If you want to build a ship strictly to the international rules, there are some requirements that are usually undesirable on a yacht. High door sills, no windows on the lower tiers of superstructure, limited hull openings and bridge windows that should be slanted forward, non-smoked and non-polarised. Designers will be faced with the need for some freedom from those requirements, this can be done through exemption, equivalent arrangement and waiver.
Exemption
Exemption is allowed under Reg. 4 of SOLAS Chapter 1. The main issue for flag states is that they are bound to declare and document any issued exemption to the IMO. An excessive number of exemptions or frivolous ones based on the will to register yachts may be frowned upon and eventually result in a flag getting bad marks, and possibly downgraded. Nevertheless, there are issues for which exemptions are regularly granted, such as position of navigation lights, bridge visibility and other non-critical issues, where good justification can be provided.
Equivalent arrangements
Equivalent arrangements are allowed under Reg. 5 of Chapter 1. The approval of an equivalent arrangement is based on a risk assessment and agreement on a “tradeoff” to compensate for deviating from the strict requirement and restore a level of safety identical or higher than the one obtained by following the rule. A common example being the provision of a larger than required amount of life rafts and additional survivability in exchange of life boats. For the required luxury finishes, there can be larger than allowed combustible materials in some spaces in exchange for a sprinkler system. This method requires the most work, but allows quite a large level of flexibility, and does not carry with it the requirement to declare granted arrangements to the IMO. Nevertheless, it is good to have the arrangements carefully documented so that Port State Control (PSC) inspectors can see that the required level of safety has been met.
Waiver
The third and easiest way is a waiver by the Flag to enforce a given requirement. SOLAS explicitly states that this is a possibility for administrations in specific rules, but the administration could grant waivers in other cases. This does come with the risk that the PSC could identify the waiver as a deficiency.
Red Ensign Group and Marshall Island flags
As mentioned, the best option would be to obtain agreement on equivalent arrangements for the desired deviations. However, this process is cumbersome, and the risk assessments are difficult to pass through class and flag. LR’s yacht specialists were recently involved in a refit with a list of 37 issues to be passed. The documentation and clearing of those took several months of concentrated efforts, meetings and back and forth communication.
Some flags of the Red Ensign Group, traditionally more involved with yachts, decided to come together and create a code that is essentially a list of standardised tradeoffs. They monitor yacht design and are knowledgeable of the demands that will be made in terms of arrangements, materials and other unique design features. That original Large Yacht Code, produced in 1997, is generally supported by the members of the IMO and the denoted deviations can be granted systematically, provided they strictly follow the code.
The Marshall Islands, Malta and several other non-Red Ensign Group flags have followed the same path, and certify yachts on the basis of their codes in a similar manner.
Following the release of the Large Yacht Code and its amendments throughout the years, the Red Ensign Group together with the industry to evaluated the requirements of small passenger ships (with a maximum capacity of 36 passengers), and the tradeoffs that the IMO could accept in this case. Passenger ships are notoriously harder to certify than vessels carrying 12 passengers or less. Consequently, the Passenger Yacht Code was developed and is now incorporated as Part B into the latest Red Ensign Group Large Yacht Code (with Part A being the requirements for yachts carrying up to 12 passengers).
The same flags strongly encourage private vessels, which in theory are exempt from SOLAS, to follow the codes at the design and build stage to guarantee safety at sea and protect owners from unexpected PSC problems. If there was a serious incident, then a yacht owner that does not follow any codes will have a lot of explaining to do.
Certification
A vessel that is designed and built to these codes will have a flag certificate of inspection confirming its status but will also be issued the necessary statutory certificates (cargo ship safety or passenger ship safety), along with a declaration of exemptions granted with reference to the code.
