Thickness Gauging for Ferries and Cargo Ships in the Bay of Santander

Inspection services for ships at Santander

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

Where gauging happens around the bay

Most readings are taken alongside. Ferries in the passenger terminal are gauged during their turnaround or an extended lay-over, usually in the ballast tanks, on the vehicle decks and in the spaces near ramps and stern doors. Car carriers at the vehicle quays are measured between loading and discharge, when decks are clear and ramps can be lowered for access. Bulk carriers and general cargo ships at the southern-shore terminals allow hold and tank access once cargo is out, and gauging in the machinery spaces covers sea water piping and scrubber lines on ships that have them.

Drydock work is available in the bay itself, where a shipyard serves coasters, tugs, workboats and some larger merchant ships, and further along the northern coast where bigger yards deal with larger vessels. An owner can therefore gauge at Santander, send the steel list to the yard of choice and have technicians return in dock for post-blast readings. Roads outside the bay can be used for pre-arrival gauging by launch, but in practice most ships are gauged alongside because the bay offers sheltered berths.

• Passenger and ferry berths: ballast tanks, vehicle decks, ramps and stern door structure gauged between sailings
• Vehicle and ro-ro quays: car carrier side shell, deck plating and ramp hinges between cargo operations
• Bulk terminals on the southern shore: hold frames, tank tops and hopper tanks on bulkers carrying cement, grain and minerals
• General cargo and project quays: deck, hatch cover and tank structure on conventional cargo ships
• The bay's repair yard and slipways: smaller ships hauled out or docked for repair
• Anchorage inside the bay: pre-docking gauging by launch for ships waiting for a berth or a yard slot

Regulation, ferry operations and EU rules in Santander

Port state control at Santander is carried out for the Paris MoU by inspectors of the Capitanía Marítima under the Dirección General de la Marina Mercante. Ro-pax ships fall under the EU's harmonised survey requirements for passenger ships, and their owners maintain structural records closely; thickness readings on ballast tanks and vehicle decks are a regular part of that evidence, particularly when a ship nears a special survey or a sale. Cargo ships on short-sea routes through the bay are inspected on the usual risk basis.

EU measures now shape ferry and short-sea economics as well. EU ETS applies to voyages between EU ports and to part of those between EU and non-EU ports, which includes crossings to England in part, and FuelEU Maritime sets intensity limits on the energy used. Operators therefore look hard at hull condition, propulsion efficiency and retrofit options, and structural gauging precedes any retrofit that opens the hull. The Ship Recycling Regulation also requires an Inventory of Hazardous Materials on ships calling at EU ports, which owners of older ro-ro tonnage deal with alongside survey planning.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Santander 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 Santander

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

Technicians fly from India to Madrid or another European hub and then to Santander Airport, or arrive through Bilbao and travel by road along the coast. Port and terminal access is requested by the ship's agent, who also arranges launches for any anchorage work. Spanish entry for Indian nationals requires a Schengen visa, so the team plans around visa issue and the ship's schedule; ferry work is easiest because sailing dates are known well in advance.

• 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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