Preparing for a DryBMS and RightShip RISQ audit

Most dry bulk and dry cargo operators will face a RightShip inspection sooner or later, and more charterers now ask how the company measures up against DryBMS. The vessels that do well are rarely the ones with the thickest manuals. They are the ones whose people have read the standards, know what evidence is expected, and have checked it before anyone else does.

Start by reading the standards

It sounds obvious, but it is the step most often skipped. Both documents are written plainly, and reading them tells you exactly what an inspector or auditor will look for.

Read them with the master and the designated person ashore in the room. For each question or expectation, ask one thing: where is our evidence, and would a stranger find it?

Where the gaps usually sit

In a recent navigation audit on a commercial vessel in the Great Barrier Reef, the bridge team performed well under real conditions. Lookout, position monitoring and reporting held up. Most findings were not about seamanship at all. They were about systems:

• Out-of-date documents. Checklists and forms years past their own review dates, and generic checklists that did not match the equipment fitted to that ship.
• Passage plans. Under-keel clearance worked to the wrong datum, and plans not signed by the master and officers.
• ECDIS. Safety settings and look-ahead alarms not checked against the passage plan, and no written procedure for ECDIS failure.
• Bridge equipment. BNWAS settings, steering mode changes and a second means of position fixing not set or recorded as the procedures required.
• Fatigue. No fatigue risk assessment for the actual trading pattern.

None of these is hard to fix. All of them are easy to miss from inside the company, which is why they tend to surface during an inspection rather than before it.

A simple preparation plan

1. Get the current versions. Download RISQ 3.2 and the DryBMS standard and guidance. Old copies lead to old answers.
2. Self-assess honestly. Score DryBMS at Basic first, with evidence for every claim. A lower honest score is worth more than a high one you cannot prove.
3. Review documents ashore. Check every navigation document for review dates and confirm it fits this vessel, not a sister ship or the fleet in general.
4. Walk the bridge. Compare ECDIS safety settings, alarms, BNWAS and under-keel clearance against the passage plan. Check signatures, logs and the contingency procedures.
5. Close the Basic gaps first. Give each finding an owner and a date, then verify the fix on board.
6. Get an independent check. An arm's-length audit before the inspector arrives finds the drift that people working inside the system no longer see.

General information only. Always refer to the current versions of RISQ and DryBMS published by RightShip and the DryBMS governing body, and to the regulations that apply to your vessel.