By end of April this year – Dales Marine, one of the leading UK Ship Repair & Maintenance companies had already docked 49 vessels between their Aberdeen, Leith, Greenock, and Troon drydock facilities.
An impressive number of bookings are in place for remainder of 2019 across:
• Aberdeen 112m x 21m
• Leith Imperial 168m x 21.3m
• Grangemouth 105m x 16m
• Greenock Garvel 200m x 21m
• Troon 120m x 17m
With over 30 years of experience, Dales Marine Services is already well recognised for its fast turnaround of service to tight deadlines. This recognition is not taken lightly by the Company, and they continue to make sound investments to maximise service delivery for their Clients, and as new demands emerge from a wider and changing market place.
So how are Dales Marine responding to the demand and changing market? First and foremost – investing in people. Dales Marine value their highly skilled workforce, and are demonstrating their desire to develop and maintain this strength through an impressive intake of 29 (off) apprentices during 2019. This planned to include - engineers, platers/ fabricators, welders, pipe fitters, and electricians. Their training designed to cover aspects of advancing technology.
Dales Marine are also upbeat about the added value that will be delivered from both recent and forthcoming investments across their facilities:
They are seeing more vessels fitted with propulsion pods, and less with tailshafts, so the need to upgrade with new equipment was important in making Dales the prime choice for North Sea vessel operators. At Aberdeen, the Company have made a 6-figure investment with a new 20t capacity crane and associated steelwork. This allowing work on main propulsion pods in the engineering workshop without the need to ship out to OEM workshops - thus reducing the time in dock for vessel owners, and allowing quicker return to work.
They have also invested in a new CNC plasma machine and heavy-duty saw in Aberdeen workshop. Being able to cut double the plates in half the time, or cut bigger sections with minimal effort saves time and ultimately costs. Mobilisation and demobilisation of vessel equipment spreads is something Dales Marine provide to a growing number of Clients. With most of these projects, timescale is a major factor, and these investments are already minimising turnaround time.
One of the company’s recent and largest investments was £1.5m for the fabrication and installation of new dry dock gates at its Leith facility. Although functional, the old gates have now been replaced with new – more energy efficient, and more economical. In summer 2018, Dales Marine facility at Leith was officially approved by the European Commission and placed on the EU Ship Recycling Register. The facility has a Ship Recycling Facility Plan that meets the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 1257/2013, and has already successfully decommissioned a number of ships - the first site in the UK to offer such a depolluting service, with the ability to also recycle ships.
This facility offers the advantage of being located within the Port of Leith – Scotland’s largest deep water impounded dock, and can therefore service a diverse range of vessels from those operating in oil & gas sector - including pipe layers, through to pelagic fishing trawlers. Dales Leith are also ‘on call ‘ for in any in service repairs required on visiting Cruise Ships.
Complimenting these investments at Leith is a new / larger fabrication workshop – now at final plan and design stage, allowing the company look forward to capitalising on new opportunities coming from increased output and increased size of steel fabrications.
Similar investment is taking place at Garvel facility, Greenock where a new office block, new engineering workshop and fabrication workshops are also at final plan and design stage. Garvel also boasts a 200m wet berth with alongside quay providing an excellent mobilisation and demobilisation facility. This also used for lifting out smaller/ lighter vessels for quayside docking.
The Company’s drydocks at Garvel Greenock, and Troon on Firth of Clyde, are ideally placed to support the ferry fleet serving the Islands and Peninsulas on the West Coast of Scotland, where Dales are handling emergency repairs along with scheduled maintenance and repair work. All dry dock facilities are run by a team of experienced management and time-served professionals providing reliability and quality on every project. All of the Company’s facilities are operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week - a vital support for the passenger ferry sector. Key to this vital support is the mobile rapid response unit based at Garvel – this team can be despatched across the West Coast and Islands to deal with any in service repairs required on ferry operations.
Whilst Greenock and Troon enjoy the majority of the Company’s activity supporting ferry fleets, and Aberdeen are also called into play - not only for docking, but for general in-service repairs. Aberdeen is ideally placed to provide in-service repairs for ferry operations between mainland Scotland and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland.
Drydock overhaul works can include for example:
• Main engine and machinery overhauls;
• Propulsion overhauls; • Tank surveys;
• Abrasive blasting of tanks;
• Reapplication of specialist coatings;
• Re-chlorination of fresh water tanks;
• Accommodation upgrades and window replacements;
• General steelwork repairs and modifications;
• RoRo ramps and rescue boat davit inspections.
It’s clear to see that Dales Marine are setting the pace for vessel drydocking, covering a wide range of vessel types. In addition, with significant upgrade across facilities, are also reaching out to the wider sector for engineering fabrication including oil & gas, petrochemical, renewables, and tidal energy. Dales Marine are confident that their Clients will benefit from the growing range of ‘wraparound’ services available alongside their dry dock facilities.
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