The Chief Engineer in a superyacht new build, from design review to handover.

In service, the Chief Engineer leads the engineering department on board: the machinery, the systems and their maintenance. The captain has overall command of the yacht, and the Chief Engineer leads its engineering. In a new build the yacht does not yet exist, so the role changes. The Chief Engineer looks at the yacht as the person who will have to run and maintain it, and brings that view into the build while changes are still possible.

In a new build, the Chief Engineer’s main tasks are to:

• review the drawings for maintenance access and ease of use;
• learn the systems and their installation interfaces as they go in;
• follow the tests of the installed systems and the sea trials;
• check the manuals and the spares, and prepare the training the crew will need;
• prepare the handover of the systems to the crew at delivery;
• follow the warranty defects, with their history, once the yacht is in service.

The yard remains responsible for building the yacht to the contract and the specification. Yard, Class and Flag retain their own responsibilities. The Chief Engineer does not take over the yard’s engineering. The role is to know the yacht, and to tell the Owner’s side early what will matter in operation.

Early. When the Chief Engineer joins, and how intensively, is defined for each project. A yacht with a new design or complex systems may call for an earlier start than one built on an existing platform.

What matters is that the Chief Engineer is in place while the drawings can still change. A comment on maintenance access costs little at the design stage. The same comment once the equipment is installed can become a variation, with an effect on price and programme.

A general guide cannot give a month for this. Timing and attendance are agreed in the written mandate. The Owner still appoints, and the programme shows when the Chief Engineer’s work begins.

During design review, the yard develops the drawings and the specification in detail. The Chief Engineer reviews them for maintenance access and ease of use: whether equipment can be reached, serviced and removed, and whether the systems will be practical for the crew who run them.

The comments go to the Owner’s Representative, who reviews them with the other design comments and brings to the Owner those that need a decision. Where a comment would change the contract or the specification, it becomes a variation and follows the same procedure as any other. How a variation should reach the Owner.

As the systems go in, the Chief Engineer builds a working knowledge of them and of their installation interfaces: how each system is installed, connected and reached, and where one system meets another. Drawings alone do not give this knowledge, and it is hard to gain once the linings are closed.

The Chief Engineer’s own records of the installation, made before the linings are closed, help later when a system has to be traced or repaired.

The Chief Engineer also follows the tests of the installed systems on board, so that their results and their open issues are known before the yacht goes to sea.

Before delivery, the Chief Engineer’s attention moves to the tests, the manuals, the spares and the training of the crew. At the sea trials the systems are seen working under load, with the yard and the suppliers on board. How sea trials and delivery work.

By delivery, the Chief Engineer should have:

• the results of the tests, with the open issues and the tests still to be repeated;
• the manuals and the technical documentation for each system;
• the spares, checked against what was agreed;
• a record of the training the crew has received to run the systems;
• a handover of the systems to the crew, with the remaining issues listed.

The Chief Engineer is part of the Owner’s crew and is paid by the Owner, separately from ASYA’s fees. The Owner appoints.

During construction, the Chief Engineer is managed and coordinated by ASYA, and funded by the Owner. The terms of employment are a matter for the Owner and the Owner’s lawyers, and this guide does not cover them.

Because the Chief Engineer belongs to the Owner’s crew, the role continues after delivery. This is one reason to appoint early: what the Chief Engineer learns during the build stays on board.

Experience of yachts in service is the starting point. For a new build, it also helps if the Chief Engineer has followed a build or a major refit at a yard before, and knows systems of the kind the yacht will carry.

The build also calls for other skills: reading drawings and specifications, writing comments the yard can act on, and working with the yard’s team and the Owner’s Representative without taking over decisions that belong to others. The certificates of competency the role requires depend on the yacht and its Flag, and they are checked before the Chief Engineer is appointed.

The Chief Engineer and the Owner’s Representative look at the same yacht from two angles. The Owner’s Representative follows the whole programme, the budget and the decisions; the Chief Engineer brings the view of the person who will run the systems. Their findings reach the Owner through the same reporting, and the decisions stay with the Owner.

In ASYA’s method, the Chief Engineer’s comments are recorded with the other open issues, followed at the weekly coordination meeting and reported in the monthly review with the Owner.

Where a comment would change the contract, it goes through the Owner’s Representative rather than straight to the yard, so that the Owner sees its effect on price and programme before deciding.

The warranty period follows delivery. During it, defects are reported to the yard, which remedies those it is responsible for under the contract. A Chief Engineer who knows the yacht from the build can report defects with their history, which makes the warranty follow-up better informed. In operation, the same person gives continuity on board. Any ASYA post-delivery services require a separate agreement.

How ASYA works through a new build, with the Chief Engineer involved early, and the stages of a new build from the contract to the warranty period.

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