Ship Gauging in Karlskrona for Gdynia Ferries, Cable-Laying Vessels and Cargo Ships

Inspection services for ships at Karlskrona

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

Where merchant ships are gauged in Karlskrona

Gauging in Karlskrona is done afloat. The Gdynia ferries lie at the Verkö ferry berth between crossings, long enough for targeted work on vehicle decks, voids and machinery piping when the crew releases the spaces. Cable-laying vessels at the NKT piers are often alongside for an extended loading period, and once the loading plan is known, parts of the deck, cable-tank structure and machinery spaces can be released for measurement around the cable operations. General cargo ships at Verkö 1 and 2 and cruise ships in the merchant harbour are worked under the usual arrangements of the terminal and the ship.

Karlskrona's shipyard is a naval yard, so merchant ships calling here normally dock elsewhere. The Gdynia ferries can use ship-repair yards in the Gdynia and Gdańsk area at the other end of their route, and cable ships and cargo vessels dock wherever their owners have arrangements around the Baltic and North Sea. Readings taken in Karlskrona feed the docking specification, and our team can travel to the yard to complete the programme.

• Verkö ferry berth — vehicle-deck, ramp, bow and stern door and machinery piping gauging on the Gdynia ro-pax ships between crossings.
• NKT cable piers and quay — deck plating, cable-carousel and tensioner foundations and cable-tank structure gauged on cable-laying vessels during loading stays.
• Verkö 1 and 2 general cargo berths — hold, hatch coaming and ballast tank readings on general cargo and project ships.
• Merchant harbour — condition and piping gauging on cruise and passenger ships alongside near the town centre.
• Outer anchorage and the roads — limited launch-borne work on ships waiting to berth, in daylight and suitable weather.
• The ship's docking yard — often in Poland for the Gdynia ferries — with the team travelling on to complete the scope.

Naval surroundings, port state control and ferry rules

The Swedish Transport Agency carries out port state control in Karlskrona under the Paris MoU, and the Gdynia ro-pax ships also fall under the EU regime of inspections for ro-pax ships in regular service, which looks closely at vehicle-deck structure, doors and hull condition. As the crossing links two EU ports, its emissions are counted in full under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime, and the ships calling here carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The naval base adds its own constraints. Parts of the archipelago are military protected areas, so access routes, anchoring and the photography of surroundings can be restricted; inspection photographs taken on board are normally confined to the structure being reported, and the agent confirms any local conditions before the team arrives.

Cable-laying ships bring a different set of structural questions. Their carousels and cable tanks place very large, concentrated loads on decks and internal structure, tensioners and chutes are bolted or welded to foundations that see repeated loading and unloading, and many of these ships have been converted from other types, so original and added structure meet at welded interfaces. Thickness readings around those foundations, together with magnetic particle testing of the welds, give owners a record of condition before a long installation campaign. For ferries and other ships trading north in winter, the Finnish-Swedish ice class and the condition of the ice belt remain a separate gauging item.

Ships trading to Karlskrona are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Karlskrona

A gauging job at Karlskrona 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.

Copenhagen Airport is the main international arrival point, with regional trains running through Skåne and Blekinge to Karlskrona. Ronneby Airport, close by to the west, has domestic flights, and Kalmar is another option. The ferry terminal, the cable piers and the merchant harbour are ISPS-controlled, and the cable factory sets its own site rules, so the agent registers the team's names in advance and arranges passes. The technicians travel from India on Schengen visas, and the agent keeps us informed of berthing changes caused by weather or daylight limits.

• 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