Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement for Offshore and Coastal Vessels in Kristiansund

Inspection services for ships at Kristiansund

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

Where vessels are gauged in Kristiansund

Vestbase offers the quay space, cranes and storage that offshore logistics need, and for gauging that means safe access to a vessel lying still with its crew aboard. Between runs, crews can usually free up ballast tanks, chain lockers and empty cargo tanks for entry; longer stays allow bulk and liquid tanks to be cleaned and opened in sequence. The supply base on Averøy offers a similar setting for the vessels working from it, and the town quays suit fishing vessels and coastal ships.

Kristiansund's gauging work is mostly done afloat. For dry-docking, owners of supply vessels and fishing vessels from this coast often use the yards of the Møre region around Ålesund and Ulsteinvik, or yards further afield, and readings taken in Kristiansund can serve as the pre-docking steel estimate that the yard and class surveyor work from. When the offshore market is weak, idle vessels are sometimes moored in sheltered waters near the town, and bringing one back into service is a full-scope job that begins with gauging.

• Vestbase quays at Vikan — tank, chain locker and deck gauging on platform supply and subsea vessels between runs or charters.
• Kristiansund Base on Averøy — gauging on supply and project vessels working from the base.
• Town and fishing quays — fish hold, tank and piping readings on fishing vessels and fish carriers alongside.
• Commercial quays — deck, hold and ballast tank measurement on coastal cargo ships and tankers during discharge.
• Sheltered moorings near the town — reactivation gauging on laid-up offshore vessels, reached by boat.

Norwegian Sea operations and the rules around them

Kristiansund is north of 62°N, beyond the North Sea emission control area. Port state control on foreign ships calling here is carried out by the Norwegian Maritime Authority as part of the Paris MoU, but most vessels working from the bases are Norwegian-flagged, and for them the Authority acts as flag state. The offshore installations they serve answer to Havtil, the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority, while the vessels themselves are regulated as ships; the operators bring the two together in their contracts, which spell out the vessel standards, audits and documentation they expect from shipowners.

The Norwegian Sea is harsher than the North Sea in winter, and vessels working there take a beating: slamming loads on the bow, green water on deck and constant motion straining cargo rails, tank structure and deck equipment foundations. Supply vessels on long charters may spend years on this run between dockings. When an owner is renewing a charter or bidding for a new one, documented thickness readings and crack detection at highly loaded details give the charterer evidence of condition, and give the owner a basis for planning steel renewal at the next docking.

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

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

Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget, lies on Nordlandet near Vestbase and has domestic flights to Oslo and Bergen, so the team reaches the base soon after landing. Vestbase and the Averøy base apply ISPS and site access rules, and the agent or the base registers the team in advance. Norway is in the Schengen area, and technicians travelling from India need Schengen visas; offshore owners who expect winter port stays benefit from having visas in place before a specific vessel needs them.

• 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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