Operating vessels is a complex and multi-faceted web of interactions and responsibilities. At its face, Vessel Management seems pretty self explanatory; however as you dive deeper you begin to recognize its used as a catch-all for a group of specialties that cover crewing, technical management, commercial management and commercial operations. While many of these are the responsibility of the vessel owner, Charterer’s ultimately bear the brunt of managing a vessel’s commercial operations.

What falls into commercial operations? Essentially everything related to the vessel satisfying the Charterer’s requirements.

• Coordinating port calls, including agent appointments, dockage options, contractors and material handling equipment.
• Coordinating fuel delivery, surveying and procurement strategy in accordance with the terms of the charter agreement.
• Coordinating demobilization and redelivery to ensure the vessel goes off-hire on schedule.
• Coordinating equipment integrations, including the engineering and approvals needed for flag state and vessel’s classification society.
  • Portable Accommodation Module (PAM) integrations require regulatory approval along with vendor and vessel support to connect to the vessel’s electrical, firefighting, water, and sewage systems.
  • Welding and other hot-work requirements aboard vessels need to be carefully coordinated, both functionally and strategically. Ensuring marine chemists and welders are confirmed keeps things moving during the mobilization, however proper planning beforehand can have an even larger impact by reducing complications related to enclosed spaces and coating restoration in adjacent spaces.
  • Proper scheduling of material handling equipment, supplies and other deliveries along with coordinating such with the port facility and vessel’s crew prevents blockers and conflict throughout the charter.

Typically larger vessel operators who are more accustomed to oil and gas customers expect their charterers to fully handle all of the above requirements with little to no assistance from the vessel owner. This is because oil and gas customers tend to have large teams in place dedicated to exactly this, viewing the owners primarily as asset providers rather than service providers. Smaller operators that cater to a broader customer base tend to be more service oriented and will often prove to be more hands-on to ensure a successful charter for their clients. Sansu Marine’s commercial operations support services are geared towards assisting both vessel owners and Charterers, largely driven by what level of customer support an owner wishes to provide.

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Two common themes we hear from clients:

1) It can be extremely challenging to manage and coordinate multiple vessels and vessel owners while executing a project.

2) It is difficult to secure even a single vessel for non-standard work scopes without the risk of losing the vessel at the last minute or hitting seemingly insurmountable roadblocks during contracting.

Sansu Marine’s vessel sourcing and procurement solutions aim to alleviate these pain points by leveraging our existing industry relationships to serve as a bridge between entrenched vessel owners and non-traditional vessel charterers. This is particularly helpful in broadening the search for suitable assets, as there many owners with stable word-of-mouth business who do little, if any, marketing or advertising. Likewise, we’re well versed and in many instances, already have approved terms, with vessel owners which allows for quicker contracting and better understanding of the risks and nuances to various contractual exposure points. By transparently communicating this with our clients, we’re able to eliminate any surprises to ensure expectations are met by all those involved.

Consolidation for the purposes of contracting and project management are a hallmark of Sansu Marine’s story. One of our very first projects was to supply four safety and support vessels for a month long training evolution in the Florida Keys. Four different owners were engaged, with all vessels delivered on station within five days of contract award. Since then we’ve provided similar consolidating services as far away as Hawaii with vessels up to 130ft in length. Clients trust us to handle the complexities and burden of securing multiple vessels, with the ease of contracting through a single partner.

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Unmanned Surface Vehicles are steadily becoming more and more relevant, expanding beyond the more accessible littoral zone into more remote pelagic waters. As these resilient craft tackle scopes far beyond the horizon, operators are recognizing the unique challenges of supporting these operations in the field. Sansu Marine recognizes the unique requirements of efficiently supporting USV operations and is well positioned to assist.

Appropriately scaled vessels, with sufficient deck space, suitable launching and recovery mechanisms (cranes, a-frames), and reasonable accommodation spaces provide USV operators economical options for deployment far at sea. Likewise, cost effective solutions for getting technicians far a field are critical to maintain uptime and preserve asset value.

Whether you’re operating multiple smaller vehicles, such as the Liquid Robotics Wave Glider or the SeaTrac, or deploying larger vessels such as the MarTac Devil Ray T24, our extended range platforms can deliver you on station at a fraction of the cost of traditional offshore supply vessels. When it comes to repair and recovery, we’re able to service even larger vehicles such as the Saildrone Voyager and Surveyor by utilizing RIBs for offshore access and our vessel’s towing capabilities.

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Perhaps the most direct components of Vessel Management as it relates to the day-to-day operation of the vessel is technical and crew management. This is quite literally the nuts and bolts of keeping the vessel in good operating order, from ordering consumables, planning maintenance schedules, and even conducting payroll for the crew. Breaking it down even further, technical management is focused on registration of vessels, daily operations, service, and technical maintenance of the asset, while crew management is focused on the shipboard human resources required to run the vessel.

The combination of technical and crew management allows a vessel owner to be fairly ‘hands-off’ on the day-to-day operations of their asset, much akin to that of a landlord who hires a property manager to look after their investment. It’s common for operating companies, such as Sansu Marine, that have their own vessels which they actively crew and manage to extend these services to close partners. We specialize in managing limited tonnage vessels, with experience throughout the eastern seaboard and Pacific basin, including Japan, Hawaii and Guam.

Get in touch with our team to learn more.