PRE-PURCHASE · PRE-SALE · DELIVERY
S&P Inspection
Independent inspection for the sale and purchase of vessels, on either side of the trade. Buyers get a defensible view of what they are about to own. Sellers get one honest report they can put in front of the market before an offer is made. And before anyone books a flight, we can screen the vessel's documents and photographs through Nautilux.
Upload typically takes one to two hours through the secure portal, and for a complete submission received early in the working day we aim to return the reviewed result the same working day. Attendance is arranged from Busan, with Korea and Japan covered directly and wider attendance by arrangement.
Engagements are led by our founder, and every report names the reviewer who wrote it.
Where we are engaged
- Advance screening of documents and photographs through Nautilux, as a standalone first look or ahead of attendance
- Pre-purchase inspection, buyer-side, before or after subjects
- Pre-sale inspection, seller-side, before the vessel goes to market
- Fleet or en-bloc acquisition screening across several candidates
- Lender-instructed and equity-instructed inspection for asset-backed deals
- Delivery condition at handover, recorded before the protocol of delivery and acceptance is signed
- Second-opinion review of an inspection report already in hand
What's Included
- Advance screening through Nautilux: the operator or the seller uploads the vessel's documents and photographs through a secure portal, and Nautilux reviews every document and every image in that submission, not a sample of it. Upload typically takes one to two hours through the secure portal, and for a complete submission received early in the working day we aim to return the reviewed result the same working day.
- Attendance on board, with the vessel worked from keel to masthead: hull and structure, tanks and holds, machinery, cargo systems, accommodation and safety equipment
- Class and statutory record review: survey status, outstanding conditions and recommendations, memoranda, overdue items, and what each will cost to clear
- Machinery history read against the maintenance record rather than the running hours alone: what has been renewed, what has been deferred, and what is about to fall due
- Findings ranked by commercial consequence, each one carrying an estimate of what it costs, when the money has to be spent, and whether it is a price point or a walk-away
- A drydocking outlook: what the next special survey and docking is likely to demand of the buyer
- A written report you can hand to your broker, your lawyer, your lender or your technical manager without translation
How We Engage
- 1
Scope the deal: the vessel, the trade it is being bought for, the timetable, and whether we act for buyer or seller. Where the clock is the problem, start with the advance document and photograph screening.
- 2
Attend on board, work the ship and the records together, and raise anything deal-critical as soon as we find it rather than saving it for the report.
- 3
Deliver the report to the agreed deadline, then stay available while the findings are argued over the negotiating table.
How an S&P inspection works
Sale and purchase runs on a short clock and an asymmetry of information. The seller has lived with the vessel for years. The buyer often has a few hours alongside and a stack of records to read in a hurry. An S&P inspection exists to close that gap far enough that the price reflects the ship rather than the optimism of whoever wrote the particulars. It is a commercial exercise, not a statutory one: nothing here changes the vessel's class or certification, and it is not meant to. The fastest way in is the advance screening. The operator uploads the vessel's documents and photographs through a secure portal, and Nautilux reviews the whole of that submission, every document and every image, rather than a sample. Upload typically takes one to two hours through the secure portal, and for a complete submission received early in the working day we aim to return the reviewed result the same working day. That is often enough to tell a broker's client whether a candidate is worth the airfare, to rank three vessels on a shortlist before anyone commits, or to identify which records need to be on the table before attendance begins. It reviews what is uploaded, not the steel, so it sits ahead of attendance rather than in place of it. Buyer-side, we scope against the deal rather than against a generic checklist, because a vessel bought for another five years of coastal work and the same vessel bought for a fifteen-year deep-sea trade are two different risks. On board, the ship and the paperwork are worked together: a clean survey status means little if the machinery record shows renewals deferred, and a long deficiency list means less than it looks if every item on it is cosmetic. Anything genuinely deal-critical is raised by telephone as soon as we find it, because a finding delivered after subjects are lifted is a finding delivered too late. Seller-side, the logic reverses. Vessels put to market are frequently inspected several times over by competing buyers, each inspection costing time alongside and each producing a slightly different account of the same ship. One independent inspection, commissioned before the vessel is offered, gives every interested party the same starting point, lets you correct the small and cheap findings before anyone else sees them, and removes the negotiating room that comes from a buyer discovering something you did not know you had. It also tells you where your own price is soft before a broker has to. Either way the report is written to be argued with: findings ranked by commercial consequence rather than listed by deck, each with a cost and a timing, so the document can be lifted straight into a negotiation or a board paper. Our founder attends the vessel, writes the report and takes the call when the other side disputes it. There is no junior bench behind the signature.
