In relation to the subject, the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) has issued a revision notice of their regulation for inspection of the outside of ship's bottom as attached. For the inspection of bottom, which is annually required at renewal survey for passenger ships in Chapter I, Pat B Regulation 7 of the SOLAS 74, this revision has specified the extent of application of in-water survey as follows.

1. The inspection of the outside of the ship's bottom may be carried out in dry-dock twice in every five year period and other annual inspections of the ship's bottom may be carried out in-water provided that the interval between bottom inspections in dry-dock does not exceed 36 months.
2. As an exception for ships less than 15 years of age, application may be made to enable bottom inspection in dry-dock once in a five year cycle as long as relevant Classification Society technically supports such application and BMA accepts it.

As our "RULES FOR THE SURVEYS AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER SHIPS" stipulate in 5.1.2, Part 2, "any two consecutive Docking Surveys are not to be carried out in water", the revision of Bahamian regulation means relaxation of our rule requirements. In case you would like to apply In-water Survey consecutively as a part of the annual renewal survey, please send your application to the Survey Department for approval not less than 1 month prior to the planed In-water Survey.

For any questions about the above, please contact:

NIPPON KAIJI KYOKAI (ClassNK)
Survey Department, Administration Center, Head Office
Address: 4-7 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8567, Japan
Tel.: +81-3-5226-2027 / 2028
Fax: +81-3-5226-2029
E-mail: svd@classnk.or.jp
Attachment:
1. Periodical bottom inspection of passenger ships by Bahamas Maritime Authority