Hull Thickness Measurement in Ortona, Abruzzo

Inspection services for ships at Ortona

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

Where gauging happens in Ortona: quays, the repair yard and lay-by berths

Most gauging is performed alongside at the commercial quays while cargo is being worked or immediately afterwards. Holds are measured once empty and safe for entry, with the stevedores' schedule dictating when each space becomes available. Because the ships are small, a single team can often cover holds, deck, hatch covers and an accessible ballast tank group in one working day. We plan the sequence with the master, so that spaces needed first are measured first and a late discharge does not lose the whole window.

A small repair yard in the port works on local tugs, workboats and fishing craft, and can handle slipway or floating-dock work on small hulls, but it is not a destination for large merchant ships. For a full renewal survey on a coaster, owners often book a yard elsewhere in the Adriatic, such as Ancona, Ravenna or a Croatian yard, and a measured survey in Ortona beforehand lets that yard plan steel renewal. Ships that lie idle or wait for a cargo can use a lay-by berth, which gives time for an owner's condition check of the full hull and tanks.

• Commercial quays — hold frames, tank tops, hatch covers and coamings of coasters and small bulk carriers once cargo is out
• Berths for steel and project cargo — deck, hatch cover and cross-deck structure readings on multipurpose ships between loading windows
• The port's repair yard — hull plating of tugs, pilot boats and workboats on the slipway or in the dock, where the yard allows access
• Lay-by berths — owner's condition checks on ships awaiting employment or sale, covering ballast tanks and the shell
• Anchorage off the port — occasional condition checks on ships waiting for a berth, in calm sea conditions through the agent

Port state control and regulation for small ships in Ortona

Port state control in Ortona is exercised by the Italian Coast Guard through the harbour master (Capitaneria di Porto), under the Paris MoU. Small coasters and older general cargo ships tend to carry a higher ship risk profile, so they are boarded more often than newer tonnage, and structural findings such as wasted coamings or corroded hold bottoms are common reasons for deficiencies. Many ships of this size are not subject to the full ESP programme but still follow their class society's renewal and intermediate survey requirements, and the class surveyor decides what readings are needed for each survey.

The wider regulatory frame also applies. The EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires an Inventory of Hazardous Materials on ships calling at EU ports, and owners of older coasters thinking about sale or scrapping value a record of remaining steel. EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime shape the economics of keeping small ships in service, since the fleet is often old and fuel-intensive. For fishing vessels and workboats, which are not always classed, insurers and buyers frequently ask for independent thickness records, and a short gauging survey in Ortona can supply them without a trip to a larger port.

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

A gauging job at Ortona 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.

Pescara Airport is the nearest airport to Ortona, with limited services, so teams usually travel through Rome, Bologna or Bari and continue by road or rail. The ship's agent arranges port access and any launch needed for anchorage work, and for small ships that are not under agency it is the owner who books the berth and clears the team through the gate. Our technicians are Indian nationals travelling on Schengen visas, so we start the application when the job is confirmed and book flights once the ship's schedule at Ortona is firm.

• 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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