a great teacher, mentoring me to undertake draft and tanker surveys. Mike’s old school abilities, quick wit and intellect were complemented by his innovative and forward thinking approach to undertaking marine surveys. Mike insisted that all the traditional requirements for marine surveyors to have previously been a Foreign Going Master Mariner were somewhat out of step with the modern world in which few Australian seafarers were moving into the marine survey field. His instincts were proved right when after spending some 18 months accompanying him to jobs, he informed me that he was taking a holiday and leaving the work in my hands during his absence. I was excited, but very nervous.

Well as you may have gathered, I handled the task with ease. All those odd hours for no pay were now proving their worth. I soon settled into this work and finally felt that I could begin the transition away from boiler-making. After a few years Mike retired (really retired) and moved away, leaving me to continue with the surveying, mostly working by then for Steve Beale at Rodds Bay Maritime. Steve also proved to be a great mentor and my knowledge grew alongside my experience levels. I recall that on one particular occasion, prior to working for Rodds Bay Maritime, I was on the wharf awaiting a vessel to finish tying up when I was confronted by Steve with regards to becoming a marine surveyor. Now as any of those present who know Steve will tell you, he is a straight shooter who does not waste words. He informed me, in no uncertain terms, that I could not just turn up with any expectation of becoming a marine surveyor – it just was not possible! It would not happen! Some 12 months later, he called me to ask how busy I was with a view to providing assistance with draft surveying!

I lived the typical draft surveyor life where working hours are long and days off are few; nevertheless through all that, I have maintained a passion for the profession. This sort of work is definitely not for everyone, but the diversity of the Marine Surveying profession is such that it provides all manner of differing job options and career paths which may stem from those. It is a truly diverse industry, something which is little known outside of the shipping, marine and maritime sectors.

After nearly 15 years in the Marine Surveying field I am currently the Divisional Manager for MIPEC Marine Consultants & Surveyors (formerly Rodds Bay Maritime), boasting 12 full time surveyors and covering most aspects of the profession across a broad geographical area. I am also the Vice President of the AIMS which is most significant given the roots of the association are well and truly anchored in the safe haven of the traditional Master Mariner path to becoming a surveyor! I firmly believe that there is room for all manner of people to enter and enhance the make up of our profession and our institute. For those students looking to Marine Surveying as a future, there are some lessons to be learnt from my journey thus far:

Aptitude for the particular task areas of the profession is most important. One must be prepared to embrace change and diversity as this industry is never static. There are niche positions for those persons who are willing and rewards may be substantial. I do not only refer to earning capacity, but travel, interesting tasks, challenges and a sense of self-worth are all on offer here.

Knowledge should also be highly regarded when working within this profession – not just that learned on the job or through past work experiences, but also through the life experiences we have endured and enjoyed. The combination of experience and intellect is a powerful tool that points one in the direction of knowledge. Where experience is lacking, you will find many within the profession who can advise and mentor.

Colleagues will be an invaluable when tackling challenging situations where the combined knowledge and experiences of a group can point to a solution or, indeed, prevent a mistake which may impact negatively upon a business, a reputation or at a personal level. I hope that any student Marine Surveyors will remain part of the AIMS once they have completed their studies and move onto their working lives.

Instinct or intuition should never be underestimated – if something feels uncomfortable or “smells fishy” then the chances are that it is “fishy”. Always err on the side of caution and seek a second opinion or phone a friend. Many of the decisions made as a Marine Surveyor may be critical to multi-million dollar transactions; moreover, they may be critical to the safety of a person’s life.

Communication skills are the key to safe, efficient and meaningful marine surveys being delivered by the surveyor for clients and employees as the case may be. A survey report which does not address the requirements of the client is of little or no benefit. Much of the work undertaken by Marine Surveyors is unknown and only ever judged on the resultant reporting which follows. Both verbal and written communication skills should be developed to satisfy the scope of the tasks undertaken.

The traditional pathway into marine surveying through being a Master Mariner or having a marine specific trade qualification has served the profession well for many years; however, with the number of Australian seafarers dwindling and many choosing not to pursue a surveying career ashore, the need for replacement of the old guard was identified some years ago. After consultation between industry and government bodies, the AIMS found itself at the forefront of the push to provide new blood for the profession through training and mentoring. I would urge all AIMS members and others to consider the future of the profession by providing opportunities for up and coming Marine Surveyors to gain the experiences and benefit from the knowledge held within our ranks to see the marine surveying profession and the AIMS into the next generation and beyond.  

