Marine engineering repair work going full steam ahead
Building a quay in Saldanha Bay to accommodate biggest vessels now imperative
THOSE heading for the most pleasant lunch at Royal Cape Yacht Club last Friday, hosted by the South African Institute of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects, would have been heartened by the array of cars, bakkies and other vehicles at L Berth. Those vehicles had carried contractors and their employees to the harbour for the refitting of the diamond recovery vessel Debmar Pacific, that’s been in Cape Town since June.
Given her massive top hamper and machinery, this is a major undertaking that employs dozens of contractors and sub-contractors. Electronics experts and marine engineers oversee the upgrade of the vessel’s sophisticated plant and propulsion machinery; others refurbish the accommodation and the galley. Before the vessel takes to sea, chandlers’ vans will bring a range of stores, including goodies to restock the pantry aboard.
A few years ago, Cape Town-based engineering contractors completed the installation of very sophisticated equipment aboard the Norwegian-built diamond exploration and sampling vessel SS Nujoma before she headed for the diamond fields off the Namibian coast.
In May this year, Debmarine ordered another very smart diamond recovery vessel, the seventh ship in its fleet. She will enter service in 2022, and estimates indicate that her operation could increase current diamond production by about 35%.
That the work aboard Debmar Pacific has been allocated to Cape Town’s marine engineering sector is most encouraging, and comes on top of other recent jobs when a bulker required machinery repairs, and two reefer ships required urgent attention following water ingress.
Another dead gull, the Italian Capesize ore carrier Roberto Rizzo that suffered crankshaft failure off Plettenberg Bay three weeks ago, remains anchored seven nautical miles north-east of the Port Elizabeth breakwater light. She’s too deep to enter any South African port to discharge her ore cargo before the replacement of her crankshaft, and bringing a specialised vessel to lighten her so she can go alongside a quay will be too expensive. Therefore she’ll probably be towed out east to discharge her cargo and undergo repair.
Two of these large ships suffered serious breakdowns this year. While two such incidents will not make an industry, building a long repair quay in Saldanha Bay with the water depth dredged to accommodate the largest vessels currently rounding the Cape has become imperative.
After all, laden tankers or ore carriers suffering major machinery calamities that require repair work to be conducted while the casualty is alongside could become more frequent, as vessels built during the shipping boom over a decade ago start showing their age. Such a facility will gladden the hearts of the marine engineering sector.
Apart from repair work that the local engineering sector undertook on the two troubled reefers last month, the arrival of several other reefer ships over the past fortnight to load citrus also yielded revenue for local engineering shops tasked to do minor work.
I understand that the unusual reefer calls were in response to problems in Port Elizabeth, necessitating the fruit to be trucked to Cape Town for shipment.
Farmers’ profits would have been eroded by another example of failure to render competitive and reliable services. Cape Town’s stevedores and others certainly benefited from the reefers’ windfall calls.
Returning to the lunch at the yacht club, the chief executive of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa), Sobantu Tilayi, drew a full house.
This cheerful, energetic and popular gent reassured guests that Samsa was at full steam ahead to ensure that the country is included on the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) final “White List”, that shows countries whose maritime training and certification procedures comply with international requirements.
Local seafarers had become alarmed earlier this year when the IMO published its new White List, omitting South Africa and even several more prominent maritime countries.
As White List status is essential for the international employment of local seafarers, that omission effectively nullified qualifications held by thousands of South African seafarers, threatening their employment aboard foreign-flagged ships.
Some South Africans are pilots in the Arabian Gulf, Australasia and elsewhere, indicative of the fact that South African mariners are in demand. However, Samsa now assures them that all will be well.
This leads to another note about piloting. Local shipping movements were delayed last week when, with the pilot launch suffering mechanical problems, a harbour work boat ferried the pilots.
However, because of restrictions on the operation of the work boat, pilots would board inward vessels only in daylight hours.
Although the launch is back in service, two ships were delayed by several hours this week because some of a work boat’s crew were adrift! Such events fall far short of the standards of an international port, raising an important question: Who pays for the associated delays to ships?
Talking of delays, Samsa still has not appointed a new chief executive, leaving an acting chief executive – albeit a competent person – to run this vital agency for about the past three years!
Just appoint him permanently!