GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman
The Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands (MACI) has been lauded again by international maritime regulatory bodies as being top-of-class.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) published its annual Flag State Performance Table, which had 13 flag states leading the chart with exemplary performance indicators. Cayman was joined by Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Isle of Man, Japan, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
According to the ICS, the table has been prepared using positive indicators in order to overcome traditional prejudices of the open registers. Lower ranked registers are those which have failed to meet these standards.
Over 1,900 vessels carry the Cayman Islands flag and 822 of those are superyachts. The Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands has established the jurisdiction with a specialised value proposition in building and registering superyachts through the hiring and training of professionals for the registry, by imposing stringent requirements on the ships it registers, and its solid network of offices around the world.
The Cayman Islands is white-listed in all major international ports (the Port State Control Memoranda of Understanding or PSC MOUs), which has led to the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry’s (a subsidiary of MACI) eligibility for entry into the prestigious United States Coast Guard (USCG) Qualship 21 programme. Qualship 21 is the USCG’s matrix system of extending recognition to "foreign" ships, which fly the Flag of a State which has demonstrated an excellent safety and pollution prevention record with respect to its ships. Ships in the Qualship 21 system are required to undergo significantly less Port State Control inspections by the USCG whilst in US waters.
Mr. A. Joel Walton, CEO of MACI, credited his team for this latest round of international recognition: “Cayman has a thriving maritime industry due to the quality surveyors, administrators and the service providers to the industry such as company managers and lawyers. It is our intention to build upon the successes that we have achieved and to continue to meet and exceed these international standards and continue to develop Cayman as an international maritime centre”.
MACI and the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry have been building upon the skill level of their team through appropriate succession planning and training, promoting several Caymanians in recent months.
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