Ship Thickness Measurement at the Altınova Shipyards, Yalova

Inspection services for ships at Yalova

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

Where we gauge in the Yalova yards

Most work is in floating docks and at the repair quays of the Altınova yards, under each yard's safety, permit and access rules. In dock, we measure bottom plating, bilge, side shell and sea chests while the hull is dry and staging or access platforms are in place, and gauge cargo holds, ballast tanks and cargo tanks as they are cleaned, gas-freed and certified. Alongside, before or after docking, the focus shifts to decks, hatch covers, internal structure and piping systems, which can be reached without holding up the dock.

Pre-docking gauging is done at anchor off Yalova or at the ship's last port, so that the yard receives a steel renewal estimate before the docking date. After steel renewal, we can re-gauge adjacent plating that was close to the renewal limit, so the superintendent has a complete record to put before the attending class surveyor. Each yard runs its own gate and permit procedures, which the ship's agent and the yard's project manager arrange before the team arrives. In-dock thickness gauging and the post-renewal checks go into one report, so the surveyor sees the whole picture rather than two partial ones.

• Floating docks at the Altınova yards — bottom, bilge, side shell and sea chest gauging while the ship is dry during the renewal or docking survey
• Repair quays in the yard zone — gauging of holds, tanks, decks, hatch covers and piping before and after docking
• Anchorage off Yalova — pre-docking gauging on ships waiting for a dock, giving the yard a steel estimate before arrival
• Conversion berths — condition gauging of existing structure to be retained in conversion projects, marked against the conversion drawings
• Tuzla yards and Kocaeli terminals nearby — combined programmes across the eastern Marmara within one mobilisation

Regulation and market context for Turkish shipyards

Yalova lies on the Sea of Marmara, outside the Mediterranean SOx ECA (which ends at the entrance to the Dardanelles), and Turkey participates in both the Mediterranean MoU and the Black Sea MoU on port state control. For a ship in a Yalova dock, the regulatory work is mostly class and flag: renewal and docking surveys, the ESP requirements for oil tankers, chemical tankers and bulk carriers, and any port state control deficiencies carried in from previous ports. A docking is also the natural time to deal with scrubber wash-water and overboard piping, which is easiest to repair at the shell connections with the ship dry.

The market around the yards is competitive and international. Turkish shipyards compete for European and regional repair work with yards in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and schedule reliability is a central factor in choosing between them. That puts weight on early, organised gauging: a yard can only commit to an undocking date once it knows the steel scope, and owners who bring measured readings to the discussion are better placed to agree a realistic programme. Ships with EU owners or trading to EU ports also carry EU ETS and FuelEU obligations on those voyages.

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

A gauging job at Yalova 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.

The team flies into Istanbul, usually Sabiha Gökçen Airport, and reaches Yalova by road over the Osmangazi Bridge or by fast ferry from Istanbul. Each yard in the Altınova zone has its own gate procedures, so access is arranged through the yard's project manager and the ship's agent, with crew lists, technician certificates and equipment details sent in advance; launches for anchorage work are booked by the agent. Turkish visas are required for technicians travelling from India, so we apply once the docking date is set and ask to be told at once if the yard moves the slot.

• 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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