Marine Survey Indonesia FAQ — 100 Questions on Vessel & Cargo Survey

A marine surveyor inspects vessels, cargo and marine equipment and reports on condition, damage, quantity or compliance for the party carrying the risk — a buyer, owner, underwriter, bank, charterer or cargo interest.

Not quite. “Inspector” usually implies acting for an authority or a class society against a fixed standard. A surveyor is appointed privately and reports condition and fact to the instructing party.

Relevant sea-going or shipyard engineering background, demonstrable experience on the vessel type in question, and professional indemnity cover. Ask what the surveyor has actually surveyed rather than only what letters they hold.

Yes, and it matters. Yacht and small-craft work, commercial hull and machinery, cargo and quantity, and statutory and tonnage work are four different skill sets. We tell you which specialisation is attending.

A working survey practice should, and ours does. The limit and terms are stated in the engagement conditions.

Not on the same vessel in the same transaction without disclosing it. A surveyor who profits from the repairs they recommend has an obvious conflict. Our survey work and any group yard work are kept in separate hands.

Whoever carries the risk and needs the evidence. In a purchase that is the buyer; in a claim it is the party asserting or defending it; in financing it is the lender.

Only under a written joint appointment agreed by both. Otherwise each side appoints separately.

Ask three questions: who pays you, do you receive any commission from anyone else in this transaction, and does your fee change if the deal completes. Any hesitation is your answer.

The report states condition, defects and value. Most buyers want a direct view as well, and we will give one — clearly separated from the factual findings.

Match the specialisation to the vessel, ask for a redacted sample report, confirm the scope in writing, and confirm independence. Compare quotations on scope rather than on price alone.

One to two weeks for a planned survey at a main port; two to four weeks if a slipway is involved or attendance is in a remote location. Casualty attendance is same or next day.

Vessel type, length, build year, current port, the purpose of the survey and your date range. A listing link or general arrangement drawing helps.

Yes, and that is exactly when a survey earns its fee. You get a verbal preliminary the same day so you know whether the vessel is worth travelling for.

No. Many clients never see the vessel until after the report. If you do attend, stay out of the way during the inspection and save your questions for the debrief.

Usually yes, and often useful for access and for operating machinery. The report is issued to you alone regardless.

Walk away, or treat the refusal itself as the finding. In a functioning market a seller with a sound vessel has no reason to refuse an independent inspection.

Often yes at ports with a resident desk. Tell us the deadline and we will say plainly whether it is achievable rather than promising and failing.

For casualty and cargo attendance, yes. Planned surveys are normally scheduled on working days because yards and terminals are.

Yes. Reports are confidential to the instructing party by default, and we are happy to formalise that.

After a price is provisionally agreed and before the deposit becomes non-refundable, with a survey clause written into the offer.

A term in the offer making completion or the deposit conditional on a satisfactory independent survey. It is standard practice and rarely refused.

That is the normal outcome when defects are found. A priced repair scope built from the defect list is far more persuasive than a general complaint about condition.

If they are at the same port, surveying two on one mobilisation costs much less than two trips and makes the comparison genuinely like for like.

Yes — registration, tonnage, class status where applicable, and certificate currency. Title and encumbrance searches are a legal matter, not a survey one, and we say so.

On steel, wastage hidden behind doubler plates. On GRP, wet core in decks and bulkhead tabbing failure. On timber, fastening sickness. On any of them, deferred safety and firefighting equipment.

It needs a different survey, not a lighter one. Build defects, warranty issues and installation faults are what you are looking for on a young vessel.

Yes, at agreed stages. Stage inspection is far more valuable than a single delivery survey.

That is common. We invoice in USD, report in English and correspond directly with you regardless of where you are.

We can attend at delivery to verify that the agreed rectifications were carried out. That is a short re-attendance rather than a second full survey.

Non-destructive by default. Paint may be ground back for thickness readings, and on timber hulls pick testing and sample fastening withdrawal are necessary and agreed in writing beforehand.

