Thickness Measurement and Hull Gauging at the Port of Liepāja

Inspection services for ships at Liepāja

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

Where gauging happens in Liepāja

Dockings at Tosmare are the centre of gauging work in Liepāja. Tosmare's workforce stages the hull and prepares the tanks, and the gauging team works one step behind them, from the keel plates upwards. On small ships the dock period is short, so the first day's readings matter most: they show the surveyor and the yard where renewal is needed while there is still time to order steel and plan the work. For Liepāja ship repair, a gauging report that arrives on the second day is worth far more than one that arrives on the last.

Alongside the cargo berths, gauging follows the loading programme, with holds measured before loading or after discharge, and ballast tanks opened to the team after the crew has aired and tested them. Fishing vessels between trips can be gauged at the fishing harbour, where fish holds, tanks and hull plating from the inside are accessible while the crew is ashore. Ships at the roads are boarded from a launch the agent arranges when the sea allows, which confines the job to the deck and to tanks the crew has opened up.

• Tosmare shipyard — docking and repair of small and medium-sized ships; bottom, side shell, tank and deck gauging during the docking
• Grain and timber berths — bulk carriers and general cargo ships; hold frame, tank-top and hatch-coaming gauging between loading stages
• Fishing harbour — trawlers and fishing vessels; hull plating, fish-hold and tank gauging while alongside between trips
• General cargo and ro-ro quays — multipurpose and ro-ro ships; deck, ramp and accessible tank gauging during port calls
• Liepāja roads — ships waiting to berth or to enter the yard; the agent books a boat out to the ship for deck and tank work

Latvian regulation and short-sea market context

Latvia belongs to the Paris MoU, and ships off Liepāja are held to the 0.10% fuel-sulphur limit that covers the whole Baltic ECA. Most short-sea and fishing vessels meet that limit on compliant distillate fuel rather than scrubbers, so scrubber piping is a smaller part of the work here than in larger ports. Both EU climate measures for shipping, the emissions trading scheme that reached ships in 2024 and the FuelEU Maritime rules that followed a year later, start at 5000 gross tonnage, which leaves many of the coasters and fishing vessels calling at Liepāja outside both, while the larger bulk carriers and general cargo ships fall inside.

Paris MoU targeting puts older ships into the higher-risk categories, and many of the vessels using Liepāja are in that age bracket, so structural deficiencies found by port state control can lead to detention. For the owner of an older coaster, the gauging record is what stands between a planned renewal at a docking and an unplanned one forced by an inspection. Whether a vessel's surveys are carried out by a classification society or by the flag administration, a complete, structured set of thickness readings is the basis for renewal decisions, for pre-purchase negotiations and for keeping an older ship trading.

Ships trading to Liepāja 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 Liepāja

The sequence for a thickness measurement job at Liepāja is short and written down, so the yard, the surveyor and the superintendent know who arranges what.

We route the team through Riga International Airport and on to Liepāja by road down the Kurzeme coast. The ship's agent obtains gate passes for the port terminals and a launch for vessels at the roads, and for dockings the yard arranges the team's entry to Tosmare. Our technicians travel from India on a Schengen visa issued through Latvian consular channels; the earlier the docking date is fixed, the easier it is to align the visa with the yard programme and avoid a docking that starts before the team can arrive.

• 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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