Hull and Tank Thickness Measurement for Ships at Salamina Island

Inspection services for ships at Salamina

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

Where ships are gauged on and around Salamina

The Spanopoulos yard at Ampelakia covers both ends of the market. Its floating docks lift workboats, tugs, coasters and larger merchant ships, and its quays take vessels for afloat work. When a merchant ship is lifted, the dock period is the time to measure bottom and bilge plating, sea chests, the rudder and the stern frame, and to confirm suspect side shell before the yard closes up. On the smaller craft that make up much of the island's repair work, a docking survey tends to find wastage around sea chests, at the boundaries of fuel and ballast tanks and in the shell near the waterline, so short, focused gauging scopes are common and are usually booked once the lift date is fixed.

Kynosoura Dockyard on the eastern side of the island repairs ships afloat along its main pier and builds smaller vessels on its slipways, while its recycling activity brings end-of-life tonnage to the same shoreline. For ships in repair there, gauging is fitted around the steel and pipe renewal already under way. For idle ships in the bays, the agent arranges launches and the crew prepares tanks over several days. Because the Perama quays are a short boat ride away, one mobilisation can cover a ship on each side of the strait. Ships too large for the island's docks are taken to the bigger yards on the mainland side of the bay instead.

• Spanopoulos shipyard, Ampelakia: floating-dock gauging of bottom shell, sea chests, rudder and stern frame on merchant ships, tugs and coasters
• Ampelakia repair quays: afloat repair periods, with deck, tank and piping readings taken alongside the steel and pipe work
• Kynosoura Dockyard main pier: gauging during afloat repairs, ballast water system retrofits and coating work on tankers and bulk carriers
• Slipways and smaller yards along the eastern shore: shell and tank gauging on harbour craft, ferries, fishing vessels and workboats
• Sheltered anchorages and lay-up berths off Ampelakia: condition, pre-sale and reactivation gauging by launch over several days

Port control, harbour craft and end-of-life ships at Salamina

Salamina comes under the Paris MoU, and port state control and harbour supervision are carried out by the Hellenic Coast Guard, through the island's own harbour master and the wider Piraeus organisation. Foreign-flagged ships lying here for repair or lay-up remain liable to inspection, and a ship reactivating after a long idle period is a natural candidate, because PSC officers know what months of standing still do to fire mains, ballast piping and lifesaving appliances. Every ship calling at an EU port must also hold an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, a requirement that weighs more heavily at Salamina than at most ports, given the recycling activity on the island.

The harbour fleet gives Salamina a second inspection market. Tugs, bunker barges, small tankers and passenger vessels working the Piraeus area are surveyed under Greek flag rules or by their class, and their owners dock them on the island regularly. Their steel ages in particular ways: bunker tankers in their cargo and ballast tank boundaries, tugs in the fendering zones and around the towing gear, passenger craft in vehicle decks and voids. Gauging on these vessels is usually done in dock, at short notice, with a scope set by the attending surveyor. For the larger merchant ships repaired here, the logic is the same as across the strait: readings taken before or at the start of a repair let the yard order plate and plan its labour.

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

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

The team lands at Athens International Airport and travels by road to Perama, crossing to Salamina on the car ferry to Paloukia, or reaching ships at anchor by launch from the mainland side. Yard entry at Ampelakia or Kynosoura and launch bookings for vessels in the bay are made through the ship's agent, who receives crew details and technician certificates in advance. Technicians need Schengen visas issued in India, so we start applications as soon as the docking or lay-up dates are known and keep the agent updated on travel.

• 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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