Hydrex Underwater technology

When a 204-meter cruise vessel suffered an oil leak in its stern tube seal assembly, Hydrex was asked to carry out a permanent seal replacement. The repair was carried out with the Hydrex flexible mobdock technique and performed in stages to allow the ship to keep the tight schedule of the cruise it was on.... Read more

At the end of 2011 Hydrex mobilized a diver/technician team to Rio De Janeiro to carry out a detailed inspection and necessary repair to the damaged port-side propeller blades of a 73-meter supply vessel. A wooden beam had fouled the propeller and had damaged three of the four blades. The affected areas of the blades... Read more

When the bow thruster unit of a 348-meter container vessel needed to be overhauled, Hydrex sent a diver/technician team to the ship to remove the unit on-site and reinstall it again two months later after it had been overhauled. The operation was performed in stages at several locations to allow the vessel to keep to... Read more

Over the last few months the rudders of several container and general cargo vessels from a number of different fleets, were coated with the Ecospeed  glassflake vinylester surface treated coating (STC) at shipyards in China, Poland and Belgium. The coating ensures lasting protection against cavitation damage for the rudders of these vessels for the remainder... Read more

Last month the application of Ecospeed on the two floaters of the semi-submersible mobile spacecraft launch platform Odyssey started in Malaysia. The vessel was converted from a mobile drilling rig in 1997 and is used for equatorial Pacific Ocean satellite launches. She is stationed in the Port of Long Beach, California. In total 8500 m²... Read more

There is currently no hull coating available which will not foul. The only way to remove this fouling is by cleaning it off. Like it or not, ship hull cleaning is an essential part of operating a vessel or a fleet efficiently and economically. Any level of fouling, including biofilm or slime, carries with it... Read more

 A world’s first in underwater repair: the insertion of a complete, prefabricated replacement hull section in a badly damaged ship at anchor. On Friday 22nd July, 2011 the Tsavliris Salvage Group urgently dispatched salvage tug Stevns Battler in response to a call for assistance from bulk carrier Navios Sagittarius (GRT: 38,849, DWT: 75,756), laden with... Download .PDF

When the shell plating of a 300-meter bulker was indented over a length of 150 meters after a grounding in the Suez Canal, a large crack 1.5 meters long appeared, making it impossible for the vessel to sail any further. To close off the crack and allow the vessel to continue its route, Hydrex sent... Read more

A Norwegian based shipping company chose Ecospeed to give lasting protection to their two newbuild general cargo vessels. The first vessel, m/v Golfstraum, was delivered in November. Her sister vessel m/v Rystraum is planned for a 2012 delivery. Both vessels are of the highest ice class and will be trading in North Europe and the... Read more

The underwater hull coating Ecospeed offers a TBT-free, copper free, biocide-free and silicone oil free solution for the protection of the underwater hull. The Ecospeed hull protection and performance system is today’s Best Available Technology for reduction of fuel consumption, GHG and other emissions through hull hydrodynamics and fouling control. In 2008, stringent tests were... Read more

Founded in 1893 Ernst Russ is a Hamburg based, family owned shipping company. For close to 120 years, Ernst Russ has been offering customers the highest standards in ship management. The ER Fleet Manual, introduced by Ernst Russ long before international standards were developed, is continuously updated and exceeds all standard requirements and regulations. Download .PDF

Recently a Hydrex diver/technician team mobilized to Hong Kong to reinstall a bow thruster on a 300-meter container ship after the unit had been overhauled. After all the preparations had been made, the team lowered the bow thruster unit into the water, positioned it in the thruster tunnel and secured it. Because the vessel was... Read more

When several of the boss head bolts of the main propeller of a ro/ro vessel were found to be missing, the manufacturer asked Hydrex to engineer a solution that would allow the replacement of these bolts on the vessel and similar vessels without having to go to drydock. In close communication with the manufacturer, the... Read more

In the last few years Hydrex divers have carried out thruster operations on numerous occasions around the world. This article gives a summary of some of the more important ones. Replacement of azimuth thruster on crane barge in Gabon A Hydrex diver/technician team mobilized to an offshore crane barge stationed at its service base in... Read more

One year after the Ecospeed underwater hull coating had been applied on her rudder, the 197-meter bulk carrier Gypsum Integrity came into drydock in Setúbal, Portugal while Ecospeed was applied on the rudder of her sister vessel, Gypsum Centennial at the same location. This allowed the owners to see the excellent condition of Ecospeed on... Read more

