Getting ship designs into a pre-existing saved game

Hi there, long time GalCiv 2 player, first time poster. I'm having a problem where I'll take a ship designed in the ship designer and send it to a friend with the same version of the game, but when they try to build the ship in a saved game, even a ship without any components on it, the design doesn't appear in their shipyard. Is there no way for ships built in the ship designer to show up in-game unless you're starting a new game?