Ultrasonic Hull Gauging for Fishing and Cargo Ships in Hafnarfjörður and Straumsvík

Inspection services for ships at Hafnarfjörður

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

Gauging locations in Hafnarfjörður and Straumsvík

The floating docks are the place for the fullest gauging programmes in Hafnarfjörður. With a vessel lifted, the team can reach the shell from keel to waterline, the bottom plating, sea chests, rudder and stern frame, while internal tanks are opened at the same time by the crew or the repair company. For trawlers, that combines naturally with the fish hold, fuel tanks and trawl deck, so one docking produces a complete picture of the hull. The company operating the dock controls access, staging and lighting, and gauging is fitted into the repair programme so that steel renewal can be carried out before the vessel is floated out.

At the cargo quays, gauging is afloat work fitted into cargo operations: deck, hatch and container-guide areas, ballast tanks the crew has prepared and, on general cargo ships, holds as they are emptied. The Straumsvík harbour is a dedicated industrial berth inside the smelter's operating area, so any work aboard a bulk carrier there follows the plant's safety and access rules as well as the ship's own permits. Fishing vessels lying at the fishing quays between trips can be gauged without docking for a defined scope of holds, tanks and decks. Anchorage work off Hafnarfjörður is rarely realistic because of the weather, and almost all jobs are done alongside or in dock.

• Floating docks — shell, bottom, sea-chest and stern-area gauging on trawlers and smaller ships lifted for maintenance.
• Fishing quays — fish-hold, fuel-tank and trawl-deck readings on trawlers lying alongside between trips.
• Cargo quays — deck, hatch and ballast-tank gauging on container and general cargo ships during their stay.
• Straumsvík smelter harbour — hatch cover, coaming, hold and ballast-tank work on bulk carriers serving the smelter, within plant access rules.
• Repair berths — afloat piping and structural checks on vessels under repairs that do not need a lift.

Iceland's rules, the smelter trade and the fishing fleet

Iceland is a member of the Paris MoU and of the EEA but not the EU, and it carries out port state control through the Icelandic Transport Authority. As an EEA state, Iceland applies the EU ETS to shipping along with other EU maritime measures, so ships trading between Hafnarfjörður and European ports report emissions much as they would within the EU. The smelter trade has its own pattern. Alumina is a dry, dusty cargo that demands tight hatch covers, so coamings, cover panels and their seals feature in condition checks alongside holds and ballast tanks. Where a bulk carrier serves the smelter repeatedly, the owner can plan gauging for a particular call well ahead.

For the fishing fleet, the governing framework is the Icelandic Transport Authority's rules for fishing vessels and the class rules where vessels are classed, rather than the ESP regime that covers tankers and bulk carriers. Under Iceland's quota system, vessels fish to allocated catch shares, and owners plan maintenance in the slack periods between quotas or seasons, which is when floating-dock time is booked. Freezer trawlers and fresh-fish trawlers have different weak points: the former carry refrigeration plants and processing decks on long trips, the latter make frequent landings with heavy use of fish holds and ice. Both benefit from readings taken at each docking, so that wastage trends are followed rather than discovered.

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

A gauging job at Hafnarfjörður 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.

Keflavík International Airport, on the Reykjanes peninsula, is closer to Hafnarfjörður than to Reykjavík, and the main road to the capital passes the Straumsvík smelter and the town. The team flies from India through a European hub and needs a Schengen visa, since Iceland is a Schengen state. Harbour access is arranged through the ship's agent or the vessel owner, floating-dock access through the repair company, and entry to Straumsvík through the smelter's own procedures.

• 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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