Recently the underwater hull of m/v John Noble, one of the ferries owned by Staten Island Ferries was coated with Ecospeed in Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.A. Under normal operation, ferries have to drydock once a year to comply with classification regulations. During the busy tourist season these ferries need to be sailing to make money so... Read more

The following case studies give an account of some of the more important recent seal repairs performed by Hydrex. Underwater stern tube seal repairs in France The Hydrex flexible mobdock technique was used to reposition the aft stern tube seal assembly of a 210-meter container ship in Le Havre. A Hydrex diver/technician team performed this... Read more

When British Antarctic Survey’s RRS (Royal Research Ship) Ernest Shackleton was drydocked recently in Denmark, the superintendent, engineers and paint specialists there to check the condition of the hull paint were amazed. After two seasons of battering its way through ice up to 2.5 meters thick with a high content of gravel and volcanic lava... Download .PDF

During a conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels, Hydrex was presented an award for the ECOTEC-STC project which was named as one of the best LIFE projects completed in 2010. To select the best LIFE-Environment projects a lengthy identification and evaluation process was followed, based on a set of best practice criteria. These... Read more

Hydrex on-site hull repair services include the renewal of both small and large areas of damaged hull plating. These repairs can be carried out above or below water, according to the circumstances, with tailor-made mobdocks. Normal commercial activities can therefore continue without disruption. These operations follow the Hydrex procedure for welding cracks in the vessel's... Read more

Over the last couple of years there has been a trend of extending the maximum drydock interval from five to seven and a half years. Several large classification societies already allow this extension and more are bound to follow soon. Extension can help achieve large savings According to Germanischer Lloyd (GL), keeping a ship in... Read more

Over the last months Hydrex diver/technicians have carried out more than 25 propeller repairs around the world. Our divers were active in the Netherlands, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Panama, Singapore, the U.S.A. and many other countries. All operations were performed to restore the propellers’ balance. They were brought back to as close to their optimum... Read more

Last month the 80-meter, 1800 ton deadweight, ice strengthened ship RSS Ernest Shackleton came into drydock in Frederikshavn in Denmark after sailing with Ecospeed on its underwater hull since October 2009. The vessel is primarily used as a logistics vessel to resupply the stations of its owners, the British Antarctic Survey. During its voyages to... Read more

 A team of Hydrex diver/technicians performed inspection work on some sixty legs of an oil terminal located in Yanbu, just north of Al-Mu’ajiz in Saudi Arabia. The facility had been closed since the start of the first Gulf War and is planned to be put back into operation twenty years later after a full refit.... Read more

Four months after Hydrex diver/technicians removed the bow thruster of a 280-meter container vessel in Singapore, a Hydrex team once again mobilized to this location to reinstall the overhauled unit underwater with the use of the Hydrex flexible mobdock. The superintendent of the ship was very satisfied with the first part of the operation. He... Read more

Hydrex diver/technician team mobilized to an offshore crane barge stationed at its service base in Gabon to replace one of the vessel’s swing-up azimuth thrusters with the spare. The operation had to be carried out in a very short timeframe because the crane barge was scheduled to leave for an operation in Nigeria. All repairs... Read more

Recently Hydrex Spain carried out a permanent insert repair on a 225-meter cargo vessel at anchorage in Algeciras.  The vessel had suffered a stress-related crack on the port side next to the bilge keel and water was coming into the ballast tank. The classification society therefore required that a repair be carried out before the... Read more

Two months after a Canadian shipowner applied Ecospeed for the first time to one of his ro/ro vessels, he decided to send a second ro/ro ship into drydock in Las Palmas to have the old paint system on the  underwater hull completely stripped off to bare steel to be replaced with Ecospeed. Why the change?... Read more

Recently the underwater hull of the second of the three 98-meter ferries crossing Delaware Bay from Cape May to Lewes was coated with Ecospeed in Staten Island, New York. MV Twin Capes is owned by the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) and was one of the original three vessels of the company’s 1970s fleet.... Read more

Recently the rudders of four container vessels, owned by three different owners, were coated with Ecospeed at shipyards in China, Singapore and Qatar. The rudders of these vessels are given lasting protection by Ecospeed against cavitation for the remainder of their sailing life. The decision to use Ecospeed was made by the shipowners after cavitation... Read more

To save time and money for the owners of a 270-meter container vessel that was leaking oil, a Hydrex diver/technician team replaced four stern tube seals, using one of Hydrex’s flexible mobdocks. This enabled the team to carry out the entire operation underwater during the vessel’s stop in Algeciras. The diver/technicians mobilized from the Hydrex... Read more