The immeasurable value of underwater inspections

September 6, 2016 - Building upon conventional technical skills and know-how while also taking advantage of the latest technology, Hydrex offers a unique hull monitoring service to its customers. This gives shipowners total control of their ship's hull condition and consequently its performance, with only a minimum of work on their part. Underwater inspections represent a small investment and, if properly done, have the potential to save an owner a great deal of money. Competent underwater inspections, particularly if carried out regularly can detect:

 • Problems with the propeller such as bent or damaged blades (which can put undue strain on bearings), roughness due to fouling, cavitation damage or bad polishing which can reduce the propeller’s efficiency.
• Anodes which have wasted away, rendering the cathodic protection system unworkable, leading to corrosion and added hull friction
• Hull cracks or other damage which, if not rapidly arrested, can worsen and increase the cost of any subsequent repair
• Ropes inside the stern tube assembly which may cause seal problems if neglect
• Leaking stern tube or thruster seals which can cause an environmental problem in port and lead to costly changes to a ship’s schedule if not caught quickly and repaired.
• Clogged sea chest grids (preventing proper cooling of the ship’s engines), or loose or damaged grids.
• Loose or broken grids on thruster tunnels which can result in damage to thruster propellers
• Damaged, bent, broken or detached bilge keels which again can become much worse if not caught early.
• A damaged rudder which will continue to deteriorate if not addressed rapidly, resulting in the need for much more costly repairs and representing a safety hazard in extreme cases.

Regular inspections carried out by competent divers and followed by comprehensive and accurate reports can detect any of these or other problems so that they can be corrected early and prevent more costly repairs and further damage. Because we have over 40 year experience in both maintenance and repair services, we can carry out any required follow up repair very fast without any unnecessary loss of time. Planning in a new date is not needed as all our diver/technicians are skilled to perform the repair work as well. If the damage found during an inspection can be anticipated, the required equipment can be mobilized in advance. Otherwise it can be transported to the location of the vessel immediately from one of our fast response centers where a large stock is available for our teams at all times. This was demonstrated last month when a rope guard had come loose, which was revealed during an underwater inspection. The Hydrex team secured the rope guard without any delay for the owner.