Ship Thickness Gauging in Larnaca Bay and at the Port of Larnaca

Inspection services for ships at Larnaca

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

Where we take readings around Larnaca

Anchorage work dominates. The agent books a launch from the port, the team boards with portable gauges and couplant, and the crew will have opened, ventilated and certified the agreed spaces before arrival so that gauging starts without delay. Where tanks cannot be made safe in time, we work on deck, hatch covers, coamings and accessible piping first, and return to the tanks if the stay allows. The bay's exposure means a strong easterly or south-easterly can stop launches, so we schedule with a margin and keep the master informed of any change.

Work alongside is less common but straightforward: general cargo and passenger ships in the port of Larnaca, and tankers at Vasilikos, where the terminal's permit rules set what may be done during cargo operations. Because distances on the island are short, a single mobilisation can cover a ship at Larnaca, a call at Vasilikos and a job at the port of Limassol on consecutive days, which is often the most sensible way to use a visa period for a Cyprus programme. For ship inspection at a Cyprus anchorage, the limiting factor is almost never distance; it is whether the spaces are ready.

• Larnaca Bay anchorage — targeted gauging on ships stopping for crew changes, stores, bunkers or orders, boarded by launch from the port
• Port of Larnaca — gauging on general cargo, passenger and cruise vessels during port stays, arranged through the agent under ISPS rules
• Vasilikos port — deck, deck piping and ballast tank gauging on tankers at the energy terminal within its permit-to-work system
• Limassol port and anchorage — combined programmes with Larnaca calls, reached by road within the same mobilisation

Port state control, emissions rules and eastern Mediterranean trade

Cyprus takes part in both the Paris MoU and the Mediterranean MoU on port state control, and applies EU maritime law, so EU ETS (from 2024) and FuelEU Maritime (from 2025) cover voyages calling at Larnaca and Vasilikos. The Mediterranean SOx emission control area, in force since 1 May 2025, applies in Cypriot waters. For older tankers and bulk carriers that kept running on high-sulphur fuel with open-loop scrubbers, the overboard discharge sections and wash-water lines are the parts that tend to thin first, and a call off Larnaca is a reasonable moment to check them before a leak forces the issue.

Commercially, Larnaca sits close to the Levant and Egyptian ports and to the approaches to the Suez Canal, which brings a steady flow of ships past the island. Owners of ships on these regional trades, often older bulk carriers, general cargo ships and small tankers, face frequent charterer and vetting inspections and periodic sale and purchase activity. Each of those creates a reason to gauge, and a Larnaca stop is a convenient setting because the ship is quiet at anchor and the attending superintendent can fly in and out in a day.

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

A gauging job at Larnaca 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.

The team flies into Larnaca International Airport, which lies on the shore of the bay close to the port, with Paphos as an alternative. Launch boats for the anchorage, port passes under ISPS and terminal access at Vasilikos are arranged through the ship's agent, with our crew list, certificates and equipment details sent ahead. Each technician needs a visa for Cyprus, and we check the current entry requirements for every name on the crew list at enquiry. Because anchorage calls are often fixed at short notice, telling us about likely Larnaca stops early lets us hold visas ready for the window.

• 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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