Last month we wrote about a stern tube seal repair in Tasmania. While our team was mobilizing to this job, the owner of the roro ship asked us to also carry out an underwater propeller blade replacement on the vessel’s sister ship at the same location. These operations were carried out back to back by our team.

As soon as the seal replacement was finished the two ships changed place and our diver/technicians started the second repair. This operation consisted of the underwater replacement of the damaged blade as well as the opposite blade of the main propeller of the vessel.

This propeller is designed with a special system to close it off from water ingress during a blade replacement. The operation was performed under supervision of an engineer of the propeller’s OEM.

Our men started the repair with the installation of chain blocks to rig the first blade. They then removed the blade bolts and lifted the blade. A spare blade was lowered into the water and put in position. After it was secured and the bolts put on torque, the ship crew turned the propeller 180° to bring the opposite blade in 12 o’clock position. This blade was then rigged with the chain blocks.  The diver/technicians repeated the same procedure on this blade to replace it with its spare.

The operation was finished swiftly to enable the owner to sail his ship on schedule. No costly drydock visit had to be planned.

Linking jobs like this is no problem for Hydrex. Our technical department has many years of experience in organizing jobs on a tight schedule or back-to-back operations. Our teams are also trained to go from one job to the next without losing any time or quality.  The second article in this newsletter is another great example of this.

Contact us for more information on any type of underwater propeller repairs. We are at your disposal 24/7.