UK Docks dry dock the Britannia Aggregates dredging vessel ‘Britannia Beaver’ in No 2 dock and Hanson Aggregates vessel ‘Arco Dijk’, in No 3 dock. Both vessels docked for their 25 year special survey and during survey, routine maintenance was carried out on both vessels along with various steel renewals, dredge gear upgrades and paint coating renewals.
TV Tristram 10 Year Survey
In order for TV Tristram to dry dock, UK Docks organised and arranged the tow of TV Tristram from her permanent mooring system within Portland Harbour. The vessel was towed approx. 450 nautical miles to UK Docks Teesside facility where the vessel was dry-docked. The work scope included shot blasting the entire underwater area and renewing all paint coatings and anode system, carrying out extensive paint preparation repairs to the entire topsides, superstructure, decks and applying a full new paint system in order to preserve the vessel for a 10 year period. In addition, various mechanical works were completed, new boarding platforms manufactured and installed to both port and stbd side of the vessel, a UT Survey was carried out which identified extensive steel work repairs which required to be carried. On completion, the vessel was towed back to Portland Harbour and re-connected to its 4 point permanent mooring system
Double Docking for GulfMark NS
GulfMark NS make full use of No 3 dry dock by double docking the AHV UT 722L Highland Valour and Highland Endurance, both of which are sister ships. Measuring a combined length overall of 160 metres, and a dry dock overall length of 167 metres, carefull planning and preparations were required to satisfy this tight fit.
Once docked, both vessels were mobilized for a prestigious contract operating off Trinidad and the main work involved was hull painting, machinery and pipework upgrades, routine vessel maintenance and general survey inspections. Both vessels undocked on schedule in good timing for their forthcoming charter.
UK Docks Marine Services Teesside completes first vessel refit in over 30 years in newly refurbished dry dock
The Arco Beck Suction Dredger vessel owned and operated by Hanson’s Aggregates is the first vessel to dry dock in No 3 dock. The Arco Beck was dry docked so that the owners could carry out 25-year special survey and routine vessel maintenance. Following the docking and survey, a large amount of emergent works was identified on board for the vessels dredging equipment and hull plating. The vessel was stemmed for 25 days and in close cooperation with owners and contractors, UK Docks re-delivered the vessel in 28 days completing well over twice the original planned scope of repairs.
Kevin Ayres, Ship Manager for Hanson Aggregates commented on completion ‘Hanson Aggregates Marine chose UK Docks to dry dock our vessel Arco Beck in order to carry out a 25 year special survey and routine vessel maintenance following a tendering process.
UK Docks completed this work to a high standard and followed up with a comprehensive QA package for reference, along with no higher than expected costs.
Third Dry Dock Open for Business
No 3 dry dock is now in full operation following extensive refurbishment after 30 years of being laid up as a dry dock facility. The work has been carried out over the past 2 years whereby the dock entrance was fully dredged allowing both gates to be brought back into operational after extensive steel repairs and new seal arrangements were fitted to the sealing cill. Once watertight, this allowed the gates to be closed and sealed and over 3000 tonnes of concrete, which sealed the dock from the river, was removed over a period of 16 weeks. Other works included removing and refurbishing the main dock flooding valves, The installation of a thruster pit for drop down and Azimuth type thrusters, extensive repairs to the dock walls and main drainage culverts and upgrades to the pump room took place.
C2C Success for Gary & Charlie
Gary Wilson and Charlie Barley two of UKDOCKS Directors completed their sponsored Coast to Coast challenge, cycling 144 miles over three days, cycling from Whitehaven to Tynemouth. They raised £3565 for St Barnabas Hospice. Great effort.
We wish to thank all of our Friends, Employees and Companies who donated and made this a great success.
UK Docks Duo to tackle C2C for St. Barnabas Hospice
UKDOCKS Marine Services are supporting Gary Wilson and Charlie Barley in their efforts to raise sponsorship for St. Barnabas Hospice.
They will be cycling from Whitehaven to Newcastle (West Coast to East Coast) along the C2C route. A 140-mile journey, with about a 10,000 feet ascent, they intend to complete this over 3 days, starting on the 17 September 2015.
For those that are not aware, Charlie’s younger sister passed away at St. Barnabas Hospice on the 1st September 2014, after a long battle with cancer. Although she was only in the Hospice for a short time, she received fantastic palliative care and we will be supporting Charlie and Gary in their efforts to raise as much money as possible on this anniversary.
We are grateful for any donations, no matter how small, and these can be given via their Just Giving Page or donating via the sponsorship forms held by Gary in the Northern Office (South Shields) or Charlie in the South Office (Gosport).
This is Charlie’s way of saying thank you to this Hospice for the palliative care they gave his sister, and your contributions will go a long way in helping this organisation in maintaining the amazing level of care it gives.
If you want to learn more about the work this Hospice does, you can visit their website: www.stbarnabashospice.co.uk
A Captain’s Citation for Team Recognition to UK Docks Workforce, Dartmouth
The UK Docks workforce at our Sandquay facility, based in Dartmouth, have received team recognition and credit from Captain H Duffy, Captain for the Royal Navy, for their valued efforts and a ‘can do attitude’.
The Captain described the team as ‘a credit to Britannia Royal Naval College’ and thoroughly deserving of recognition.
Highland Chieftain to Reduce Excessive Rolling!
GulfMark NS were experiencing problems with excessive rolling on the vessel ‘Highland Chieftain’ and a modification to the vessel was required. This modification required antiroll tanks to be installed onto the ship in order to reduce the roll motion and roll angle during adverse weather conditions. The antiroll sections were manufactured in the Netherlands and GulfMark contracted UK Docks to carry out the installation of the tanks onto the vessel. Timing was crucial on this project as the vessel was on charter providing Offshore Supply Services however, due to a gap in the charter schedule, the vessel was able to collect the pre-manufactured units from a port in the Netherlands and sail to UK Docks facility at Middlesbrough.
On arrival, the vessel was dry docked and preparations began with removing all of the vessel structure aft of the accommodation so that the new antiroll tanks could be installed directly against the aft face of the vessels accommodation. The tanks were constructed as a complete single section weighing approximately 60 tones and extending across the entire weather deck from port to starboard side and extend upward from the deck to the bridge deck.
Once the tanks were installed as a seamless and fully integrated part of the ships structure, further extensions were made to the ships structure to include foundations for ships cranes that were installed to both Port and Starboard sides of the vessel. All ships structure such as walkways and access stairs, which had previously been removed, were refitted to the vessel.
The vessel was re-painted on completion of all works and the vessel was handed back to the owners on the scheduled date, sixteen days after arrival at UK Docks dry dock facility.
First ship to dry dock in UK Docks new Middlesbrough facility
UK Docks have agreed a 30 year lease with PD Ports to re-open the former Smiths Dock Ship Repair Company based on the River Tees, Middlesbrough, taking over the two dry docks with dimensions of 137 m x 18.6 m (No. 4 Dock) and 167.6 m x 20.4 m (No. 3 Dock) as well as fully equipped repair berth, several cranes, workshops and a stores facility.
