RightShip’s Inspection Ship Questionnaire — RISQ, currently at version 3.2 — is the vetting standard that dry bulk operators encounter most often. It is frequently described as the bulk sector’s equivalent of SIRE, and the comparison is fair in one respect and misleading in another.
It is fair in that both are structured vetting inspections whose results follow the vessel commercially. It is misleading in that RISQ places unusual weight on an area many crews prepare for least: safety culture, leadership and human factors.
What RISQ is actually assessing
The questionnaire covers the expected technical ground — certification, navigation, cargo operations, mooring, machinery spaces, safety management. But a substantial part of the inspection concerns how the vessel is run rather than how it is equipped.
Inspectors look for evidence of things that cannot be produced on demand:
- Whether safety meetings generate actions, and whether those actions close
- Whether near-miss reporting is genuine or a monthly quota being filled
- Whether junior crew are willing to raise concerns, and whether there is evidence they have
- Whether risk assessments are produced for the job in hand or retrieved from a folder
- Whether the Master’s standing orders reflect the current voyage and crew
None of these can be arranged the day before. They are either the way the ship operates or they are not, and experienced inspectors are practised at telling the difference.
The areas that generate the most findings
Across pre-RightShip preparation work, a consistent set of themes accounts for a large share of observations:
Mooring. Arrangements that do not match the mooring plan, snap-back zones not understood by the ratings working in them, wire and rope condition records incomplete, and no evidence that the mooring risk assessment was reviewed for the actual berth.
Enclosed space entry. Permits completed in advance, gas readings recorded at a single point, rescue arrangements described but never drilled, and crew who can recite the permit steps but cannot say who would come for them.
Navigation. Passage plans that are berth-to-berth on paper but thin at the critical stages, bridge team management that does not survive the pilot’s arrival, and equipment set up in ways the officer of the watch cannot explain.
Maintenance evidence. A planned maintenance system showing everything complete, with a machinery space that tells a different story. Inspectors will sample, and the gap between record and reality is a finding in itself.
Preparing the crew, not just the ship
The technical preparation for a RISQ inspection is well understood and most managers do it competently. The gap is usually in preparing the people who will be interviewed.
Effective preparation means putting crew through questions matched to their rank, on the topics RISQ actually probes, and assessing the answers on substance — does the response demonstrate understanding of the risk, the procedure and the individual’s own responsibility within it. A crew member who can describe what they do, why it is done that way, and what they would do if it went wrong will satisfy an inspector. One who can only confirm that a procedure exists will not.
It is also worth rehearsing the leadership dimension explicitly. RISQ asks senior officers about how they supervise, how they correct unsafe behaviour and how they ensure junior crew are heard. Officers who have never articulated those answers aloud tend to give thin ones under inspection.
The commercial reality
RightShip ratings influence chartering decisions. An inspection that goes badly does not merely generate a corrective action list — it affects which cargoes the vessel is offered and on what terms. For operators in the dry bulk trades, inspection performance has become a commercial metric rather than a compliance one.
That reframing is useful, because it puts crew readiness where it belongs: not as a training cost, but as protection for the vessel’s earning capacity.
Charted Waters provides pre-RightShip inspections, marine audits and crew readiness assessment for dry bulk operators. To discuss your fleet, get in touch.
