Hull and Car-Deck Gauging for Ferries, Coastal Ships and Fishing Vessels in Bodø

Inspection services for ships at Bodø

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

Gauging at Bodø's ferry, cargo and fishing quays

Ferries in Bodø are usually gauged at the ferry terminal or a lay-by berth, overnight or in a timetable break, when the car deck is empty and the crew can open up voids and tanks. The timetable sets the work: a ship that sails at dawn gives the team the evening and the night, so the scope is divided into night-sized blocks and the most important areas, bow structure and car-deck stiffeners for example, come first. For a full programme the owner usually waits for the ship's annual maintenance stop at a yard, and readings taken in Bodø beforehand tell the yard how much steel to prepare.

Fishing vessels lie at the harbour's fishing quays between trips, which suits gauging of fish holds, RSW tanks and hull plating once the holds have been emptied and cleaned. Slipway yards along the Nordland coast take smaller vessels out of the water for bottom work, while bigger ferries and trawlers go to yards further south, at the owner's choice. Ships waiting for orders or repairs sometimes lie at the commercial quays for longer periods, and those are the best opportunities for complete condition or pre-purchase surveys, because the time on board is not dictated by a sailing list.

• Ferry terminal and lay-by berths — car-deck, ramp, bow-structure and void gauging on ro-pax ferries overnight or in timetable breaks.
• Coastal express quay — engine-room piping and deck checks within short scheduled stops, mostly as preparation for a yard stay.
• Fishing quays — fish-hold, RSW tank and waterline shell gauging on trawlers, purse seiners and coastal boats between fisheries.
• Commercial cargo quays — hold and ballast tank readings on coastal cargo ships during cargo work or while waiting.
• Waiting and lay-up berths — full condition and pre-purchase surveys on ferries and fishing vessels taken out of service.

Norwegian domestic rules, port state control and a greener ferry fleet

Many ships working out of Bodø fly the Norwegian flag and trade only along the coast, so the Norwegian Maritime Authority deals with them as flag state, often alongside a classification society. Foreign ships calling here, cruise ships and cargo vessels among them, face Paris MoU port state control, which that same authority carries out. For passenger ships the stakes are high: a ferry with a structural defect cannot simply be replaced at short notice on a lifeline route to the islands, which is why operators prefer to find wastage early and repair it during a planned yard stay.

Norway's publicly tendered ferry contracts have pushed hard for low- and zero-emission ships, and many new ferries on Norwegian routes are battery-electric or hybrid. Converting an existing ferry adds battery rooms, new foundations and charging equipment, each bringing weight and new structure to an old hull, so owners often commission thickness measurement before the conversion design is fixed. Fishing vessel owners face similar pressure to renew or modernise, and the sale of older boats out of the Norwegian fleet regularly leads to requests for pre-purchase gauging.

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

A gauging job at Bodø 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.

Bodø Airport lies close to the city centre and has frequent domestic flights from Oslo and other Norwegian cities, so the team normally arrives through Oslo Gardermoen. The Nordland Line from Trondheim also ends in Bodø. Ferry terminals and cargo quays are ISPS-controlled, and the ferry operator or the ship's agent arranges access and permission for night working. As Norway is part of the Schengen area, technicians travel from India on Schengen visas, which should be in hand before a ferry's off-season window is fixed.

• 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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