The following speakers will address the future direction for the profession and how that will be achieved in a way which ensures the standards set by the traditional surveyors are maintained and applied to a new breed of surveyors who can proudly carry on the competent, professional work with a new framework of Government recognition with the full support of what I believe to be the best marine surveying professional industry body in the world.

So in summary, I would urge anyone considering marine surveying as a career pathway to follow their desires. A word of warning -  hang on for a ride that may provide moments of joy and moments of distress, but one that will always throw up surprises along the way, leading you to as yet to be discovered new and exciting careers."  

The following address was presented by Neil Baird, Director Baird Publications, at the AIMS Conference, Hobart.

"Captains, Chiefs, Ladies and Gentlemen and, particularly Captain Anne Rutherford who invited me to give you my views on this very important subject, thank you for listening to me today.

Historically, my first interaction with marine surveyors was not very promising. In the early seventies my brother and I were thinking about launching what would have been the first Australian sailing yacht charter business. We dutifully approached the Queensland Marine Department where we met a Glaswegian brick wall.

We proposed to base a fleet of 32 foot yachts in the Whitsundays. Well, our Glaswegian former chiefs demanded 4 inch propeller shafts; 5 watertight bulkheads; and, among other impossibilities, 2 huge buckets of sand to be kept on deck in case of fire. Our successors in the yacht charter game simply ignored the Department for years and largely got away with it.

We went on to bigger and better things in more realistic industries and, I have to say, found the Queensland Department much more positive and helpful in my dealings with them 20 years later.

Since then, I have come across numerous marine surveyors and have found them to be positive, interesting and informative people with usually a great love of the maritime industry and a willingness to explain what they are about – rather different from many professionals!

One in particular is Mike Wall from Hong Kong. Many of you will probably know him. Mike wrote a brilliant book “Running a Marine Survey Company” that was published by Petrospot earlier this year. I commend it to you as not only a marine surveying text but as probably the best guide to running a small business I’ve ever read.

Anyway, I’ll now focus on the subject which I will illustrate with a series of pictures to briefly remind you of where we have come from and where I think we are heading.

When Anne, the organiser of the conference, approached me to speak on The Future of Australian Shipbuilding my first thought was, “Does it have a future”? The answer to that came in a nano-second. Of course it does. Why else would my family persist with an Australian based maritime publishing company that focuses mainly on new ships and boats?

And, despite the best efforts of state and federal governments of both stripes as well as all the various unions that inflict their avaricious demands on the industry, we need it to survive and thrive. As an island continent with a massive maritime task, it is imperative that Australia maintains some sort of ship building capability.

Thinking a little further, I added the sub-title “An Historical Approach”. This was because I reviewed my fifty year connection with this industry and the changes I have seen over that half century. They have been dramatic. I suspect they will be equally dramatic over the next five decades. So, I am sure the industry has a future but that life in the industry will be quite different from what any of us have so far experienced.

While I can recall a strong interest in ship and boatbuilding from the age of five or six – Indeed, my father and I built a number of small sailing yachts throughout my teenage years – it was not until I gave up on Law at the University of Tasmania at the end of 1966 and went lobster fishing at Dongara in Western Australia, that I began to mix with real ship and boat designers and builders. I quickly realised I had found my true spiritual home with them.

It was there I met hard-driving pioneers like Michael Kailis and Fred Connell who both knew they needed faster, safer, more durable and larger boats. I also got to know a fellow university “drop out”, John Fitzhardinge, who has gone on to much bigger and better things in fishing, offshore oil and gas, naval architecture and ship building as well as civic and industry affairs. All three contributed enormously to fishing, ship building and education. “Fitzy” still is contributing and recently launched an impressive new pilot boat that was, very bravely, built on spec.

They were exciting times. A boom-bust-boom industry attracted a lot of energetic, imaginative and innovative people. It also inspired a thirty year burst of dramatic progress in vessel design and construction. I think it’s fair to claim that our fast ferry, crew boat, patrol boat and super yacht sectors all had their origins in the fishing industry, most particularly in the West Australian lobster fishery.

