Voyage repairs let an owner fix or modify equipment without taking the ship out of service: a repair team boards at one port, works while the vessel trades and leaves at a later call. This guide explains how voyage repairs fit into the safety management system under the ISM Code. It covers pre-boarding agreements and control of the work at sea.
A voyage repair team joins the vessel for a set period to repair, maintain or modify equipment. The assignment may span two port calls or several. The ship keeps its schedule. The work goes to the vessel instead of the vessel going to a yard.
Voyage repairs suit planned tasks that teams can split into sections while the ship remains in service. Examples include pipe renewals, auxiliary equipment overhauls and steelwork in areas the crew can isolate. Work that needs a dry hull, heavy lifting or long shutdowns of essential systems usually belongs in a yard repair period.
The owner can avoid days out of service. However, the team faces limited space, tools and spares, as well as changing weather. Meanwhile, the crew must keep operating the ship.
The ISM Code is the IMO's international standard for the safe management and operation of ships and for pollution prevention. It became mandatory on 1 July 1998, with the 1994 SOLAS amendments that introduced chapter IX. The Code has no chapter on voyage repairs, but several clauses decide how such a job is organised. The wording below follows the Code as reproduced in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 336/2006.
An unclear scope can cause problems long before a voyage repair team boards. Close these points before anyone travels.
| Point | What to agree | Why it matters at sea |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Systems, drawings, spares, materials, acceptance criteria | There is no yard store to fall back on |
| Direction | Ship's organisation or contractor's foreman, reporting lines | ISM 1.4.3: defined authority and communication |
| Isolations | Which systems go out of service, when, and what covers them | ISM 10.3: critical equipment and stand-by |
| Permits | Hot work, enclosed spaces and work at height under the ship's permit system | One permit system on board, not two |
| Ports and dates | Embarkation and disembarkation ports, travel, visas | The passage length sets the working window |
| Berths and muster | Berths, muster stations, lifesaving capacity for the extra persons | Plan it before the first drill |
| Records | Test results, reports, handover documents | ISM 10.2: maintenance records are kept |
Headcount should follow from this list, not the other way round. A small team with the right trades and a clear sequence can finish more in one passage than a large team waiting for isolations and parts.
Clause 6.3 covers familiarisation for new personnel and those moving to new safety-related assignments. The Company must identify, document and provide essential instructions before sailing. Ask how the SMS applies this to riding personnel, and plan the briefing before departure.
Clause 8.1 requires procedures to identify, describe and respond to potential emergency shipboard situations. For a voyage repair team, this means knowing the alarms and muster station. Team members must also know how to make unfinished work safe during an emergency. Examples include a cut pipe or an open manhole.
Day to day, a short meeting with the chief engineer sets the next shift: permits, isolations, weather for deck work, and any port call that limits hot work. At the end, the team completes agreed tests and records the results. It also reports open points and their likely causes. This keeps the ship's records aligned with the work.
Teams that travel from one EU country to work on a vessel raise a question about posting rules. Directive 96/71/EC applies to undertakings established in a Member State which, in the framework of the transnational provision of services, post workers to the territory of a Member State. Article 1(2) states: "This Directive shall not apply to merchant navy undertakings as regards seagoing personnel."
Whether that exclusion reaches a repair contractor's team is a separate question. Check it for each case, looking at who employs the workers, where the ship is during the work and which national rules apply. This note is informative only: rules differ by country and must be checked for each case, together with social security and tax.
RAM's onboard records are not voyage repairs in the narrow sense, but they involve the same basic condition: the work front is on the vessel, so the team goes to the vessel.
Aboard Allseas Solitaire, an offshore pipelay vessel, RAM was engaged on an onboard technical assignment in the Netherlands, alongside, on a rotational arrangement with accommodation aboard. On the cruise vessel newbuild Icon of the Seas, RAM deployed a 40-person technical team for mechanical and interior outfitting works, including bathrooms, sanitary areas, stair assemblies and associated interior installation. The team worked three months at Meyer Turku in Finland, then four weeks in Cádiz, Spain, during the sea-trial phase. Both records are on the riding squads page.
RAM's marine services page starts from the point that marine projects run against narrow operational windows: a docking slot, a delivery date, a sailing schedule. The question is whether the right trade is on the work front while the window is open. On a voyage repair, that window is the passage between two ports.
Before anyone travels, RAM reviews the scope, available drawings, specifications, programme, trades and site conditions. That review determines the headcount. Next, RAM matches capability to the task and checks qualifications and documentation. Finally, the parties agree scope, supervision, interfaces and deliverables.
The direction row in the planning table maps onto RAM's two delivery models. In workforce solutions, welders, pipefitters, fitters, electricians and complete crews join the client's organisation. RAM handles employment, documentation, mobilisation and administration. The client directs the work. In technical subcontracting, RAM organises the trades, supervision and coordination around the deliverables, interfaces and acceptance criteria in the contract.
If you are planning voyage repairs and want to agree scope, trades and onboard interfaces before the team travels, contact the RAM team.
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