Large-scale concern about small-size vessels

Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) and Russian River Register (RRR) have held a joint seminar “New requirements of RF legislation to small-size vessels, their classification and registration”. 

From inspection to administration

The seminar was attended by the Deputy Transport Minister Victor Olerski and the Head of the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency Andrei Kraini. 

The Federal Law No 36-ФЗ dated 24.04.2012 introduced amendments into the Merchant Shipping Code of the Russian Federation in respect of the requirements to state registration, classification and survey of small-size vessels. 

In compliance with the new requirements, the vessels falling within the definition of small-size vessels engaged in commercial activities at inland water ways and in the sea should be registered with the administrations of river basins and seaports respectively.

According to Vitali Kluyev, Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy for Marine and River Transport, the legalization of such vessels under new regulations can be divided into three stages. First of all, a vessel should be identified by RS or RRR with establishing of vessel existence and confirmation of its status as a small-size vessel. If a vessel was earlier registered with the State Inspectorate for Small Vessels (SISV), the vessel's certificate provided by SISV is a confirmation of the a vessel’s status and no RS or RRR confirmation is required.

Then the vessel should be registered with the river basin of seaport administration. The vessel itself is not required for that – its documents are enough. “The vessels earlier registered with the State Inspectorate for Small Vessels will have no problems with the registration at administrations, It is just enough to provide the vessel's certificate and a document confirming the termination of SISV registration,” Vitali Kluyev assured.

Moreover, technical state of a vessel does not matter for registration as it just registers the proprietory right (ownership of a vessel by a certain owner) and the subject proper. With this, Victor Olerski thinks it is reasonable to work out a mechanism for remote submission of documents, by fax, for example. The vessel's certificate is filled differently now – the forms are sent to the basin and seaport administrations. They are also recommended to have the new forms printed by local printing houses.

The third stage implies vessel survey by RS or RRR with respect to seaworthiness.  It seems to be the most time-consuming and expensive stage as it requires a vessel and inspector’s work. If a vessel operates only at inland water ways it is subject to RRR survey. In case it sails in the sea within 12 miles from the shore – either RRR or RS – up to a ship owner. For vessels sailing further than 12 miles – RS survey is only applicable. When surveying small-size vessels, inspectors qualify their unsinkability, stability and availability of security facilities. In practice, the survey may lead to a number of problems. Inspector’s work and transfer to survey site should be paid while in Kamchatka there are 17 basing sites reachable only for a helicopter, hence the survey may become extremely costly. To prevent it, Victor Olerski suggested that inspectors survey several vessels at a trip. “It is necessary to optimize the process and to survey several vessels at a time,” the Deputy Transport Minister said at the meeting. By now RS has developed draft guidance for classification and survey of small-size vessels sailing with RF flag.  A permanent document is under development.

Complicated issues

The seminal allowed answering a number of questions arising in connection with the new rules for small-size vessel registration. One of them relates to the vessels operating only within water areas of rivers and water bodies not included into the list of inland water ways approved by the RF Government. In the opinion of Victor Kluyev, such vessels should be traditionally registered and surveyed by the State Inspectorate for Small Vessels in pursuance of the current SISV regulation. SISV representative attending the seminar announced the Inspectorate’s readiness to work with this fleet.

Another issue is how to determine if the vessel is used for commercial purposes or not?  As Victor Kluyev explained, a declarative principle is to be applied here – a ship owner is to specify the use of a vessel. The violations here are to be detected by a tax inspectorate, prosecutor's office or other regulatory authorities.

The issue of vessels’ obligatory fitting with GLONASS was also discussed at the meeting. Transport Ministry representative said there is no such a requirement in the legislation.

To determine restrictions as regards the navigation area it is necessary to determine the free-board for each vessel by either design documentation or experimentally. As many vessels are on the shore and the construction documents do not exist in the majority of cases, it is impossible to determine the free-board and therefore the restrictions related to weather or navigation area. RRR and RS recommend taking this data from SISV certificates or, in case of absence of vessel’s certificate, experimentally upon the vessel’s launch.

According to the Ministry of Transport, there are some 20,000 small-size vessels used for fishing in Russia today.

Vitali Chernov