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ISLAND THIRD BEST MARINE REGISTER
The Isle of Man has finished third on an international shipping register designed to identify the world's best marine administrations.
The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (ParisMOU) is acknowledged as the global standard in shipping control.
Part of its annual report is a monitor of registry quality excellence, known as the white list. The Island has finished third behind the UK and Sweden, ahead of 76 other countries, with only 11 detentions from 634 inspections.
The result is a big boost for the Department of Trade and Industry and the Marine Administration run by Captain Desmond Howell.
Captain Howell said: 'We have always been in the business of dealing with quality ships and quality owners. We have always been fairly high and we put a lot of effort into making sure our ships are in good condition.
'We have increased the number of visits we make to the ships and we now make mandatory inspections every two and a half years — it was five before — and that has made an impact.'
The Island's reputation as a centre of shipping quality has attracted business from Germany, due to a particular investment vehicle popular with German and Scandinavian professionals. The investors are collectively known as 'dentists' due to the high proportion from that occupation.
'Many of our ships are owned by limited partnerships backed by German "dentists". They are high-quality blue chip investment operations who buy a ship as an investment and contract a management company to run it.
'While the UK has ISAs, Germany, Denmark and some of the other Scandinavian countries have these limited partnerships.
'Our image fits their image of quality, and they like the fact we don't mess about. If we don't like what they are doing we say forget it. In the main, German owners tend to be very sound operators and they don't like any trouble or interference.'
Captain Howell has plans to visit the Hamburg Ship Fair and the Monaco Boat Show in September. He will be aiming to promote the Isle of Man as a place to do shipping business, including ship management companies, lawyers and trust companies.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 7 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