Not as standard. Machinery is assessed non-invasively — running observation, temperatures, pressures, oil condition and analysis, borescope where access allows. Opening up is a separate agreed scope.

We arrange a commercial diver where an in-water inspection is required and a haul-out is not possible. It is a partial substitute, not an equivalent.

Anything concealed, anything requiring dismantling not agreed in scope, latent defects, and anything outside the stated purpose. The limitations section lists it explicitly.

A relative comparison on a stated scale between areas of the same laminate, not an absolute water content. Readings taken immediately after haul-out are close to meaningless without context.

A hull straight out of the water carries surface water that swamps the reading. A minimum drying period — usually stated in the report — is needed for readings to mean anything.

Percussion sounding across the laminate listening for change in tone, supported by moisture mapping and, where agreed, small core samples in specified locations.

Tapping the structure with a phenolic or light hammer and listening. A change in tone indicates voiding, delamination, wet core or, on timber, softness beneath the surface.

Function testing under load as standard; insulation resistance testing and thermal imaging where specified in scope.

Deck-level rig inspection is standard. Mast climbing or unstepping is arranged separately when the rig age or condition warrants it.

Visual and sounding as standard. Pressure or hydrostatic tank testing is a yard operation carried out under a separate scope, normally at docking.

Ultrasonic thickness gauge, moisture meter, borescope, sounding tape and bob, calibrated hydrometer, thermometer, phenolic hammer, spike, torch, gas detector where relevant, and photographic equipment.

Yes, and the ultrasonic gauge is checked on a reference block of known thickness at the working temperature at the start of each session.

Localised breakdown of the protective film, often under damaged coating, in stagnant bilges or where dissimilar metals meet. Pitting is more dangerous than general wastage because it penetrates faster in a small area.

Corrosion driven by two dissimilar metals in electrical contact in seawater. The less noble metal corrodes preferentially — which is exactly what a sacrificial anode is for.

When roughly half consumed, which in warm Indonesian waters typically means annually or at each docking. Anodes that never waste are usually not electrically bonded and are doing nothing.

Corrosion caused by leakage of DC current from the vessel’s own electrical system or from a neighbouring vessel on the same shore supply. It can destroy underwater metal in weeks.

A plate welded over wasted steel instead of renewing it. It hides the underlying condition, traps moisture between the plates and is generally not accepted by class as a permanent repair.

By vibration signature through the RPM range, cutless bearing clearance, stern gland behaviour and temperature, and where the vessel is out of the water, by measuring the coupling faces.

Incomplete combustion — commonly overload, restricted air intake, worn injectors or turbocharger deterioration. Blue smoke suggests oil consumption; white suggests unburnt fuel or water.

Combustion gas escaping past the piston rings into the crankcase. Excessive blow-by measured at the breather is a direct indicator of ring and liner wear.

Wear metals identifying which component is degrading, contamination by water, fuel, coolant or dirt, and degradation of the oil itself. It is the least costly diagnostic on a vessel.

Service life depends on load profile and maintenance far more than on hours. A lightly loaded commercial engine can run for tens of thousands of hours; a high-output pleasure engine run hard in the tropics may need major work in a few thousand.

Water migrating through the gelcoat and reacting with unreacted resin components, producing acidic fluid-filled blisters. Widespread deep blistering is a structural and cost issue, not a cosmetic one.

Water trapped in the balsa or foam core of a sandwich deck, usually entering through unsealed fastenings. It softens the deck, adds weight and eventually destroys the bond between skins.

Localised attack in oxygen-starved gaps — under fittings, inside swage terminals, beneath washers. It is the reason rigging can fail while looking perfect from outside.

Bearing clearance, stock condition where visible, weld and skin condition, water inside a hollow rudder (drilled and drained by agreement), and stop condition at full lock.

