Despite the delays impacting many of China’s repair shipyards, a vessel completed its second special survey, drydock and Alfa Laval BWTS retrofit two days ahead of schedule and 7% below budget
SeaQuest Shipmanagement supervised the Alfa Laval BWTS retrofit install on 2010-built, 34,400-dwt Handysize dry bulk carrier San Felice at COSCO Nantong as part of its second special survey. The work list included routine drydock works, hull blasting and painting, cargo hold blasting and painting, maintaining the hatch cover hydraulic system, other minor deck and engine works, and installing an Alfa Laval PureBallast BWTS, including ballast line modification, new electric cabling and remote control system. The duration of the repairs was estimated at 28 days.
The work had originally been scheduled for early December 2019 but was postponed for commercial reasons before Covid-19 struck, just ahead of Chinese New Year. In the last week of January 2020 China was severely hit by Covid-19 coronavirus and COSCO Nantong and all its subcontractors were forced to stop work until 8 February 2020.
Yard activities were reactivated on 9 February 2020, although there were still problems to overcome: there was a lack of local manpower for another couple of weeks and receiving parts was also problematic. At the same time China implemented a travel ban that affected all expatriate superintendents, necessitating the appointment of a Chinese superintendent, recruited from the SeaQuest local team. Thanks to the excellent relationship between SeaQuest and the yard’s top management, the vessel was included in COSCO’s ’first priority vessels’ list. Also critical were SeaQuest’s long-standing connections with the domestic industry and technical experts, which meant San Felice was successfully redelivered two days ahead of schedule on 5 March 2020.
“We are proud of our achievement,” said SeaQuest’s director of the service centre in Genoa Massimo de Vincenzo. “It clearly shows how expertise, continuous co-ordination between owners and managers, a strong local presence and selecting reliable partners to carry out demanding projects can overcome any hurdle. We are particularly grateful to the master of the San Felice and his crew for their high professionalism and commitment during such a critical situation, and to COSCO’s management and staff for the assistance granted throughout the whole repair period”.
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