[Platforms] Russian and Yugoslav ships

[Roy Lowry]

Dear All,

I would like to draw your attention to an accident waiting to happen.    Following the political changes in Germany, USSR and the Balkans in the 1990s there has been a trickle of ship recodings reflecting the resultant flag changes, often accompanied by callsign changes (e.g. 95BP/HRBP).  However, this has been far from systematic and I see the potential for problems such as Grigory Lezhava, currently in the BSH CSR system with code 909X, country labelled as 'Georgia?' (Ukraine in French MEDAR) and CSRs reported from 1981 to 2004.

My suggestion would be that we work to systematically assign pre- and post-political change codes to ships operating through such periods of change.  This would provide the means to clearly distinguish between 'USSR' and 'Georgian/Ukranian' Grigory Lezhava cruises, which I would consider advisable in the current political climate.  This shouldn't be too big a job, especially if our Russian colleagues could provide a comprehensive list of by far the largest group of ships affected.

Anyone else any thoughts?