PLAN REVIEW → YARD → DELIVERY
Newbuilding & Conversion Oversight
Owner's technical oversight of newbuildings and conversions, with Korea and Japan as the current operating area. Led by a surveyor who was with the American Bureau of Shipping, including new construction survey in Korea, and who ran ABS operations for the North Pacific as Vice President: eight district offices and more than 500 staff across the region's shipbuilding heartland.
Busan-based, yard-fluent, and on your side of the table.
What's Included
- Pre-contract specification and makers-list review
- Contract plan review against class and statutory requirements
- Milestone attendance: keel laying, block erection, launching, sea trials and delivery
- Production quality reviews and non-conformity follow-up with the yard
- Delivery documentation review, and support with defect claims through the builder's guarantee period under the shipbuilding contract
How We Engage
- 1
Review the contract, the specification and the build schedule.
- 2
Attend the milestones that carry the risk.
- 3
Report after every attendance: status, quality, schedule exposure, actions.
Outcomes
Oversight is principal-led and milestone-based. This is owner's representation, not class or statutory survey: approval and certification remain with your class society and your flag. We accept engagements only where the scope matches personal attendance, and we say so plainly when a project needs a resident team instead. Our reports are prepared for the party that instructs us and for the purpose stated in the engagement. Reliance by any other party requires our written agreement.
Questions we're asked
How do I choose a shipyard for a newbuild?
On evidence: the yard's delivery and quality record for your vessel type, its current orderbook load, its subcontractor structure and its quality culture on the ground. We survey candidate yards and report comparatively before you sign, and the contract clauses should then reflect how that specific yard actually performs.
What is a JH143 shipyard risk assessment?
A survey of a shipyard's risk controls, made for builders' risk insurance purposes and structured on the Joint Hull Committee's assessment framework: fire prevention, hot work, housekeeping, subcontractor control, quality systems, launching and trials. Underwriters use the ratings and the recommendations when they price and condition cover for vessels under construction. See our Shipyard Risk Assessment service.
What is the most common risk in a shipyard?
Fire, by a distance. Hot work, combustible materials and vessels in outfitting are a standing combination. It is the first thing we look at in any yard survey, and the first thing an underwriter asks about.
What does an owner's site presence actually change?
It changes when problems surface. Yard issues found at block stage are cheap. The same issues found at sea trials are schedule and money. Milestone attendance by someone who knows how yards work turns surprises into punch-list items.
Who buys builders' risk insurance, the yard or the owner?
Usually the builder, per the shipbuilding contract, with the owner's interest noted. Contracts vary and the clause deserves reading before signature. It is one of the technical-clause items we review in pre-contract due diligence.
YOUR REVIEWER
Thomas Blenk
American Bureau of Shipping, latterly Corporate Vice President, Global Marine Sectors. Deputy Commissioner of Maritime Affairs, Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Put a former class VP at your yard.
Tell us the yard, the vessel and the schedule.