ship classification society

[Tony_Birdman]

hello everyone,

this may sound silly, but do ships and tugs and so on, need to be classified with a classification society,
i have seen vessels that were classified but have had the class withdrawn but the vessel still operates.

is there a maritime law that dictates that vessels say over a certain weight need to always be classed???

its just something i have wondered about, i have looked on wiki but it does not explain if the vessel needs to stay classed.

Tony.

[Phil English]

Hi Tony,

All ships should have certificates to show that the ship is seaworthy and meets the correct international regulations (or those for where it is based if it operates only locally). Most of these certificates are issued by Classification Societies, of which there are around 100. However, only 12 of these are IACS members (the one's which most shipping people are familiar with - LRS, ABS, NKK and so on...) The rest are small organisations or local agencies which class smaller, older ships and/or those which are not trading internationally. Such class societies do not always appear on Equasis so it might give the impression that ships are operating but unclassed.

When you see 'Class Withdrawn' it normally means that the ship has gone from one class to another. This might mean re-classing with a non-IACS society, thus appearing that it is out of class.

I'm not a massive expert on this and I'm sure there are others who could add further input, but hope that this explains somewhat.

Brgds
Phil

[Captain Ted]

Hi Phil
in principe you are right, however vessels can have no classification.
Unlikly though. Reason:  A owner can build a ship as long he follows the rules. The real problem would start for him that P and I and Hull/damage insurance will not insure the ship
that easy. so the easiest way to do it to let it classify by a IACS member, like you said,, ABS-NKK, DNV-GL, LR and so on.
the other thing charterers will not so easy charter /employ a ship without classification
and cargo operators only,,like voyage charters, what we do a lot,, Like ADM/Cargill etc they will also not take ships with no class.

Ships registered in "not so perfect countries" and will say trading only within the countries limits have often no class anymore.
Class withdrawn means either as you stated change of class, or really withdrawn because
sub standard and/or sold and nobody knows. Laid-up can be too,, yearly surveys cost a lot money,,so if longer times laid-up,, they could let lapse the surveys, and then re-survey once the ships moving again.