Two years after that, in April 1969, and still fascinated with the fishing industry, I secured a berth on the Northern prawn trawler ‘Karumba Norman’. She was a brand new, state-of-the-art vessel that taught me a lot about vessel design and construction as well as the fishing and shipbuilding industries. Later, I enjoyed  a brief voyage on the ‘Pathfinder K’ where I learnt something of the Michael Kailis approach to business. That is to keep it simple and cheap.

I joined the ‘Karumba Norman’ at the late and unlamented Bundeng Shipyard in Bundaberg. There, even to a twenty-one year old, it was obvious why the shipbuilding industry of the 1960s was on its deathbed. Inefficiently managed and irrationally union dominated, Bundeng, like practically all of its competitors, was doomed. Indeed, the ‘Karumba Norman’, which was a very good fishing machine, was the last vessel built there.

The old order was rapidly changing. While in the Gulf of Carpentaria, I got to know some of the people who would bring about that change. People like Sid Faithfull of Cairns and Tasmania’s own Robert Clifford. They could clearly see what was wrong with the old ways and where opportunities lay.

Of course, as you would all know well, over the next fifteen years to the mid-eighties, virtually all of the traditional steel cargo ship builders died out. While Bundeng was first, it was soon followed by the likes of Walkers, Evans Deakin, BHP, Adelaide, Carringtons, Williamstown, Newcastle State Dockyard and South Mole Slipway. All those traditional, subsidy dependent steel builders went the way of their counterparts on the Clyde, in Scandinavia and the United States. The only survivors of their ilk were NQEA and Ross Roberts’ Harwood Slipway. They survived by adapting to contemporary realities.

Alas, even NQEA is no longer with us as a shipbuilder. The land it was built on was worth too much and the boss,  Don Fry,  reached retirement age.

Simultaneously, though, the designers and builders of high speed aluminium craft were establishing themselves. Robert Clifford, John Rothwell, Don Dunbar, Don Fry, Toby Richardson, Ron Devine,Mark Stothard, John Fitzhardinge, Phil Hercus, Phil Curran, Loch Crowther, John Szeto and Stuart Ballantyne and a number of others were coming to prominence as builders and designers. Indeed, they soon came to dominate the world market for fast aluminium vessels.

Having closely watched and studied the global shipbuilding industry for half a century I have observed some dramatic, unexpected and unprepared for changes. During that time I have visited more than 1,000 shipyards and talked with even more shipbuilders.

My travels have taken me from the traditional shipyards of north western Europe, Scandinavia and North America to Russia, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia as well as my native Australia. I have visited dhow builders and modern shipyards around the Persian Gulf, junk builders in China and yards where Bugis “schooners” are still built in Sulawesi in Indonesia. I’ve toured naval and commercial shipyards in Argentina and Brazil and I have been to small shipyards in Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Even Bangladesh, that prolific source of deadly ferries, has not escaped my eagle eye. As the sixties song title says: “I’ve been everywhere, man”.

During the latter half of that period, I have tended to concentrate more on Asia visiting many yards in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India. They have built both commercial and naval vessels.

Those shipbuilders have taught me a lot over the years and I thank them for their patience and interest. What I have particularly learnt is that the biggest, most established and most prominent operators get too close to government and so are rarely the most innovative, efficient or profitable. Indeed, apart from one or two notable examples such as the Damen Group and Japan’s Tsuneishi, the opposite usually applies.

My long “stretch” as a director of the Australian Shipbuilders Association convinced me of the evils of government subsidy or other “support” of the industry. I’ve seen it close to hand in the publishing and printing industries also. Any government involvement is simply a dead hand that gradually chokes out all innovation and enterprise from any industry. It corrupts both morally and financially.

For sixty years until the mid-eighties, the Australian shipbuilding industry was the “beneficiary” of considerable government support in many forms. Of those, the “Bounty” was the most notorious and most destructive. Because it effectively eliminated competition for most of that period, the local industry became bloated and lazy.

A remarkable change came over the industry when the Hawke Labor (read socialist) government amazingly abolished the Bounty and practically all other forms of assistance. The old protected ship builders such as BHP, Adelaide, Walkers, Bundeng, Carrington and Evans Deakin closed down. They simply weren’t viable without substantial government assistance. Even the government owned yards such as Cockatoo Island, Newcastle State Dockyards and South Mole Slipway faded away. They had essentially become “sheltered workshops” for some greedy, grasping unionists.

