Thickness Measurement for Ships at Bayonne and Tarnos

Inspection services for ships at Bayonne

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

Where ships can be gauged at Bayonne

Gauging is done alongside at the working quays. Bulk quays at Tarnos and on the Bayonne side take fertiliser, sulphur and grain ships, and the team reaches the ship by quay gate with passes arranged by the agent. For a bulk carrier, the practical window is between discharge and loading when the holds are swept and the ship's crew can release hold spaces, hopper tanks and topside tanks for entry. Coasters and small tankers can be gauged during longer berth stays, for instance when waiting for cargo.

The river port is not a major repair centre, and its slipway and small repair quays suit local workboats, tugs and fishing craft rather than merchant ships. A merchant ship needing steel renewal usually goes to a yard in northern Spain, such as the Basque Country, or to a French yard further up the Atlantic coast, and the Bayonne call is useful for gauging before that voyage so the owner knows what to expect.

• Tarnos bulk quays, for hold, hopper tank and hatch coaming gauging on fertiliser and sulphur carriers.
• Bayonne river quays, for coasters, steel carriers and general cargo ships alongside.
• Berths used by small tankers receiving fuel or chemical cargo, for ballast tank and deck gauging within terminal rules.
• Grain quays during loading gaps, for hold structure checks on bulkers.
• Slipway and small repair quays, for tugs and workboats rather than merchant ships.
• Offshore waiting position beyond the bar, for launch-served work in calm weather only.

Port state control and regional rules at Bayonne

Ships calling at Bayonne fall under the Paris MoU, with inspections carried out by French ship safety centres of the maritime administration. Smaller, older ships carrying bulk chemicals and fertiliser fit a profile that the targeting system looks at closely. A recent gauging report on hold and tank structure helps the master show the condition of the steel if an inspector goes into the holds.

The EU Ship Recycling Regulation asks for an inventory of hazardous materials on ships calling at EU ports, EU ETS reaches voyages to Bayonne, and FuelEU Maritime applies to fuel burned on those calls. For the smaller ships that dominate here, the commercial driver is usually the charterer's or the financier's request for steel condition rather than regulation alone. Chemical cargoes such as sulphur and fertiliser can speed corrosion in hold plating and tank tops, which is why measuring them between voyages makes practical sense.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Bayonne 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 Bayonne

A gauging job at Bayonne runs the same way whatever the ship type. The sequence below is what the superintendent, the attending surveyor and the yard can expect from us.

The team normally flies to Biarritz, which is the nearest airport and sits close to Bayonne, or to Bordeaux or Bilbao when schedules suit and then travels by road. The agent arranges gate passes for each quay. France is in the Schengen area, so every technician needs a Schengen visa from India before travel, and the visa decides the earliest start. We ask owners for the ship's expected berth as early as they can, because the river bar can delay arrivals.

• 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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