---
id: KB-IU-015
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/manufacturing/shipyards-and-ship-repair
idioma: en
categoria: sector-industria
subcategoria: naval
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CS-023, KB-IU-005]
citadoPor: [KB-IU-011]
---

# Shipyards and ship repair

_A vessel comes in with a work list and leaves with a record that follows it for life, to other ports and other yards._

**Responde a:** ship repair documentation · work on board and subcontractors · what to hand the owner at the end · certificates for a vessel repair

A yard stay compresses into a few weeks what a factory would spread over months: dozens of simultaneous jobs, several companies aboard at once, and a client whose vessel cannot stay a day longer. Documentation is produced alongside the work or it is not produced at all.

## What piles up during the stay

| Front | What documentation it leaves | Who needs it later |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The work carried out | Reports, measurements and tests | The owner and the next yard |
| Materials installed | Material certificates and traceability | Whoever inspects that equipment |
| Companies that came aboard | Their documents and their people's | You, if anything happens |
| Incidents and scope changes | What was approved and by whom | The final invoice, where it gets argued |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The fourth row moves the most money and is documented worst: **during a stay the scope changes daily, and what is approved verbally on deck gets invoiced weeks later**. If an extra job was authorised in a conversation with the chief engineer and nobody wrote it down, the final discussion is not technical, it is about memory — and the payer's memory and the worker's rarely match. One line written the same day, with who authorised it, beats any later report.

## What to have before they come aboard

1. **Each company's documentation, current** — The same logic as site access control, with less slack.
2. **Who their supervisor is and who they answer to aboard** — With several firms working at once, there is no coordination without it.
3. **And each one's scope, in writing** — It prevents work done twice and work done by nobody.

> [!WARNING]
> What sets this sector apart from almost any other: **the record travels with the vessel, it does not stay at the yard**. What you hand over at the end is what the owner will show at the next port, at an inspection or at the next repair, possibly in another country and another language. An incomplete record does not inconvenience you — it inconveniences the client months later, and that is why owners change yards.

## What is worth handing over at the end

**En corto**

- The work carried out, with its measurements and tests.
- Certificates for what was installed, not just the invoice.
- What was left pending or recommended for the next stay.
- And in the language whoever reads it later will need.

> [!NOTE]
> Which certifications each job requires, which inspections must be witnessed and what the classification society or flag demands depends on the case. **The owner, their surveyor or your adviser settles that**; here it is about what is generated during the stay not scattering across four workshops.

**Should we keep a copy of what we hand the owner?**

Yes: it is your evidence of what was done and how it was delivered.

**What about a subcontractor's work?**

Their documentation goes into the record too: the owner asks you, not them.

**How long to keep it?**

Longer than the warranty; vessels come back years later.

## Ejemplos

**A yard invoices extra work approved verbally during the stay and the owner disputes it.**

- Records each scope change the same day, with who authorised it

→ The final invoice is argued from what was written, not from what each side remembers.

**The repair is documented at the end and half is missing.**

- Captures evidence as it is executed

→ The file completes itself.

**Several firms come aboard the same vessel.**

- Checks everyone's status before authorising

→ The whole is visible at once.

**The owner asks you to evidence an intervention.**

- Checks that repair's file

→ You answer from the record.

**A part is replaced and there is no record of which.**

- Records what was replaced and why

→ The vessel's history is true.

**A review asks about work from years ago.**

- Keeps the file with its date

→ You answer from the archive.