Field notes from the yards — how we choose a shipyard, what a flag really buys an owner, and where projects quietly go wrong. Written by a naval architect who has worked every level of shipbuilding since 2002.
Most newbuilding problems are decided before the contract is signed — in the way the yard was chosen. This is the five-stage method we run for every newbuilding mandate, and why we sort yards into three tiers rather than hunting for "the best yard".
Read the article →FAS is small, state-backed and Scandinavian — a combination that behaves very differently from a classic flag of convenience. Here is what it gives an owner in Turkey or Greece, and where it is the wrong choice.
Read the article →Two yards can apply the same paint system to the same specification and get different service lives out of it. The variable owners underweight is the weather during application — and it is the reason northern Chinese yards behave differently from those around Shanghai.
Read the article →New articles are added as projects and market conditions give us something worth writing about — no filler.
Newbuilding, repair, conversion, sale & purchase or a flag decision — tell us the constraint and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.
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