Running Repairs

Most ships will sail for four to five years before they are pulled out of the water for repair or refit. However, while ships are in operation repair and maintenance work must still be done.  How and when the work is done on in-service ships is described in the schedules below:

Scheduled Running Repair (also called Planned Maintenance)

Schedule Running Repairs refers to predetermined blocks of time during a year that a ship is made available for dedicated repair work (sometimes adding up to thousands of hours of labour). The schedule for this maintenance is known even before the vessel is put into service. Machinery oil is changed, bearings inspected, cranes certified, and refrigeration systems tested.  

Periodic Running Repairs

Periodic Running Repairs occur when a ship is alongside and available for short work periods. Maintenance can include such things as replacing filters, testing oil samples to determine if damaging levels of particulates are forming in machinery, or even to make minor repairs to hatches, doors or enclosures.

Inspections done on equipment when it is not having any problems is referred to as Equipment Health Monitoring or EHM. With some equipment (such as crane wires, anchor chains, or equipment dependent on batteries) the repair yard can predict when a piece of equipment will become unserviceable and will prepare for the work in advance.

Essential Running Repairs

Essential Running Repairs refers to essential work that must be done during a scheduled work period.  Examples would be cranes, radars or navigation systems.   Failure to address issues with essential equipment would affect the integrity of the vessel and the safety of the crew.

Emergency Running Repairs

Emergency Running Repairs involve repairing damage that has left a ship disabled.  For example, catastrophic failure of machinery such as a diesel blowing up, refrigeration systems leaking coolant, or a faulty valve resulting in an environmental spill of fuel, bilge water or black water. These types of repairs cannot be predicted and can be very costly, especially if the vessel is in foreign waters and away from the home port.