Ship Thickness Gauging at the Port of Volos and in the Pagasetic Gulf

Inspection services for ships at Volos

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

Where a ship can be gauged in Volos

Volos has no large merchant shipyard, so gauging here is done on ships afloat. At the cargo quays, bulk carriers and general cargo ships are measured during their calls, hold by hold as discharge finishes or before loading begins, with hatch covers, coamings and ballast tanks added where the crew can make them safe. Ships waiting for a berth lie at anchor in the gulf off the port, reached by launch through the agent, and a few days there is enough for deck, hatch cover and ballast tank work. Ferries are gauged in the passenger harbour or at lay-by berths during the winter, when one can be taken out of service for a few days without cutting the island links.

For dry-docking, ships from Volos usually head south. Chalkis Shipyards is the closest docking yard, reached through the North Euboean Gulf and the Euripus narrows for ships that fit the passage, or around Evia otherwise, and the Perama, Salamina and Elefsina yards near Piraeus take larger ships. Gauging done at Volos before that voyage lets the owner send measured readings with the docking enquiry and compare yards on the same scope. For ships trading regularly into the port, a programme can be spread over several calls, measuring a few holds and tanks each time until the full renewal survey extent is covered before the ship reaches the yard.

• Bulk and general cargo quays: hold, hatch cover, coaming and ballast tank gauging during steel, cement and grain calls
• Pagasetic Gulf anchorage: pre-docking, pre-purchase and on-hire gauging by launch on ships waiting for a berth or orders
• Passenger harbour: car deck, ramp, void and ballast tank gauging on Sporades ferries during winter lay-ups
• Industrial berths around the gulf: deck and hold readings on ships serving local plants, arranged with the berth operator
• Chalkida and Piraeus-area yards: where Volos ships usually dock for bottom gauging and steel renewal

Inspection regime and trade patterns at Volos

Volos is a Paris MoU port, and the Hellenic Coast Guard carries out port state control on foreign-flagged ships through the Volos harbour master. General cargo ships and older bulk carriers in regional trades feature prominently in Paris MoU detention records, and the structural deficiencies found most often on them, such as wasted hatch covers and coamings, holed air pipes and ventilators, and corroded deck fittings, are exactly what a short gauging scope can reveal before an inspector does. Ships calling at EU ports must carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, and Volos calls count as EU voyages for the Emissions Trading System and FuelEU Maritime.

The cargoes shape the work. Cement, clinker and minerals are abrasive and dusty; they wear hold coatings, choke bilge wells and speed up wastage in the lower parts of holds where residues and wash water collect after cleaning. Grain, by contrast, needs clean, sound holds before loading, so a charterer's hold inspection can expose coating breakdown and rust scale that an owner had not planned to deal with until the next docking. Ships moving between these trades go through repeated cleaning and wetting cycles that hold steel tolerates badly. On such ships we measure the lower hold, the bilge wells and the hatch cover undersides closely, because that is where condition usually runs ahead of the last survey record.

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

A gauging job at Volos 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.

Thessaloniki and Athens airports both serve Volos by road, and Central Greece Airport at Nea Anchialos, close to the city, has mainly seasonal flights. The port is under ISPS control, so the ship's agent arranges entry passes in advance with the technicians' certificates and equipment lists, and books launches for ships at anchor in the gulf. Technicians travel from India on Schengen visas. For ships trading here regularly, we suggest arranging visas ahead of the next likely call rather than waiting until the berth date is fixed.

• 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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