Outcomes
An S&P inspection is a commercial condition inspection, not a class or statutory survey: it does not alter the vessel's class status, clear conditions of class or issue certificates. Advance screening reviews the documents and photographs you upload in full. It is a review of that submission, not of the whole vessel, and it does not replace attendance on board. We do not broker vessels, hold no interest in the sale and do not issue valuations. Where thickness measurement, underwater inspection or laboratory analysis is needed, we say so and you instruct an approved firm alongside us.
Our reports are prepared for the party that instructs us and for the purpose stated in the engagement. Reliance by any other party requires our written agreement.
Questions we're asked
What is an S&P inspection?
An independent condition inspection of a vessel carried out for the purpose of a sale, either for the buyer before committing or for the seller before going to market. It covers the physical ship and the class and statutory record together, and it concludes in a written report that ranks findings by what they cost and when the money has to be spent. It is a commercial instrument, distinct from any class or flag survey.
What is the difference between a pre-purchase and a pre-sale inspection?
The scope of work is broadly the same. The client and the purpose differ. A pre-purchase inspection is commissioned by the buyer to price risk and decide whether to proceed. A pre-sale inspection is commissioned by the owner before the vessel is offered, so that one report can be shown to every interested party instead of the vessel being inspected repeatedly by competing buyers.
Why would a seller pay to have their own vessel inspected?
Because the alternative is paying for it several times over in lost time alongside and in negotiating room. A pre-sale inspection surfaces the cheap findings while they are still cheap to fix, gives every buyer the same starting information, and removes the leverage a buyer gains from finding something the owner appeared not to know about. It also gives an honest read on the price before the market gives you a harsher one.
How fast can you turn something around?
Start with the advance screening. Upload typically takes one to two hours through the secure portal, and for a complete submission received early in the working day we aim to return the reviewed result the same working day. Time on board for a full inspection depends on the vessel's size and type and on the access the ship can give, and it is agreed in scoping alongside the report deadline. In this market a report that arrives after the deal has moved is worth nothing. Anything deal-critical does not wait for the report at all: it is raised by telephone as soon as we find it.
Does an S&P inspection replace a class survey or a condition survey for insurance?
No. It does not touch class status, clear conditions of class or produce statutory certification, and it is not a P&I entry or on-hire survey. Those are separate exercises with separate scopes, and where you need one we will tell you which and can carry it out under our condition survey work.
What happens if the inspection finds something serious after subjects have been lifted?
The commercial position depends on the memorandum of agreement and its inspection provisions, which is a matter for your lawyers and brokers. What we can do is establish, in writing and with the evidence recorded behind it, what the condition actually was and what it will cost to put right. That is usually what the argument turns on.
Can you screen several candidate vessels before we choose one?
Yes, and it is often the cheapest money spent in an acquisition. Run the shortlist through the advance document and photograph screening first, rank the candidates on a consistent basis, and then put attendance only where it earns its keep. Applying the same eye and the same standard across the list makes candidates genuinely comparable, rather than leaving you to reconcile reports written by different hands to different depths. Brokers with desks in Korea and Japan use this as the first filter on an inspection round.
Do you take instructions from banks or equity investors rather than the buyer?
Yes. Where the inspection is being relied on for lending or investment, we agree at the outset who the report is addressed to and who may rely on it, and we report to that party directly. We hold no interest in the transaction, take no commission on it and do not broker vessels, which is what makes the independence real rather than stated.
FROM OUR UPDATES
S&P inspection, for both sides of the trade
YOUR REVIEWER
Thomas Blenk
American Bureau of Shipping, latterly Corporate Vice President, Global Marine Sectors. Deputy Commissioner of Maritime Affairs, Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Screen it first. Inspect it properly.
Tell us the vessel, the side you are on and the date the deal turns.