SeaTec carries out complex propeller blades repair in Vietnam
In September, SeaTec successfully supervised a propeller blade repair operation for a bulk carrier in Vietnam.
While anchored at a Vietnamese port, the vessel had been involved in a collision with a navigation buoy resulting in considerable mechanical damage to all five propeller blades. Francesca Ghigliazza, subsea Asia design lead at SeaTec, explains that safety concerns meant that an immediate repair was required: “Four of the blades were bent with substantial damage to the edge of the fifth. This made it unsafe for the vessel to continue to operate.”
Nakashima Propeller, the manufacturer of the damaged blades, recommended that the propeller blades be cropped in order to restore mass balance to the propeller, thereby allowing the vessel to perform effectively in water. Nakashima also requested that SeaTec oversee the propeller cropping work in order to provide an additional level of expertise as well as the benefit of SeaTec’s many years’ experience in propeller repairs.
SeaTec’s dive superintendent was mobilized to Vietnam at short notice to carry out the repair. The cropping lines were carefully plotted to Nakashima’s recommendation, with all blade edges subsequently re-profiled. The job was successfully completed within three days, enabling the vessel to proceed to its next destination.
As an expert in this type of subsea repair work, SeaTec receives regular requests to repair and maintain damaged propellers: “We are able to provide cost effective specialist support like this all over the world because SeaTec has invested, over more than a decade, in establishing the largest global subsea inspections, repair and maintenance network servicing marine and offshore vessels,” says Francesca. “This allows Seatec to offer the customer significant time and cost savings by using the best available local support, while adding additional expertise only where necessary. In this case, SeaTec provided additional project management support, based on SeaTec’s many years of close cooperation with Nakashima.”
For more information on SeaTec’s propeller repairs, contact Francesca Ghigliazza.