Erosion of propeller blades or rudder surfaces caused by imploding vapour bubbles. It indicates a hydrodynamic problem — blade profile, clearance or fouling — not simply wear.

Because the parties often do not both trust the same scale, and at anchorage transhipment there is frequently no shore weigher at all. Draft survey is the accepted independent method.

The difference between the vessel’s actual lightship weight and her recorded lightship, absorbing accumulated mud, spares, unrecorded stores and hull additions. It is derived, not assumed.

Displacement tables assume a standard density. River and estuary water is lighter, so the same draught corresponds to a different weight. An uncorrected density error is a systematic error on the whole parcel.

Longitudinal hull deflection — hogging when the ends are lower than midships, sagging the reverse. Both distort the mean draught, which is why the mean-of-means calculation weights the midship reading.

Calculating the volume of liquid trapped in a tank when trim or list means the liquid does not reach the sounding point. Ignoring the wedge is how bunker quantity disappears.

Transportable moisture limit — the maximum moisture content at which a bulk cargo such as nickel ore may safely be carried. Above it, the cargo can liquefy and capsize the vessel.

A rapid shipboard indication of whether an ore cargo may be above its flow moisture point: a sample in a cylinder is struck repeatedly and observed for free moisture or flow.

The quantity and condition of cargo actually delivered at discharge, compared against the bill of lading figure and the loading condition.

A sounding measures liquid depth from the tank bottom; an ullage measures the empty space from a reference point down to the liquid surface. Both need trim and list correction.

So that the vessel, the supplier and the surveyor each retain a sealed sample from the same source. Without retained samples, a later quality dispute has no evidence.

A difference between the quantity stated by the supplier and the quantity measured on board. The surveyor records both figures and the difference rather than reconciling them away.

Hatch cover leakage, condensation from inadequate ventilation, ballast or bilge ingress, and pre-shipment wetting. Each leaves a different staining pattern and the survey distinguishes them.

An inspection before loading to confirm the holds are clean, dry, odour-free and suitable for the nominated cargo, to the standard the charterparty requires.

An independent count of units loaded or discharged — bags, bundles, pieces, containers — recorded against the manifest to establish shortage or overage.

Verification that cargo securing matches the approved cargo securing manual or the sea-fastening design, including materials, ratings, geometry and welding where relevant.

Physical loss or damage to the vessel herself, subject to the policy terms. Third-party liability generally sits with protection and indemnity cover instead.

A survey required by underwriters before a specific operation — a tow, a heavy lift, a load-out — confirming the arrangement is acceptable, with any conditions stated.

To price risk and to identify defects likely to cause a claim, particularly on older vessels or after a previous loss.

Underwriters commonly make cover conditional on them. Unclosed recommendations can reduce or defeat a claim connected to that defect.

A maritime principle where a sacrifice or expenditure made for the common safety of vessel and cargo is shared proportionally between all interests. Surveyors are involved in establishing the facts and quantum.

A survey conducted for an insurer who has paid a claim and is pursuing recovery from a third party, focusing on causation and quantum.

Each party pays its own surveyor. Where a genuinely joint appointment is made, the parties agree the cost split in advance.

Immediately. Evidence perishes, vessels move and repairs begin. A survey within twenty-four hours is worth several after a week.

A written description of the work required to rectify damage, written independently so that competing yards price the same scope.

Usually market value and forced-sale value, addressed to the bank, with the method shown and dated within the lender’s currency window — commonly three to six months.

A desktop opinion can be produced but should be labelled as such. It assumes condition rather than observing it, and most lenders will not accept it for drawdown.

Typically every two to five years depending on age, type and the underwriter’s terms, and after any significant damage or repair.

An organisation that sets and verifies technical standards for ship construction and maintenance, issuing class certificates and often acting on behalf of a flag state for statutory certification.

No. Class is generally required for larger commercial vessels, for most financing and for international trade, but many smaller and domestic vessels operate outside class under flag rules.