Simultaneously, though, a shipbuilding renaissance came over Australia. Essentially without government assistance, save for some very limited Export Market Development Grants, we saw the development of a whole new and world leading sector in aluminium fast vessels that developed out of the West Australian lobster fishing industry. The newer builders such as Incat, Austal, Richardson Devine Marine, Strategic and Geraldton Boat Builders quickly became the globally competitive leaders in their field. Innovation, enterprise and, even, profitability had arisen from the ashes.

At the same time, one or two of the smaller, less conspicuous builders like NQEA and Harwood Slipway kept their heads down, adapted and ploughed on into the new era.

Much the same thing happened in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. It has taken longer in Germany, France, Italy and Spain where government support has been something of an art form. However, it is slowly happening and, apart from Navantia and Fincantieri, which are government owned sheltered workshops of the worst kind, the survivors are globally competitive. Indeed, some such as Dutch based Damen and the French group Piriou have successfully thrust into Asia.

Of the United States, however, the less said the better. Apart from a few smaller yards that are globally competitive, most are bedevilled by the Jones Act that protects them to death – and costs the American taxpayer zillions! The “Land of the Free” is far from free in a maritime sense and its citizens continue to suffer accordingly as Lobbying 101 prevails.

Inevitably, of course, as we are already seeing with Japan, even Asian countries will eventually become less competitive. While there will always be pockets of the world where ships can be built cheaper, I expect that in the long run, the iron law of comparative advantage will gradually become less relevant. The shipbuilding playing field will become almost level. Except, that is, for the United States where the Jones Act has become something of a state religion.

To me, as you have probably gathered, government support whether in the form of subsidy, bounty, protection, R&D grants, payroll assistance or whatever, is wasteful, counter-productive and often corrupting. From personal observation globally over the last fifty years, I am convinced that shipbuilding, like all industries, flourishes when real free enterprise prevails. Competition, particularly global competition, improves the breed. In the maritime industry that means better ships and boats at lower prices.

The world works much better when innovation, energy and enterprise are allowed to prevail. Thankfully, that is starting to happen.

In all the recent raucous debate over the future of Australia’s naval shipbuilding it is usually forgotten that Australia is home to a number of very capable and, most importantly, globally competitive commercial ship builders, designers and materials and equipment suppliers.

Unlike their notably inefficient, mostly foreign owned, and uncompetitive naval shipbuilding compatriots, our commercial ship builders are unsubsidised and generally avoid dealing with governments of any stripe or level. They have better things to do than to waste time dealing with bureaucrats and junior naval officers and completing the endless wasteful documentation that dealing with government currently entails.

If the whole process of naval ship purchasing were to be reformed to be more practical, economical and commercial, the Navy, taxpayers and Australian ship builders would all benefit. Even though it flies in the face of tradition and would undoubtedly make legions of public servants redundant, reforming the process would be simple and easy to achieve except, probably, politically.

The fact is that Australia does not manufacture diesel or gas turbine engines, propulsion systems, significant marine electronics, or weapon systems. So, our shipbuilding essentially involves design, fabrication of metal plate and installation of components manufactured overseas.

That said, however, there are a number of Australian companies that are world leaders in vessel design, construction and outfitting. Designers such as Incat Crowther, One2Three, AMD ( which designed the “platforms” for China’s large fleet of supersonic cruise missile attack boats), Sea Transport Solutions and Southerly Designs, among others, are all both experienced and competitive across a range of vessel types and construction materials.

There are a number, also, of Australian ship builders such as Incat, RDM, Austal, Evolution Commercial and Harwood Slipway that have competitively constructed a range of different sized and kinds of vessels of varying complexity. All could build naval vessels if they could be motivated to do so. All are globally recognised and, importantly, profitable without subsidy.

Australia also benefits from having numerous suppliers of materials and equipment that could easily adapt to naval requirements. Even our electronics manufacturers could do a lot more if it were worth their while to gear up to do so. To a large degree the Canberra “cultural cringe” discourages that.

