Ship Thickness Measurement at the Port of Poole in Dorset

Inspection services for ships at Poole

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

Where gauging fits in at the Port of Poole

Gauging at Poole is done alongside. The ferry berth and the cargo quays at Hamworthy are the working spaces, and the harbour's layout keeps a ship close to its berth for the whole stay. On the ro-pax, tanks and voids prepared by the crew are gauged in the gaps between sailings, and the vehicle deck and ramp are reached when the deck is clear. On a coaster, the team follows the discharge from hold to hold, gauging plating and frames as each one empties, and moves on to the ballast tanks once the stevedores no longer need the deck.

There is no drydock in Poole for seagoing merchant ships. The harbour's boatyards and slipways handle yachts, fishing boats and small workboats, but a coaster or ferry needing a docking goes elsewhere: west to Falmouth, across the Channel, or to a yard chosen by the owner. That makes Poole a place for in-service checks, pre-purchase readings and pre-docking steel estimates. Ships that arrive early or must wait for water can anchor in Poole Bay, but with the quays so near and conditions inside so calm, the berth is almost always the better place to work.

• Ferry terminal at Hamworthy — ramp, vehicle-deck and ballast tank gauging on the Cherbourg ro-pax, broken into slices across its berth stays.
• Commercial quays — hold, frame, tank-top and hatch-cover readings on short-sea cargo ships during discharge.
• Lay-by berths — longer scopes on ships waiting for cargo or between charters, when tanks can be opened in turn.
• Poole Bay anchorage — deck and air-pipe readings by launch on a ship waiting for its berth, in settled weather only.
• Workboat and pilot boat berths — hull and piping checks on steel harbour craft during maintenance periods.

Port state control, protected waters and cross-Channel rules at Poole

Port state control at Poole is the responsibility of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, inspecting foreign-flagged ships under UK law and Paris MoU procedures. Short-sea dry-cargo ships, many of them older and owned by small companies, are the ships most likely to draw close attention, and corrosion or wastage in holds, hatch coamings and air pipes is a familiar finding on that type. Owners who gauge their own ships between surveys can show an inspector, and their class, that they know where the thin steel is and have a plan to deal with it.

Poole Harbour carries national and international conservation designations for its birds and habitats, so the harbour authority keeps a close eye on anything that could put paint, rust or debris into the water. Inspection work is low impact, but coating removed to reach bare steel is taken off in small, contained patches and the debris is collected. On the ferry side, the Cherbourg service links a UK port with an EU one, which places half of each crossing's emissions under the EU Emissions Trading System and half of its energy under FuelEU Maritime, and keeps the operator's attention on fuel systems, exhaust treatment and the piping that serves them.

Ships trading to Poole 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 Poole

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

Bournemouth Airport is the closest, with mainly European flights; most teams arrive through Heathrow and continue by train from London to Poole, or by road. The commercial port and ferry terminal are ISPS-controlled, and the ship's agent obtains passes for the technicians in advance. Our technicians travel from India on UK visas, so a ferry refit scope is best planned a season ahead and a coaster job as soon as the cargo call is fixed, leaving time for the visa to be issued.

• 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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