Malfunctioning motor

A naval architect was asked by their customer, a shipyard, to design a yacht on the basis of existing templates with the addition of some new parts. The scope of work included marine engineering. However, upon commissioning, the motor malfunctioned. The investigation and subsequent repairs required extensive woodworking on the deck. The root cause investigations were lengthy and caused further motors to similarly malfunction. The shipyard held the naval architect responsible for the issues.

The naval architect decided to scrap all their designs and restart calculations from scratch. It was then discovered during this process that the core issue was not in fact with the calculations or design at all but rather with the selection of the motor, which did not meet the requirements specified by the calculations.

ITIC covered the costs of the re-work on the calculations and some additional costs of US$40,000. However, a much larger claim was avoided.