Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging for Ships Calling at Ancona

Inspection services for ships at Ancona

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

Where gauging happens in Ancona: ferry quays, the yard and the commercial basin

Ferry gauging is carried out at the passenger quays during turnaround. The window between disembarkation and boarding is short, so the work is planned deck by deck, the grid is marked on the plating in advance, and the team measures only what the window allows. Overnight crossings leave ships in port for longer during the day, and winter reduces traffic, which creates lay-by periods when full ballast tank programmes can be completed. Cruise ships follow similar patterns with additional restrictions on passenger movements.

The Fincantieri yard builds large passenger ships and is not generally a repair yard for outside merchant ships, so owners needing a drydock for a renewal survey commonly look at Ravenna, Croatian yards or other Italian and Mediterranean facilities. A measured thickness record taken in Ancona before the ship sails gives the yard concrete numbers. Tankers for the refinery use an offshore terminal off Falconara, where gauging is limited to what the ship and terminal rules allow, so most refinery-trade tanker work is carried out when the ship calls at a berth elsewhere or during a lay-up.

• Ferry terminal quays — vehicle deck plating, ramps and ballast tanks of ro-pax ships gauged during turnaround
• Cruise quays — scrubber overboard piping and selected void spaces on cruise ships during a day call
• Commercial quays — hatch covers, cross-deck structure and tank readings on container and general cargo ships
• Fincantieri yard area — liaison on steel estimates for ships visiting the yard or its neighbours, subject to the yard's access rules
• Anchorage off the port — owner's condition checks on ships waiting or laid up, by launch through the ship's agent

Port state control and regulation for ferries and tankers at Ancona

Port state control at Ancona is carried out by the Italian Coast Guard through the harbour master (Capitaneria di Porto), within the Paris MoU. Ferries on the Croatian and Greek routes are covered by the EU's passenger ship survey regime, and owners of older ro-pax ships watch their structural condition closely because wasted ramps and decks are visible findings. Tankers calling at the Falconara terminal come under ESP requirements and are screened by charterers who read the ship's structural record as part of vetting.

The Adriatic ferry trade is competitive, and ship age matters. Owners deciding whether to refit, sell or replace a ro-pax ship need credible gauging data, and the EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires an Inventory of Hazardous Materials on ships calling at EU ports. EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime bear on the running cost of older ferries. Local shipbuilding knowledge, concentrated in the Fincantieri yard and its suppliers, means that when readings reveal substantial corrosion, the repair planning that follows can draw on engineering skills nearby.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Ancona burn 0.10% sulphur fuel or run a scrubber. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service and are worth adding to the gauging scope at every docking.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Ancona

Most of the work on a Ancona job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

Ancona Falconara Airport has limited scheduled services, so teams often arrive via Bologna, Rome or Venice and continue by road or rail. Bologna is the most common entry point. The ship's agent arranges ISPS access for passenger and commercial quays and any launch for anchorage work. Our technicians are Indian nationals travelling on Schengen visas, so we start the application when the call is confirmed and book flights once the ferry turnaround slot or berth time is firm. Repeat ferry work is planned around the rotation rather than a single call.

• 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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