Failed pre-departure inspection: your first 60 minutes decide your week
When a PDI or PSC inspection stops the sailing, the first hour of decisions locks in whether you sail tomorrow or next week.
A Port State Control officer walks off the ship with a deficiency list and a detention notice. The clock starts. What you do in the next sixty minutes decides whether you sail in 24 hours or in a week.
Minute 0 — 10: contain
Get the exact wording of every deficiency in writing, including the reference to the SOLAS / MARPOL / MLC regulation. "Corroded pipe on main deck" and "Fractured main sea water line, MARPOL Annex I Reg. 27" are different problems requiring different responses. Do not start work off a summary.
Minute 10 — 25: triage
Each deficiency falls into one of three buckets:
- Rectify before departure — hard stop, must close before sailing
- Rectify at next port with plan — needs a corrective action plan filed with the flag/class
- Observation — noted, no immediate action
Get the flag on the phone. The bucket assignment is not the surveyor's decision alone.
Minute 25 — 40: mobilise
For every "before departure" item, you need three things in motion in parallel:
- A contractor with the right trade, tools and consumables ready to attend inside the hour.
- Class arrangement for attendance at the closing inspection.
- Parts availability confirmed — not "we can source", but "we have it on the shelf".
If any of the three is uncertain, that is the item that will hold you at berth.
Minute 40 — 60: commit or plan
By the end of the first hour you either have a realistic close-out plan for every hard-stop item — with time estimates you would put your name to — or you are calling the charterer to warn them.
Why this framework matters
Most detentions extend not because the repair is hard, but because the first hour was spent hoping the deficiency list was smaller than it was. A crew that walks through this framework at every PSC gets released faster, every time.
If you take a detention at Douala, call our line. We keep welders, pipefitters and electricians rostered for exactly this — and we will attend inside the hour, with a plan you can share with class before the second cup of coffee.