Docking and Refit Thickness Gauging at Bijela, Montenegro

Inspection services for ships at Bijela

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

Where gauging happens at the yard

Within the yard, gauging is done on the vessel's hull and internal structure in whichever dock or slipway position it occupies. On a dry hull the technicians work along shell, bottom, bilge keels, rudder and propeller area from ground level or from staging, using couplant suited to the surface state. Inside, tanks that have been cleaned, ventilated and tested are entered under a permit, and gauged along bulkheads, floors and longitudinals. Yard staff control access, lifting and hot work, so the sequence of blasting, gauging and steel work is agreed with the yard planner before the ship enters the dock.

Ships and yachts that need a pre-docking record can be gauged afloat before arrival, at a berth in Tivat or Kotor or at an anchorage in the bay, and then at the yard for the docking itself. Using the same team for both stages keeps measurement points aligned from estimate to final steel report. For larger commercial ships, the Adriatic yards in Croatia and Italy remain alternatives, and the bay's shipyards compete with them mainly on yacht and small-ship work.

• Dry-docked or slipway hull: shell, bottom plating, rudder and propeller area gauged after coating removal
• Cleaned and gas-free tanks: bulkhead, floor and longitudinal readings through tank entry under permit
• Afloat berth at the yard quay: deck, superstructure and accessible tank boundaries before or after the dock period
• Pre-arrival gauging at Tivat or Kotor: steel estimate for the yard from a berth elsewhere in the bay
• Final steel check after renewal: plating readings to confirm the work against the specification

Regulation and the Montenegrin yard setting

Bijela is in Montenegro, a Paris MoU member, and the Maritime Safety Administration oversees ships and ports there. A ship that has been repaired at a Montenegrin yard re-enters service under the same inspection regime as any other ship in the region, so documented steel work matters when the ship next calls at a Paris MoU port. Class societies attend docking surveys and set the rules for steel renewal limits, while the yard follows the owner's specification and the surveyor's decisions on the day.

Montenegro is not in the EU, but many ships repaired here trade to EU ports and fall under EU requirements, including the hazardous materials inventory for ships calling there and the carbon rules for voyages touching EU ports. Where thickness readings are meant for credit to a class docking survey, the firm taking them must be acceptable to that society, and the superintendent should confirm this at planning. Readings taken for the owner's estimates and for the yard's quotation are used independently of class. Entry rules for visiting technicians are national and checked in advance.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Bijela 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 Bijela

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

Tivat Airport is the nearest, followed by Dubrovnik in Croatia, and both are within a road transfer of the yard along the bay. Herceg Novi is close and the yard issues its own access passes through the owner's representative or the yard planner. Montenegro operates its own visa rules, separate from Schengen, so we check what Indian technicians need when an enquiry arrives and set the mobilisation date accordingly. Yard schedules rarely move for visa delays, so early notice matters.

• 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.

Related