Claims examples

13/07/2020

Swan necked

A naval architect designed a series of motor yachts for a yard. As part of the design contract, they were required to provide a drawing showing the down flooding points of the yacht. This drawing was to be provided on an “as built” basis. However, the drawing was never provided.

08/10/2019

Copy Cat

A naval architect was approached by a customer to design a catamaran workboat. The customer provided the naval architect with a plan of their existing workboat and requested the final design and specification was to be based on that boat.

13/07/2020

Potentially poor sleep

A naval architect was engaged to make modifications to a ship. The modifications included an additional 67 person accommodation unit.

24/04/2018

Unstable survey ship

A naval architect was appointed by the builders of an 8m hydrographic survey vessel to approve the vessel’s design and stability in accordance with prescribed standards.

24/04/2018

Not strong enough

A naval architect was asked to provide plans for modifications to a section of a racing yacht which was under construction. When providing the plans, they misstated the amount of carbon fibre tissue that was required to provide greater strength in the hull by stating that 400g was required instead of 600g. While this was not held to have led to any critical weakness within the hull, the owners decided to reinforce the hull by adding the missing carbon fibre during the winter season.

Not a negligent design

A Canadian naval architect contracted to provide design advice for the modification to a refrigeration system in the refrigeration-compressor room of a fishing vessel.

13/04/2017

A floating but listing restaurant

A naval architect was appointed to design a barge, that was intended to be used as a floating restaurant. There were stability issues stemming from the fact that the architect had failed to take into account the weight of the vessel’s mooring system and access footbridge, and this led to a visible list.

Architect’s oversight

A naval architect entered into a contract with a shipyard to design the structure and access arrangements for new lifeboats and their davits to be fitted to a specific vessel.

10/03/2015

Performance problems

Operators of a passenger and ro-ro ferry service appointed a naval architect to design a 45m landing craft ferry. The design was to be based on that of an existing vessel operated by the company.

A sinking feeling

A naval architect was approached by a research and development company who had produced a prototype “wave power generator” (WPG), a floating device used to convert ocean wave energy into electricity using air pressure created by waves. The naval architect was engaged to provide the necessary design and stability approval for the prototype, as required by local regulations.