Tony M May 13, 2012:

In my FR > EN translations... ...of similar boat-building contexts, the word used is indeed 'réception'

Cyril B. (asker) May 11, 2012:

I found a nice reference for 'recette finale', thank you Francis:
http://www.multiplast.eu/fra/news/222/66/Brit-Air-navigue.ht...

But there are very few occurrences overall, it might be a bit too 'jargony' for the reader.

Cyril B. (asker) May 11, 2012:

Well... my customer is the buyer, so I guess they don't have the original FR, or they wouldn't have hired me :)

Tony M May 11, 2012:

I'm pretty sure... ...as I think I even recognize the text! Like I said, my own EN translation was better than this one!

Can't you ask them for the FR original and save yourself a lot of work?!

(Hint: a lot of boat documentation is handled by a single agency, and hence the same texts re-appear all over the place for different craft from different boat-builders)

Cyril B. (asker) May 11, 2012:

Indeed, the whole document is rather horribly written. As it's a FR company selling a boat to an AU company, it's probable that the seller had this contract drafted in FR then translated.

Tony M May 11, 2012:

Have a care! This sounds suspiciously like a document already translated from the FR — and I think I may have even translated the exact-same phrase (though thankfully, not as badly as this!) So if I were you, I'd be mistrustful of the reliabaility of the source text.

Clues are things like the abnormal use of 'realized' here in EN, where 'réaliser' would be fine in FR.

It does of course also depend on just what they thought it meant; I don't for one moment think it really means 'producing a piece of paper' (which is what that 'récépissé' you found would mean — a physical receipt); I am pretty sure it means in fact 'carry out a reception inspection' — again, the very FR-sounding source text really uses 'receipt' incorrectly here, a common error with the two possible meanings of 'réception' — 'receipt' here is intended to have the meaning 'the act of receiving', but wouldn't be used like that in this sort of context.

Consider also 'handover', which is another term commonly related to 'réception' — but in both cases, you may or may not need to taken itno account the implied 'inspection'.