The naval shipbuilding problem in Australia is not one of lack of capability. Rather, it is one of the “dead hand” of government ship purchasing processes discouraging our globally competitive ship builders and their suppliers from wanting to deal with government.

While many of the pioneers of the seventies and eighties, who I mentioned earlier, have retired or died, their children or people they trained have or are taking over from them. Those second generation companies are still leading the world in their field. And that, really, is the point. Australians are adaptable. They are innovative and they perform much better when not reliant on government handouts like the “Shipbuilding Bounty” on which our long gone steel shipbuilders were dangerously overly dependent.

So, now that it is a free, globally competitive industry with minimal interaction with government, the Australian shipbuilding industry, has, in my opinion, a very bright long-term future.

Thank you for your interest." 

 

*Neil Baird is one of the founders and the chairman of Baird Maritime. He is a director of the World Ocean Council and a joint Facilitator of the Federal Advisory Council of the Navy League of Australia and has held many other board positions in the global and Australian maritime industry. They include a very lengthy “stretch” as a director of the Australian Shipbuilders Association.

His almost fifty year career, mostly in international maritime publishing, has enabled him to visit and study more than 1,000 shipbuilders on all continents except Antarctica. He has reviewed more than 4,000 ships and boats and has experienced all known forms of propulsion from oars to nuclear and from paddles to waterjets.

In his “semi”-retirement he is undertaking a PhD on Passenger Vessel Accidents and How to Prevent Them.

Illustrations for The Future of Australian Shipbuilding Presentation.  August 13, 2015.

1.  A View of Sydney Cove, engraving by Francis Jukes, London, 1804, from a drawing by E. Dayes

2.  Replica of “William the Fourth’. First steamship built in Australia. Original built at Clarencetown, NSW in 1831 by Marshall & Lowe

3.  ‘Enterprise’, 19 metre ketch built Hobart 1902

4.  ‘Reemere’. Built in Hobart in 1909 as a steamship. Converted to diesel and still working after 106 years

5.  ‘Biloela’, naval collier built at Cockatoo Island. Completed 1920. First ship to be built of steel plates rolled in Australia by BHP

6.  ‘Iron Monarch’. Bulker. First ship built by BHP at Whyalla. Completed 1943

7.  HMAS ‘Albatross’. Austrlaia’s first aircraft carrier. Actually a seaplane tender. Built at Cockatoo Island. Completed 1928. Exchanged for the cruiser HMAS’Hobart’ in 1938

8.  HMAS’Pirie’. One of a series of four Bathurst Class Corvettes built at Whyalla by BHP during 1942

9.  HMAS ‘Arunta’ a Tribal class destroyer, one of three fast (36 knots) ships built at Cockatoo Island

10. A Kailis 20 metre tropical prawn trawler built in Fremantle by and for the M.G.Kailis Group. Simple and very effective. Some still working 40 years after launching.

11. ’John Sainsbury’ and ‘Denis O’Malley’. The final two ‘ships’ built by BHP at Whyalla. Completed 1978

12. ‘Accolade II’ a cement carrier built by Carrington Slipways, early 1980’s

13.HMAS ’Tobruk’. A Landing Ship Heavy built by Carrington in 1982. Decomissioned 2015

14. ’Wato’. One of a series of ‘modern’ tugs built in the early eighties by Carrington Slipways.

15. ’Sea Flyte’. One of the first of the fast ones. Designed by Phil Curran. Built by SBF Engineering in 1983. Still going strong in Singapore

16. HMAS ‘Anzac’. First of a class of 9. Built in Williamstown by Tenix. Completed 1996

17.’Munna’. First of a unique class of bulk ore carrier/ transhipment vessels designed by Stuart Ballantyne’s STS

18. ‘Tuhaa Pae IV’,  a truly multi-purpose ship- tanker, container and passenger – built by Ross Roberts’ Harwood Slipways at their Cebu, Philippines, yard.

19. An Austal USA built littoral combat ship being launched from the company’s Alabama yard.

20. ‘FastCat’ a recent Stuart Ballantyne STS Ro-Pax catamaran ferry built in China for the Philippines.

21. A large, high speed catamaran crew/supply vessel built in the USA to Incat Crowther’s design.

22. ‘Lopez Mena’. The world’s fastest (58 knots) ship. Designed and built in Hobart by Incat.

