We were engaged by the Owner to undertake sea trials and pre delivery inspections of the stunning 56 metre sailing yacht ALEA, built by Vitters in 2022. We had 2 surveyors from Yacht Survey Partners onboard in the Netherlands at the Vitter’s commissioning base in Harlingen for 2 weeks as the yacht was put through acceptance trials. Our team provided feedback to the Owner and liaison with the shipyard. As always, it’s a thrill to be onboard when a superyacht of this size and complexity goes sailing for the very first time. The yacht sailed for her first guest trip soon after we completed our work onboard.
Undertaking a survey in the run up to delivery places very different pressures on the surveyors compared to our usual Superyacht pre purchase surveys and insurance surveys. Usually we request that there is no other significant work happening onboard whilst the survey is in progress, as every survey involves a lot of interaction with the crew, especially the Chief and Second Engineers, the First Officer, the Chief Stew and the Bosun and the survey process is at it’s most efficient when there are no distractions. Similarly, it helps if there aren’t contractors working in areas or on equipment where our team are trying to work. Clearly the situation with a pre delivery survey is very different, a the crew are still learning about the yacht themselves and the builder’s team take priority on whatever work they need to do, so we very much need to work around this. At one point there were 28 members of the Vitters team and their contractors working onboard alongside us, so patience and cooperation were key. The other complication is that we’re working on a moving target, in the sense that the status of all the spaces and systems that we are surveying are continually changing as the builder completes jobs and signs off as they go. Our team’s role was to monitor progress and keep tabs on all the outstanding work, providing feedback to the Owner’s team and the builder, so that we arrived at the agreed handover date with the smallest possible list of issues remaining to be addressed.
Our pre purchase surveys always include an extended (usually 4 hour) sea trial during which we have the opportunity to test all systems under normal operating conditions. In a pre delivery survey, we have to work slightly differently, in that it is very much the builder’s sea trial, so we have to work with them to integrate our test protocols into theirs, or else work out how their protocols can be used to provide the data that we need. And of course, rather than sea trials being just ourselves and the crew (with perhaps the seller’s and buyer’s broker joining us) we have the builder’s team and all their specialist contractors. On this occasion, we had engineers from Caterpillar, the sailmaker, the rigger, the HVAC technician and many more, sailing with just under 30 in total, including the designer, Mani Frers and of course a large team from Vitters.
For pre delivery surveys we’re able to customise unique online survey portal to provide real time feedback to the Owner’s team and to the builder, allowing comments to be raised and issues to be ticked off as we approach the contracted handover date. This unique system provides an incredibly powerful tool to ensure that everyone understands the issues to be dealt with, as well as providing a central database for all documents, photos, videos and logs generated during the acceptance and delivery process. At the end of the process, a list of works remaining to be completed can be easily generated, to form part of the Protocol of Delivery and acceptance. Whilst the software is invaluable, even more so are the relationships built with the Owner’s team and the builder’s team, without whom none of this amazing project would have happened.