Ship Thickness Measurement for Fishing, Cargo and Cruise Vessels in Reykjavík

Inspection services for ships at Reykjavík

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

Where gauging happens in Reykjavík and around Iceland

In Reykjavík, the fishing harbour and the quays around the Old Harbour are where trawlers lie between trips, and most gauging on fishing vessels happens there or at the repair workshops and slipways serving the fleet. Owners generally prefer the work done while the crew is ashore between trips, when fish holds are empty and washed out. Sundahöfn's container and general cargo quays give shorter windows on feeders, while the fuel terminal allows limited ballast and deck work on tankers during discharge. Cruise ships at Skarfabakki are reachable from the quay, and their internal spaces can be worked while passengers change.

Iceland has ship-repair capacity for fishing vessels and smaller ships, including a significant yard in Akureyri in the north, but large cargo ships and cruise ships dock abroad, typically in Denmark, Norway, Poland, the Faroe Islands or further afield. Grundartangi, on Hvalfjörður north of Reykjavík, is the place to measure bulk carriers serving the smelters while they discharge or load. For ships docking outside Iceland, a Reykjavík call before the docking is a sensible point for pre-docking measurements, since weather rarely allows the same work at anchor.

• Old Harbour fishing quays — fish hold, refrigeration piping and stern ramp measurements on trawlers between trips.
• Sundahöfn container quays — ballast tank and deck gauging on container feeders within their berth windows.
• Skarfabakki cruise berth — ice-belt and bow structure gauging on expedition cruise ships during turnarounds or end-of-season lay-ups.
• Reykjavík fuel terminal — deck and ballast tank measurements on product tankers during discharge, with cargo tanks closed.
• Grundartangi industrial port — hold frame, hatch coaming and ballast tank gauging on bulk carriers serving the smelters.
• Icelandic repair yards — docking gauging on fishing vessels and smaller ships at Icelandic slipways and docks, including in Akureyri.

Regulation, fisheries and Arctic context for Reykjavík

Iceland is a Paris MoU member and an EEA state, though not part of the EU. Reykjavík lies outside the North Sea and Baltic Sea SOx ECAs, so the global MARPOL Annex VI limit of 0.50% sulphur applies at sea; national rules for territorial and port waters should be confirmed with the agent, as they can be stricter. Feeders and cruise ships that also trade into European ECAs may carry scrubbers, and their wash-water and overboard piping is worth measuring at each docking.

Two local factors shape gauging here. First, fishing vessels sit outside the IACS ESP regime and many smaller ones are not classed by an IACS society at all, so their inspection scope is set by class rules for fishing vessels where classed, or by the Icelandic Transport Authority's requirements and the owner's own maintenance programme. Fish holds, refrigeration and seawater cooling piping, and trawl decks are the typical concerns. Second, expedition cruise ships operating in polar waters fall under the IMO Polar Code and carry ice or polar class notations, so their ice belt and bow structure are inspected closely after each Arctic season, and owners want gauging results before deciding the repair scope for the next.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Reykjavík meet it with an exhaust gas cleaning system rather than compliant fuel. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service, especially on open-loop systems, and are worth adding to the gauging scope.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Reykjavík

A gauging job at Reykjavík 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.

Keflavík International Airport is the gateway to Iceland, south-west of Reykjavík and connected to the city by road; it has direct flights to many European cities, so the team travels from India via a European hub. Sundahöfn, the fuel terminal and Grundartangi are ISPS-controlled, with passes arranged through the ship's agent, while fishing harbour access is arranged with the vessel owner. Iceland is in the Schengen area, so the team needs a Schengen visa applied for in India. Winter weather can disrupt flights and outdoor work, so we build some margin into winter schedules.

• 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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