23. ‘Muslim Magonlayev’. Another Incat masterpiece. A 78 metre fast, wave-piercing, crew/supply boat. Now operating in the Caspian Sea.

24. HMAS ‘Canberra’. Australia’s latest and biggest warship. Assembled in Australia by BAE et al from mostly Spanish components.

25. ‘Kilimanjaro V’. The fifth in a series of ferries built in Hobart for the Dar-es-Salaam to Zanzibar route by Richardson Devine Marine to Incat Crowther designs.

Paul Baxter, Partner DLA Piper, presented the following address in regard to Marine Insurance Disputes on behalf of MLAANZ at the AIMS Conference in Hobart.

"Good morning. My topic today is marine insurance disputes and the marine surveyor. I have chosen a series of cases and some recent decisions involving marine surveyor liability that indicates one of the most critical risk management weapons in your arsenal, limitation or refinement of your retainer or scope of works.  

The reality is, that you work in a competitive business environment where rolls royce standards or car must find a balance with VW prices. You are quite capable of providing an excellent and thorough and far reaching product or service if the client will pay the appropriate price, but when the client has a budget then what they can purchase from you is more limited. The trick is to make sure expectations match reality and that is best done through the contract of service. I am not talking about standard terms and conditions, although these are important. What I am talking about is agreeing precisely what you will and won't do and for what purpose and documenting this for evidentiary purposes.

Let us first look at some case history to lay down some basic principles.

The first principle is privity of contract. That is that 2 parties are free to contract with each other on whatever terms they chose and provided there is agreement and consideration passing then those 2 parties and those 2 parties alone can enforce the terms of the agreement against each other.

Often however a situation arises where an outsider to the contract (a third party) seeks to enforce a right based on the contractual dealings. My apologies that the initial cases have very little marine surveying flavour to them, but the basic principles apply across all service industries.

Bryan v Maloney a 1995 decision of the High Court threw a cat among the pigeons when it held a builder of house that had since been lived in and sold to a new owner, was liable to the new owner for cracks that began to appear in the walls and floor. There was no contract between the 2 parties but the new owner sued in negligence for poor construction of the foundations on the basis that harm to the subsequent owner was clearly foreseeable and sufficiently proximate to give rise to a duty of care.

Hill v Van Erp in 1997 extended the principle when a solicitor drew up a new will for a client and had it executed before witnesses. One of the witnesses was an intended beneficiary and under the relevant estate law was therefore precluded from receiving bequests in her favour. Naturally she was quite peeved and sued the solicitor who she had no contractual relationship with. Once again the Court found she was sufficiently proximate to the work at hand and vulnerable to negligence of the solicitor to be owed a duty of care which was breached.

The tide has been turned back a little by the cases of Woolcock Street Investments 2004 and Brookfield Multiplex 2014.  In each of these cases construction defects that have manifested to subsequent owners were not actionable. This was as a result of careful examination of the scope of the initial contractual engagements and the fact that the subsequent purchasers were in each case relatively sophisticated business entities capable of protecting themselves against the loss by performing their own enquiries and searches such that caveat emptor or buyer beware should be left in place.

So where does this leave the humble marine surveyor, who inspects and certifies a vessel as sound for one owner or its insurer and then some years later gets slapped with a lawsuit by a subsequent purchaser when defects appear?  In hot water and frantically scrambling back through documentation to see exactly what you were instructed to do and what advice you gave.

Two fairly recent cases offer some good insights into this type of situation.

Wicks v New Westcoaster Pty Ltd and Ors [2005] QSC 076

So good news for the surveyor there but after a long Court battle.  A little more clarity as to what was and was not part of the scope might have helped.

Marine & Civil Construction Company Pty Ltd v SGS Australia Pty Ltd [2013] FCAFC 46 

Kent Stewart, Executive Director, Maritime Engineers outlines Marine Warranty surveys at the AIMS Conference, Hobart.

DEFINITION

Marine Warranty is an undertaking or a warrant by an independent third party that a marine venture is a sound insurable insurable risk.

The Marine Warranty Surveyor provides an opinion on the level of risk that Underwriters are being exposed to. This opinion is based largely on the skill and experience of the surveyor, his knowledge of the rules and guidelines and his ability to make a valued judgement of the marine venture he is warranting.

