Thickness Measurement for Fishing Vessels and Cruise Ships at Akureyri, Eyjafjörður

Inspection services for ships at Akureyri

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Docking and gauging at Akureyri

The dock at the Slippurinn yard is where the fullest gauging programmes in Akureyri take place. With a trawler or longliner docked, the team can measure shell plating from keel to waterline, bottom plating, sea chests, rudder and stern frame, and work inside fish holds, RSW tanks, fuel tanks and the processing deck while the yard carries out its programme. Owners abroad usually want daily reports with marked-up sketches, so they can decide on renewal with the yard and the surveyor before the vessel leaves the dock. Steel work, painting and machinery overhaul often run in parallel, so we agree with the yard which areas to measure first, before blasting or renewal starts.

Afloat, fishing vessels lying at the town's fishing quays between trips can be gauged for a defined scope of holds, tanks and decks, and the yard's repair berths host vessels during work that does not need docking. Cruise ships at the town quays offer access to machinery spaces and open decks during a day call, and longer calls or end-of-season visits allow more. Coastal cargo ships and tankers stay briefly, so work on them is limited to what a short call allows. Launch work at anchor in the fjord is possible in calm summer conditions, but the harbour's quays and the dock remain the usual places for gauging at Akureyri.

• Slippurinn dock — shell, bottom, sea-chest, rudder and stern readings on trawlers, longliners and other vessels docked for repair.
• Yard repair berths — afloat gauging of piping, decks and tanks on vessels under repair without docking.
• Fishing quays — fish-hold, RSW-tank and fuel-tank gauging on trawlers lying alongside between trips.
• Cruise quays — machinery-space piping and accessible structure on cruise and expedition ships during calls, with ice-belt checks on polar-class vessels.
• Cargo and fuel berths — short deck and ballast-tank scopes on coastal cargo ships and tankers.

Arctic routes, the fishing fleet and inspection rules in the north

Iceland takes part in Paris MoU port state control, carried out by the Icelandic Transport Authority, and as an EEA state it applies much of the EU's maritime legislation without being an EU member. For the fishing vessels that dominate Akureyri's work, the inspection framework is set by the class rules where the vessel is classed, by the flag state's rules otherwise, and by the owner's own maintenance planning. Greenlandic and Canadian vessels docking here follow the requirements of their own flag and class, so the scope and report format are agreed with the owner and, where relevant, the surveyor attending for the vessel's class. That variety is normal at Akureyri, where a single winter can bring vessels under several flags and classes into the same dock.

Akureyri's position makes it a natural stop for Arctic shipping. Expedition cruise ships calling on voyages to Greenland and Svalbard operate under the IMO Polar Code, carry ice or polar class notations and take the brunt of ice on their bows and ice belts; owners want that structure measured between seasons. Greenlandic and Canadian fishing vessels docking here have often worked in ice-affected waters as well, so ice-belt plating and the bow area merit attention in their scopes. The fishing fleet also faces the familiar wear of North Atlantic trawling: corrosion in holds and RSW tanks, fatigue at gallows and winch foundations, and wear on stern ramps and trawl decks.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Akureyri meet it with an exhaust gas cleaning system rather than compliant fuel. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service, especially on open-loop systems, and are worth adding to the gauging scope.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Akureyri

The sequence for a thickness measurement job at Akureyri is short and written down, so the yard, the surveyor and the superintendent know who arranges what.

Akureyri Airport has domestic flights from Reykjavík, and international arrivals normally come through Keflavík; the route north is a domestic flight or a long drive across Iceland. Iceland is in the Schengen area, so technicians travelling from India need Schengen visas, applied for well before a dock slot. Yard access is arranged with Slippurinn through the vessel owner, and harbour access through the ship's agent. Winter weather can close mountain roads and delay domestic flights, so winter jobs carry margin in the travel plan.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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