Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging for Ships Calling at Nice

Inspection services for ships at Nice

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

Where gauging can be done in and around Nice

Port Lympia has no commercial drydock for deep-sea tonnage; its repair activity is oriented to yachts and small craft, and a ferry or cruise ship that needs a bottom inspection is normally sent to a yard on the Marseille, Toulon or Ligurian coast. What can be done at Nice is the afloat part of the job: ballast tanks, void spaces, vehicle decks, hatch and ramp structure, accessible machinery-space piping and the full length of scrubber lines where the ship has them. For a ferry that is going to dock elsewhere in the winter, this is where the steel estimate is built.

Ships lying at the cruise quay or at the ferry berths can be reached with the ship's gangway after the agent has arranged port access, while ships in the bay or at Villefranche need a launch booked through the agent. We prepare a short list of spaces in advance, ask the crew to ventilate and release them, and gauge them in an order that keeps the ship's own operations free. Any space needing a permit is gauged only with the enclosed-space entry permit in place and a gas-free certificate where the compartment calls for one.

• Port Lympia ferry berths — afloat gauging of vehicle decks, ramps, stern doors and ballast tanks between Corsica sailings.
• Cruise quay at Port Lympia — turnaround-window gauging of scrubber piping, machinery-space pipework and released tanks.
• Bay of Nice anchorage — launch-served deck and tank gauging for ships waiting or tendering passengers.
• Villefranche-sur-Mer roadstead — sheltered anchorage used by cruise ships, workable for short tank and piping scopes.
• Yacht support vessel berths on the Riviera — gauging of tanks, decks and piping on larger support and escort ships.
• Nearby docking yards — Nice readings feed the steel list for dockings in Marseille, Toulon or Liguria.

Port state control and the rules that shape gauging at Nice

France is a member of the Paris MoU, and port state control inspections on foreign-flag ships in French ports are carried out by the country's ship safety centres under the maritime affairs administration. Passenger ships and ro-pax ferries fall into the Paris MoU's targeting scheme like any other category, and older ferries with wastage on record are inspected more often. Nice receives many ships on regular itineraries, so the same hull may be inspected several times a year, which is a practical reason to know the condition of tanks and decks before arriving.

Several EU rules also bear on the work. Shipping has been inside the EU ETS since 2024 and FuelEU Maritime has applied since 2025, so owners of older ferries weigh retrofits against remaining life, and a measured steel record helps that decision. The EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires an Inventory of Hazardous Materials on ships calling at EU ports, and thickness data is often collected alongside the IHM update. For ro-pax ships the vehicle deck, hoistable decks and watertight doors are the areas where wastage shows first, so these usually head the scope for a Nice job.

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

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

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is the entry point and sits close to the port. Port access for ships at the ferry berths and the cruise quay is arranged by the ship's agent, who also books launch boats for ships in the bay or at Villefranche. France is in the Schengen area, so each technician needs a Schengen visa obtained in India, and the application starts once the call or docking date is confirmed and the owner has provided an invitation letter naming the vessel. Ferry timetables are published well ahead, which helps with visa and travel planning.

• 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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