The certificate is not valid, and hull cover normally follows class. Reinstatement follows the society’s own procedure, usually requiring more survey than the missed item.

A classification society authorised by a flag state to carry out statutory surveys and issue certificates on its behalf.

Inspection of foreign vessels in national ports to verify compliance with international conventions. Deficiencies can lead to detention until rectified.

Class surveys verify compliance with the society’s technical rules. Statutory surveys verify compliance with international conventions and flag law. They are often carried out together.

The International Institute of Marine Surveying, a professional body for marine surveyors. Where an individual surveyor holds a membership grade, that is stated in the report — we do not claim institutional status the practice does not hold.

It depends on size, flag and trading area, but typically registration, tonnage, load line, safety equipment and construction certificates, pollution prevention certificates and, for international trade, ISM and ISPS documentation.

The mark showing the maximum permitted loading draught for the vessel’s zone and season. Loading beyond it is both illegal and a stability and strength risk.

It involves deletion from the previous register, import formalities, tonnage measurement, technical inspection and registration with the maritime authority. We advise and prepare; the certificates are issued by the authority.

No. We are instructed by individuals and companies anywhere, invoice in USD and report in English.

Yes. English reporting and English-speaking attendance are standard, and a large share of our work is for foreign buyers, underwriters and club correspondents.

The northwest monsoon, roughly December to March, delays anchorage attendance and boat transfer across much of the archipelago. We plan date ranges rather than single dates in that season.

Yes, by boat transfer and, where required, with overnight attendance aboard. Travel is quoted before you commit.

Access. Getting the vessel opened up, the yard to admit the surveyor, the engine left cold and the crew available on the agreed day is where most delay comes from.

Yes at ports with a resident desk, provided we have the vessel, berth and ETA with enough notice.

Yes, routinely — as the technical surveyor alongside the correspondent’s liability handling.

Same or next day at resident-desk ports. Elsewhere we give a realistic ETA rather than an optimistic one.

We provide factual technical reports. Formal expert appointment is a separate engagement agreed with the instructing party and their lawyers.

By email or WhatsApp to the desk. Reports and client information are treated as confidential to the instructing party.

Surveyor yang ditunjuk dan dibayar oleh pihak yang menanggung risiko, tidak menerima komisi dari penjual, broker, atau galangan, dan menuliskan temuan apa adanya.

Survey pra-beli ditujukan untuk keputusan membeli. Survey kondisi ditujukan untuk pemilik, bank, atau asuransi dan menekankan gradasi kondisi serta nilai.

Perhitungan volume ruangan tertutup kapal yang menghasilkan tonase kotor dan tonase bersih, yang menentukan kategori pendaftaran, pengawakan, dan kewajiban survey.

Sertifikat diterbitkan di bawah kewenangan Direktorat Jenderal Perhubungan Laut. Surveyor independen mengukur, menyiapkan perhitungan, dan mendampingi proses.

Metode menghitung jumlah muatan curah dari perubahan displasemen kapal, dipakai saat tidak ada timbangan darat yang disepakati atau saat muat di area labuh jangkar.

Karena kondisi paku, celah dempul, papan garboard, dan serangan cacing laut tidak dapat dinilai saat kapal terapung.

Untuk penugasan pertama kami meminta pembayaran di muka. Klien tetap, perusahaan asuransi, dan korespondensi P&I dapat bekerja dengan sistem rekening.

Bisa, dan itu salah satu tujuan utamanya. Sebutkan sejak awal bahwa laporan ditujukan untuk asuransi agar formatnya sesuai.

Tidak ada masa berlaku resmi. Asuransi umumnya menerima laporan dalam dua sampai lima tahun terakhir; bank umumnya meminta penilaian dalam tiga sampai enam bulan terakhir.

Bisa, dengan mobilisasi. Biaya perjalanan dikutip lebih dahulu dan ditagihkan sesuai biaya nyata.