Sea Commissioning

Exactly what it says. Launching the boat and making sure all the systems work as designed and the boat performs as claimed.

Standard for new builds and owner can additionally require his own representative to be present at trials if he wishes. With my new boat I spent a day with the commissioning team and a day out on the water checking everything worked. Not a particularly complex boat and many of the boats people on here buy would need longer than that.
 
Yes. Confirming the performance of a new engine is required by the manufacturer to sign the installation off for warranty.

The builder or dealer should specify exactly what is carried out in the commissioning and trials and the schedule included in the contract. That is what I had with my purchase. All discussed beforehand and agreed. Then signed off before acceptance.

You might wish to hold back part of payment, say 5% subject to satisfactory trials, particularly if the boat is complex. I did not because my sailing boat is relatively simple and is the second that I have had from the same builder and I had confidence there would not be any major issues as nearly all the equipment was factory fit and any other extras I organised myself direct with the contractors. Thankfully, no snags (so far!).
 
Thank you rafiki and Tranona. All a bit tentative at moment. Just trying to get my understanding of the procedure of sea commissioning up to scratch.
 
I think you will also find it depends on the boat size.

Speaking only for Fairline boats 60 feet and less were commissioned by the dealer ( and snagged!)

the 65 and 78 were commissioned by the factory in Ipswich and CAT ( in my case) had to be on board as above or they would not warrant the installation. The sea trails were 2 x 4 hours with CAT being on for one of the sessions. The more kit the longer it takes ( stabilisers for example).

In Fairline case they then snag the boat fix it and ship it. I assume that this process was driven by the engine manufacturers as opposed to the factory as above a certain size the cost of an engine blowing up was too great but I don't know that for sure.
 
Tranona said:
Exactly what it says. Launching the boat and making sure all the systems work as designed and the boat performs as claimed.

Standard for new builds and owner can additionally require his own representative to be present at trials if he wishes. With my new boat I spent a day with the commissioning team and a day out on the water checking everything worked. Not a particularly complex boat and many of the boats people on here buy would need longer than that.
Click to expand...
Depending on the yard/boat, commissioning can actually be more than just "making sure" that everything work.
Leaving aside the cases where some components are not even installed at the factory, hence requiring even the physical installation during the commissioning, some tuning/fiddling is often required anyway, for instance with the autopilot, and possibly also other electronic gizmos.
Typically, stabilizers are another thing requiring more than just a check, when the boat hits the water.

Re. the buyer representative at trials, again depending on the yard/boat (and size!), it can even be worth having a full survey, before accepting the vessel and in turn part with the last big chunk of money.
Anyone thinking that a new boat by definition has no defects should think again - and the same goes for those who assume that in the worst case they are covered by the warranty anyway. :ambivalence:
 
jrudge said:
I think you will also find it depends on the boat size.

Speaking only for Fairline boats 60 feet and less were commissioned by the dealer ( and snagged!)

the 65 and 78 were commissioned by the factory in Ipswich and CAT ( in my case) had to be on board as above or they would not warrant the installation. The sea trails were 2 x 4 hours with CAT being on for one of the sessions. The more kit the longer it takes ( stabilisers for example).


In Fairline case they then snag the boat fix it and ship it. I assume that this process was driven by the engine manufacturers as opposed to the factory as above a certain size the cost of an engine blowing up was too great but I don't know that for sure.
Click to expand...

CAT, Cummins and Scania require commissioning sea trial in order to activate warranty regardless of engine size. Perimeters measured are for example exhaust back pressure, sea water inlet restriction, EGT at rated speed engine room/ambient Delta T, etc, etc, but most importantly that engine can reach rated rpm in loaded condition.

Installation sign off is carried by suitably qualified manufactures distributor technicians and the report apart from activating engine warranty ensures installation meets published guidelines. The comprehensive report should be held as part of ships papers.

Just to be pedantic in your case installation sign off will have been carried out by Finning U.K the CAT distributor not actually CAT themselves.
 
Last edited:
MapisM said:
Depending on the yard/boat, commissioning can actually be more than just "making sure" that everything work.
Leaving aside the cases where some components are not even installed at the factory, hence requiring even the physical installation during the commissioning, some tuning/fiddling is often required anyway, for instance with the autopilot, and possibly also other electronic gizmos.
Typically, stabilizers are another thing requiring more than just a check, when the boat hits the water.

Re. the buyer representative at trials, again depending on the yard/boat (and size!), it can even be worth having a full survey, before accepting the vessel and in turn part with the last big chunk of money.
Anyone thinking that a new boat by definition has no defects should think again - and the same goes for those who assume that in the worst case they are covered by the warranty anyway. :ambivalence:
Click to expand...

As I suggested the level of detail depends on the complexity of the boat. It can also depend on the client. When I was involved in building commercial craft mainly for overseas governments there could be several levels of commissioning and trials, often including a third party inspection agency plus acceptance trials at the final destination in front of the final user. All this was spelled out in the contract and payments (often letter of credit) would be triggered by the appropriate sign offs.

Personally, if I was buying the sort of boat that some of you guys here have I would follow the same sort of process, mainly because the technology is way out of my comfort zone. Fortunately my tastes are much more simplistic and I felt quite comfortable supervising the commissioning and trials of my own new sailing boat last year.
 
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