No 3 dry dock is now in full operation following extensive refurbishment after 30 years of being laid up as a dry dock facility. The work has been carried out over the past 2 years whereby the dock entrance was fully dredged allowing both gates to be brought back into operational after extensive steel repairs and new seal arrangements were fitted to the sealing cill. Once watertight, this allowed the gates to be closed and sealed and over 3000 tonnes of concrete, which sealed the dock from the river, was removed over a period of 16 weeks. Other works included removing and refurbishing the main dock flooding valves, The installation of a thruster pit for drop down and Azimuth type thrusters, extensive repairs to the dock walls and main drainage culverts and upgrades to the pump room took place.
C2C Success for Gary & Charlie
Gary Wilson and Charlie Barley two of UKDOCKS Directors completed their sponsored Coast to Coast challenge, cycling 144 miles over three days, cycling from Whitehaven to Tynemouth. They raised £3565 for St Barnabas Hospice. Great effort.
We wish to thank all of our Friends, Employees and Companies who donated and made this a great success.
UK Docks Duo to tackle C2C for St. Barnabas Hospice
UKDOCKS Marine Services are supporting Gary Wilson and Charlie Barley in their efforts to raise sponsorship for St. Barnabas Hospice.
They will be cycling from Whitehaven to Newcastle (West Coast to East Coast) along the C2C route. A 140-mile journey, with about a 10,000 feet ascent, they intend to complete this over 3 days, starting on the 17 September 2015.
For those that are not aware, Charlie’s younger sister passed away at St. Barnabas Hospice on the 1st September 2014, after a long battle with cancer. Although she was only in the Hospice for a short time, she received fantastic palliative care and we will be supporting Charlie and Gary in their efforts to raise as much money as possible on this anniversary.
We are grateful for any donations, no matter how small, and these can be given via their Just Giving Page or donating via the sponsorship forms held by Gary in the Northern Office (South Shields) or Charlie in the South Office (Gosport).
This is Charlie’s way of saying thank you to this Hospice for the palliative care they gave his sister, and your contributions will go a long way in helping this organisation in maintaining the amazing level of care it gives.
If you want to learn more about the work this Hospice does, you can visit their website: www.stbarnabashospice.co.uk
A Captain’s Citation for Team Recognition to UK Docks Workforce, Dartmouth
The UK Docks workforce at our Sandquay facility, based in Dartmouth, have received team recognition and credit from Captain H Duffy, Captain for the Royal Navy, for their valued efforts and a ‘can do attitude’.
The Captain described the team as ‘a credit to Britannia Royal Naval College’ and thoroughly deserving of recognition.
Highland Chieftain to Reduce Excessive Rolling!
GulfMark NS were experiencing problems with excessive rolling on the vessel ‘Highland Chieftain’ and a modification to the vessel was required. This modification required antiroll tanks to be installed onto the ship in order to reduce the roll motion and roll angle during adverse weather conditions. The antiroll sections were manufactured in the Netherlands and GulfMark contracted UK Docks to carry out the installation of the tanks onto the vessel. Timing was crucial on this project as the vessel was on charter providing Offshore Supply Services however, due to a gap in the charter schedule, the vessel was able to collect the pre-manufactured units from a port in the Netherlands and sail to UK Docks facility at Middlesbrough.
On arrival, the vessel was dry docked and preparations began with removing all of the vessel structure aft of the accommodation so that the new antiroll tanks could be installed directly against the aft face of the vessels accommodation. The tanks were constructed as a complete single section weighing approximately 60 tones and extending across the entire weather deck from port to starboard side and extend upward from the deck to the bridge deck.
Once the tanks were installed as a seamless and fully integrated part of the ships structure, further extensions were made to the ships structure to include foundations for ships cranes that were installed to both Port and Starboard sides of the vessel. All ships structure such as walkways and access stairs, which had previously been removed, were refitted to the vessel.
The vessel was re-painted on completion of all works and the vessel was handed back to the owners on the scheduled date, sixteen days after arrival at UK Docks dry dock facility.
First ship to dry dock in UK Docks new Middlesbrough facility
UK Docks have agreed a 30 year lease with PD Ports to re-open the former Smiths Dock Ship Repair Company based on the River Tees, Middlesbrough, taking over the two dry docks with dimensions of 137 m x 18.6 m (No. 4 Dock) and 167.6 m x 20.4 m (No. 3 Dock) as well as fully equipped repair berth, several cranes, workshops and a stores facility.
New shipyard in Teesside
This is an exciting development for UK Docks and emphasises its commitment to developing the company and increasing the scope of project vessel capacity. The addition of another two dry docks and additional capability will give us the ability to dock vessels up to 20.5m beam and 167m LOA which will allow us to develop new markets and the size size of vessels to be dry docked.
The facility is expected to be open within the next few months so we’ll keep you posted on how this develops!
UK Docks awarded MoD Contract
The MOD has awarded £111 million worth of new contracts to maintain its fleet of small boats. UK Docks is one of six companies that will benefit from the five year contract will involve support for a fleet of 1,450 boats used by the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army and MoD Police, including offshore raiding craft, Pontoons up to 50 metres in length, police launches and Pacific 24 Ribs and inflatables.
UK Docks will provide maintenance, upkeep, repair, defect rectification, technical support and provision of spares for the West coast vessels operating between Faslane Naval Base and Devonport Royal Dockyard and the entire P2000 Archer Class Vessels.
New workforce at our Sandquay site, Dartmouth
UK Docks welcomed their new workforce operating from the Sandquay site in Dartmouth. The addition of the highly skilled team which consists of mechanical and electrical engineers and specialist boat repairers will continue to operate the Dartmouth site servicing training craft and providing boat repair and maintenance work on all of the Britania Royal Naval College boats which include the BRNC’s picket boats, motor whalers and various sailing craft.
UK Docks expand to Whitehaven Marina, Cumbria
Whitehaven Marina Ltd are pleased to welcome UK Docks Marine Services on-site as a new service provider as the marine engineering firm expand their existing Tyneside, South Shields and Gosport, Hampshire operations. UK Docks have widened operations to the West Coast in order to service current contracts as well as develop operations within the growing wind farm industry.
UK Docks will be operating from one of three bays in the purpose built, state of the art boat shed completed in 2008. In addition to the standard expected facilities, the building provides overhead gantries, compressed air and vacuum systems, and under floor heating – one of the best equipped and modern boat sheds in the North West of England.