The Western Med Large Yacht & Small Craft Working Group met for its annual training event in Palma last week.
The event, which stretched over three days this year, was attended by 20 surveyors across the various days, all of whom agreed that it was one of the best events IIMS had organised on the island of Majorca. John Excell, Chairman of the LYSCWG, said it had been the best event since the resurrection of the group some seven or eight years previous in terms of the breadth and quality of the content.
John Walker who co-ordinates IIMS activities on the island for the event agreed; and Mike Schwarz thanked all the presenters for giving their time to share their specialist knowledge.
There were two special highlights worthy of mention. Margaret Green, widow of the late Peter Green, whose ashes were scattered in Palma last year, joined the group for dinner at Celler as Premsa to commemorate the first anniversary.
Peter who had been a long-standing member of IIMS was responsible for getting the group together 20 years ago. The second highlight was the practical sea trail on the Saturday.
The Thursday morning opened up with a specially prepared two and a half hour session hosted at the Camber Marine facility, main Volvo Penta dealers on the island. Our hosts presented something of a masterclass in the Volvo Penta IPS engine system.
After lunch it fell to Karen Brain, Matrix Insurance, to speak. Her topic? What is a contract and why surveyors need them. It certainly provided food for thought. Paul Hamill from Tides Marine was on hand to speak about shaft seal systems in great detail. And Karsten Hertrich brought the first day to a close when he presented the Dockmate self-docking system.
Day two who was opened by Mike Schwarz who gave a detailed overview of head office activities at the beautifully appointed Varadero Restaurant. Melina briefly addressed those present on nanotechnology to whet delegates’ appetite for a future presentation.
Once back into the classroom, Paul Madeley gave a well delivered and insightful presentation about electrics with practical advice for surveyors on what to look for, especially when it is not obvious. He gave some hints and tips for surveyors of what to look for and where to identify potential trouble spots too.
Stefano Scarpa and colleagues from RigPro spoke about handling, maintaining and repairing superyacht masts and rigs. Ken Hickling certainly made delegates take note with his upbeat presentation entitled ‘Superyacht project management – Surveyors: Whose side are you on anyway?’ Delivered in his unique style, Ken gave those present much to think about.
The final two sessions of the day came from two highly experienced surveyors. First up was Tim Rowe, a former shipwright turned surveyor. In his presentation Tim spoke about surveying steel vessels. And to conclude the group heard from Kim Skov-Nielsen, who talked with panache about the impact synthetic rigging is starting to have in the yacht world.
On Saturday morning, a group of eight surveyors joined John Walker and his colleague Juanjo Casimiro for a practical sea trial out in Palma Bay aboard an 82 foot Italian motor yacht.
The group had an hour’s briefing meeting about the job in hand, what to inspect during the sea trial and when. A further hour was taken onboard to familiarise the group with the lay out of the vessel, in particular the engine room.
And finally, the one hour sea trial itself was undertaken with ear protectors certainly the order of the day! IIMS is very grateful to the vessel owner (and John Walker) for facilitating such an unusual training opportunity.
