'Our goal is to benefit all flags' says Bahamas.

(From Lloyds List)

THE move towards goal-based standards for ship construction, championed by the Bahamas Maritime Authority, will benefit all ship registers, according to the authority's deputy director, Doug Bell.

'What tends to happen at present, when ships have problems in later life for example, the Prestige, the Erika and various bulkers is that flag states are at the end of the line, and the register at the time of the sinking is held responsible for the ship's condition,„ said Capt Bell.

'We have maintained for years that this really isn't the right way to look at it.

'Yes, the flag state throughout a ship's life has responsibility for its condition, but right at the very beginning, the flag state has had no responsibility for the standard to which it is built. No matter how you look after a ship during its life, if it hasn't been built to certain standards, then sooner or later you are going to have problems with it.

'Classification societies have had to go along with these lower standards because of competition between shipbuilders, class societies, etc.

'We hope this is no longer going to be the case; we hope that 20 years from now the current thinking that we have to get rid of old ships because they must be rust buckets will disappear.'