Goon Scheres, Sr. New Build Engineer at Smit Lamnalco, is not easily flustered. He has quite some years of experience under his belt, has sailed the seas and knows all the ins and outs. Goon: ‘I’ve known TOS for years, but have never worked with them directly. After the contract negotiations for the delivery of five RAstar 3400 tugs from Turkey to Gladstone in Australia, Rolf Kievits and Dennis van der Waal paid us a visit or, better said, they dropped by. We are practically neighbours here at the Waalhaven O.Z. We came up with the grand plan here at the office to transport five vessels. That went very smoothly.’
 Goon Scheres |
Goon is responsible for the legal delivery of vessels (Bill of Sale), among other things, and has been present at each delivery. He has seen the five delivery crews come and go to Gladstone. |
‘I have to say that an enthusiastic crew was put together for each of the ship deliveries. That is what makes or breaks the collaboration. And so… the tone was set excellently with the first ship delivery. Simply put: Frans Karmelk is an experienced captain; you see it in everything he does. We have both spent years on tankers; by then you speak the same language. The same goes for André Pilarski (chief engineer). The experience brought to the table by these maritime experts is just fantastic. They rave about their profession, are pragmatic sailors and very self-reliant. Then you know: this is going to turn out just fine.
For the ship delivery crew I had expected a young captain, but TOS had a different approach. Both captain and chief engineer are quite senior. I believe that gives a lot of peace of mind for your clients. With the problems of the fuel filters with the first delivery, for example, I didn’t hear much about it. The crew and HQ in Rotterdam arranged everything perfectly. I only needed to give approval on the financial side. One comment that has stayed with me came from an experienced chief engineer. After about half a day, he came to me and said: “Nice vessels!” That’s always fun: compliments from the work floor, from the men with experience. It’s good for the team spirit and of course I passed it straight on to the men of the yard.
The five ship deliveries went exceptionally well. TOS has contributed to making sure that we fulfilled the agreements made with the client. At the project level, the vessels were transported on time and within the budget. Even with a few problems during the first delivery, TOS met our expectations and was proactive in avoiding the same problems for the remaining deliveries,’ explains Goon.
‘I can recommend the services of TOS for everyone. The collaboration is pleasant and, with their know-how and skills, they deliver great work!’