Superyacht UK Technical Seminar 2017

To be perfectly honest I was not expecting to enjoy it … but actually I DID!

I learned a new phrase, ‘Ambulatory Referencing’ (sounds boring but actually it’s quite important so more of this later) and we spent some time discussing the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of a concept design for a superyacht where the ‘back falls off’ and creates an independent autonomous ‘beach house’ (what!).

The key note speaker was David Dingle, the Chairman of Carnival UK and also of a group called Maritime UK. The UK Government recently commissioned an inquiry into how to grow the UK maritime industry in its widest sense (ships, ports, services, infrastructure etc.). Chaired by Lord Mountevans, it reported in September 2015. There were eighteen specific recommendations in the report, all of which were accepted by the government. One of them was to set up a body to represent and speak as one voice for the whole Maritime Industry; this is Maritime UK.

David gave an overview of the report and current progress, the superyacht sector’s importance in the UK maritime industry and of course referred to the threats and opportunities of BREXIT.

Alan Cartwright, from Warsash, summarised the STCW Manila changes and gave an overview of the new structure for yacht engineering qualifications. Readers will be familiar with much of this but it was all new for the mainly non-seagoing audience. The information is all at PYA if anyone wants to check it out.

Jo Assael, of the Cayman Island shipping registry spoke to us about the new Large Yacht Code; not LY4, but the REG Code. The ‘Red Ensign Group’ (an inter-governmental group of UK and British dependent flags) decided at their last meeting that the Cayman Islands would run the secretariat for the next code revision. Accordingly workgroup meetings have already been held and the process is well underway with the ambitious target of a launch at this year’s Monaco Yacht Show. Jo invited any interested groups to get in touch if they wanted to be involved. Amazingly no representation from those that actually OPERATE superyachts were in the original working groups, MYBA or the PYA, for example. This has now, I believe, been addressed. The new code will combine the old LY3 code with the Passenger Yacht Code and allow for updates to the SOLAS, STCW, Loadline and MLC conventions.

The next speaker was rather scary. I should rephrase that - Tania Berry herself was charming but what she had to say we all need to listen to. As a senior Electrotechnical Specialist at Lloyds Register she embodies the depth of excellence that UK institutions offer the maritime world. We are all aware that we can now turn on our ovens or air conditioners from a neat little app on our iPhones and that US elections results can (allegedly) be rigged by hackers but have you really thought about the impact of digital connectivity on our industry? Technology has moved very fast even in the last couple of years.

Tania outlined how classification societies are approaching this; explaining how the levels of connectivity at sea are described, from fully manual to totally autonomous without human supervision. She explored the risk factors and what we should be concerned about. A superyacht was recently manoeuvring in harbour when the shore-side technical support team were updating the software for the ventilation system via satellite link. When the installation was complete the system, as was normal, rebooted. This had the effect of shutting down the main engines at just the wrong time! From operational concerns like this to matters of security and privacy, there is a whole lot more we need to be thinking about. Just for the record: superyacht crews are not taught anything about this in their mandatory training. To be clear – I don’t mean ‘not very much’, I mean NOTHING! This reinforces the importance of good quality Continuing Professional Development.

The next session was perhaps even scarier! It was a panel discussion between classification societies, flag authorities and superyacht designers and managers. They were discussing how they all deal with novel technologies and designs. As we know, the superyacht industry often pushes back the frontiers of the possible. As a backdrop to the discussion they used a PowerPoint loop of images showing a ‘concept’ design by Henry Ward Design and BMT Nigel Gee. This is for an explorer yacht which can split in two and provide a self-propelled ‘lodge’ with an owner and guest cabin, which can go into shallow water. Is this one vessel or two? What is its tonnage? What safety considerations are there? How does it fit into the code compliance framework?

The panellists included: Jo Assael from CISR, Ben Geary from LR, Lewis Northcott from RINA, Richie Blake from Dohle Yachts, who facilitated the debate and Alex Meredith Hardy from BMT Nigel Gee.

Most of the detailed technical solutions have not been fully worked out yet. The point of this was to show how the different agencies could work together to find a way through to get this built. It really was a showcase of the sort of flexibility that the UK/Red Ensign establishment can offer. This is also, of course, embodied in the very existence of the Large Yacht Codes themselves.

If you needed further convicting about the benefits of the ‘red duster’, Katy Ware’s presentation would have provided it. As a director of the MCA with responsibility for Maritime Safety and Standards, she is the UK’s permanent representative at the IMO. Brexit, of course, looms large in her life at the moment and she gave a candid and insightful overview of the dangers and opportunities that this poses. Over the years, the EU has ‘claimed competency’ over a wide area of shipping policy, including certification and manning. This has caused (she didn’t say this, but I know!) much anguish and frustration within the MCA. These shackles are about to be released and this in itself presents quite an opportunity. So, back to that phrase, ‘Ambulatory Referencing’; what does it mean? In short it means that when an international convention is modified at the IMO, the text of that change becomes law in the UK immediately. At the moment we have to wait for the change to be studied within the civil service and then a Statutory Instrument has to be written which may not be identical to the IMO wording. It could, for example, set a higher standard. Since the UK government has undertaken not to ‘gold plate’ international standards it makes sense to implement changes as soon as they are passed at the IMO. This removes uncertainty, we all know what the law is from the moment it passes the IMO. It is not yet certain that this will happen but if it does then the MCA will be the first UK government agency to do this. What a sensible idea.

It was an interesting day and I hope to go next year…