Never has ‘don’t rock the boat’ been more apt

Dealing with sea giants worth fortunes demands a level of precision and an obsession with detail that makes a dock master worth his salt, writes Barbara Cole

BEING in charge of a 5000-ton ship when it is out of the water is not for the fainthearted. It calls for nerves of steel, confidence and an excellent support system.

Cheslin van Wyk has one of the riskiest, and most important, jobs in the maritime industry. And also one of the most distinctive.

He is in charge of the floating dock at the South African Shipyards, and one of only four dock masters in Durban.

At 32, he is also the youngest in the country.

His job means he is responsible for getting massive heavyweight ships, worth millions of rand, out of the water and into the dry dock so repair work and maintenance can be carried out.

It is a tricky, complicated procedure and he confides: “Yes, it is a risky, dangerous job.”

It involves precise calculations and the meticulous navigating of the ship into the dry dock and placing it on to a cradle of thousands of wooden blocks, of varying heights where dimensions have been carefully worked out to take its shape and weight. “The ship cannot sit on nothing,” he says.

The blocks have to be stacked in exactly the right position: If they are not, the repairers cannot work on the vessel.

As the ship can sway right and left, and backwards and forwards, as it is being navigated into the dry dock, it is winched in by ropes on all four corners.

The ship has to be perfectly stabilised and centralised.

Getting it centralised is where “the headaches come in”.

It is a balancing act of note as one false move and the vessel can be damaged or even topple over.

The steel in the ship could also be corroded from salty sea water and could slice into the blocks, making them unstable and unsafe.

Ships have to go into a dry dock for a survey every five years and Van Wyk has to know beforehand exactly how the ship was built.

He holds lengthy discussions with the captain and the engineer, checking out the ship’s blueprint, where maintenance is needed and in the case of a ship that has been damaged, he needs to know exactly where that damage is.

Armed with this information, Van Wyk then works out the dimensions of all the blocks.

“No two ships are alike; that is where it becomes complicated.”

He also needs to know about the ballast water in the ship. The water inside the bottom of the ship helps keep the ship upright and stable out of the water, but when it is safely up on the blocks, this water is emptied out.

There is also a lot of paperwork – such as indemnity forms to sign – to do before the ship goes into dry dock.

Everything on board – the machinery, the pumps – has to be switched off before the ship comes into the dry dock as there cannot be any problems from these during docking.

Van Wyk has a team of 10 people who help navigate the ship into the dry dock.

“You can’t rush this and it can take up to four hours to dock a ship. It’s the best feeling when the ship is on blocks,” said Van Wyk, a mechanical engineer and former petty officer who spent 10 years in the South African Navy.

He also plays an important role when a new ship is launched, as was the case with the recent launch of the Transnet Port Authority’s new fleet of tugs.

But you won’t find him joining in the official celebrations and speeches at the shipyard: he is busy moving the latest tug out to sea and lowering it from its position in the dry dock into the ocean.