Thickness Measurement for Ro-Pax Ferries and High-Speed Craft at Ystad

Inspection services for ships at Ystad

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

Ferry berths, lay-by time and docking for Ystad ships

There is no drydock in Ystad, so in-port gauging takes place alongside at the ferry berths or at a quay where a ship lies between rotations. The Polish ro-pax ships often spend part of each day alongside between crossings, enough for targeted work on vehicle-deck areas, voids and machinery piping when the deck is clear and the crew can release spaces. The fast craft are turned round quickly in service, so meaningful work on them is usually done during scheduled maintenance periods, when the operator can take a craft out of the timetable for days rather than hours.

Full structural surveys belong at the docking. The Polish ferries commonly dock at yards in Poland, and the Bornholm catamarans go to yards able to handle aluminium high-speed craft. We work for the operator wherever the ship is, so the in-port readings from Ystad and the docking programme can be planned as one job, with the team either completing the scope in Ystad or travelling on to the yard.

• Świnoujście ferry berths — vehicle-deck plating, ramp, bow and stern door structure and machinery piping gauged while the ship lies between crossings.
• Bornholm fast-craft berth — aluminium hull and wet-deck thickness readings with dye penetrant crack checks during maintenance periods.
• Quays used for lay-overs — longer jobs on ferries out of service between rotations or awaiting a new charter.
• Vehicle decks during quiet sailing days — drainage gutters, lashing points and deck stiffeners measured when decks can be closed off.
• The operator's docking yard — the team travels to complete renewal-survey gauging begun in Ystad.

Ferry regulation, high-speed craft rules and port state control

Port state control in Ystad is carried out by the Swedish Transport Agency under the Paris MoU, but for the ferries the more significant regime is the EU system of inspections for ro-pax ships and high-speed passenger craft in regular service between member states, set out in Directive (EU) 2017/2110. It requires an inspection before a ship or craft starts on a route and regular inspections after that, including during a crossing, with structural condition, vehicle-deck integrity and watertight and weathertight doors under scrutiny. The ferries on these routes fly Polish, Danish or other flags, so their flag administrations add their own surveys, and their class societies survey them on the usual cycle.

The catamarans are built and surveyed under the IMO High-Speed Craft Code rather than the conventional rules for steel ships, which shifts the inspection emphasis towards fatigue cracking in aluminium structure as much as general wastage. Steel ferries on these short crossings, meanwhile, rack up load cycles quickly, and winter road salt carried onto vehicle decks speeds corrosion. Ships calling at EU ports carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, and ferries of 5,000 gross tonnage and above report emissions for the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime, which is prompting operators to plan newer, more efficient tonnage and to look closely at how much life their current ships have left.

Ships trading to Ystad are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Ystad

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

Copenhagen Airport is the usual arrival point; direct trains run from Copenhagen across the Øresund Bridge to Ystad, timed to connect with the Bornholm sailings. Malmö Airport at Sturup is nearer by road but has fewer international connections. The ferry terminals are ISPS-controlled, so the agent registers the technicians with the terminal and the operator and arranges passes. The team travels from India on Schengen visas, and because ferry operators plan their maintenance periods well ahead, visas can usually be obtained in good time.

• 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.

Related