Warranties can be express or implied.

Express warranties are written into contracts of insurance and are specific for a particular voyage. Implied warranties are becoming more prevalent, particular in the oil and gas industry where the client seeks the assurance that an experienced third party has closely examined his marine activity for risk.

RISK

Marine Warranty is all about risk assessment. Insurers or their clients want the assurance that an experienced third party has closely examined the proposed voyage and ensured that, outside normal Perils of the Sea, the venture is sound.

In the oil and gas industry increasingly the implied risk marine warranty surveys are on the increase. This is a second or third tier of risk mitigation that the oil industry has introduced over and above the conventional acceptance criteria that a ship is “Classed”.

There is no question that the oil and gas industry is a high-risk activity. And innovation and the speed of development continually dazzle us. It also leaves underwriters struggling with the exposure on the risk they are covering.

And oil companies themselves want to mitigate risk and to that end they will engage a Marine Warranty Surveyor to examine their proposed project. Be float-over topside installations or multimillion dollar module cargoes, they can’t afford any delays to their programs from accidents. The cost penalties are massive.

There’s an old saying:

“If you think safety is expensive try having an accident”.

EXPOSURE

It’s all about cargo – its size, its value and strategic importance to a project. Usually its project cargo tows but sometimes it’s vessels that need Marine Warranty Surveys.

Disabled ships, low freeboard backhoe dredges, crane barges and pipe layers are all high risk tows.

Then there are the unusual – CALM buoys, SPARS and concrete substructures.

Certainly ocean towing is probably the most common activity that calls for Marine Warranty, particularly with the surge of towing the project cargoes in the oil and gas industry over the last 5 to 6 years.

But Marine Warranty is not only conducted on tows. They are conducted on high-value/high-volume heavy lifts, tows of disabled ships, relocation of oil industry plant (FPSO’s, MODU’s) and low freeboard tows.
 

THE SURVEYOR

So it’s a very diverse activity and the Marine Warranty Surveyor needs to be a person with special skills and a wide range of knowledge, experience and expertise. Qualifications alone don’t do it.

The nature of Marine Warranty work requires the Marine Warranty Surveyor to be extremely well organised and his preparation for the job is very detailed.

With the criticality of timing on cargo loadings and departures the Marine Warranty Surveyor’s timing must also be a skill he possesses.

Forwarding Towing Checklists to towing contractors is one method of ensuring that preparations have been properly made without any last-minute disruptions. And the reverse applies.

When working with heavy lift contractors is like Big Lift, SAL and Hansa, these professional heavy lift specialists will produce detailed Loading Manuals which the Marine Warranty Surveyor can review well before the ship arrives and allow him time to comment on them. This material forms part of all the forward planning that goes into a successful warranty survey.
  

APPOINTMENT

Marine Warranty Surveys are commissioned by the client be it the insurer or the assured himself. But he is there to safeguard the insurer’s interests. Often his fees are paid by the assured. So the Marine Warranty Surveyor has to have good interpersonal skills and can collaborate well with the marine contractor and the assured to achieve the best outcome.

The Marine Warranty Surveyor doesn’t have any contractual ties to the marine contractor nor does he have the authority to direct the contractor in any way. His obligation is to his clients who can then direct the contractor to make any changes necessary. We never want to get to a situation with a Certificate of Marine Warranty is withheld to achieve an outcome. So preparation and timing is critical to the success of the survey.

ON THE JOB

But on the job the Marine Warranty Surveyor needs to be armed with a vast range of knowledge, skills and Rules of Thumb.

Things like:

Even road transport can form part of a Marine Warranty Contract.

Not only does he come with these qualities, he comes armed with his standard tools of trade (camera, torch, tape, chalk, verniers, notebook etc.)

The professional warranty surveyor is examining every aspect of the marine venture from top to bottom including:

To name a few.

CLOSING

So the Marine Warranty Surveyor is a special type of surveyor who comes with a lot of experience and a lot of skills. By gaining the confidence of the marine contractor the Marine Warranty Surveyor can achieve far more for the underwriter and his assured client in the short time available if he is well is prepared beforehand.

So leading onto other discussions in this conference program: 

“Where does a Marine Warranty Surveyor gain these skills?”