Did you know that ships can grow in length? Well, of course, not on their own, but with a little help from our technological magic …
We have been approached by a client who wanted to increase the output of its fishing vessel by equipping it with an additional cargo hold for the catch. Having the capacity of the hold increased, it intended to kill several birds with one stone: provide the vessel with an opportunity to catch and hold more fish thus extending the ship’s time at sea and, of course, bring more fish to the shore and make more profit for the company.
Now, there are many different methods to increase the hold capacity, but the cheapest and fastest way to complete this assignment is by increasing the length of the vessel.
It took a couple of weeks for our engineers to design an insert in the body of the ship, based on the blueprints of the ship’s body from the client, which was supposed to add a massive seven metres to the total length of the vessel. The 50 ton, ten metres wide and seven metres tall metal element of the ship’s structure was manufactured at our plant within a month. After that, it was loaded on a cargo vessel and shipped to the satisfied client. Once the insert reached its destination, it was installed right at the middle of the fishing vessel. In the process of increasing the ship’s length, its body was cut in half along the main frame, at the widest point of the ship. The insert was first welded on a floating dock to the bow of the ship, and the stern was then attached in a similar manner.
Such daring projects can only be brought to life when the new part of the ship is designed and manufactured with a level of precision to fit the elements of the host vessel with the highest degree of accuracy. After all, shipbuilding only allows a maximum error in dimensions of 5 millimetres. The height and breadth of the insert must ideally match the appropriate dimensions of the host ship, and the cable and pipe connections have to mirror each other completely. Attention to detail and ideal execution of the project must be present both in the manufacturing and in the installation phase. Just as expected, our experienced team tackled this challenge without any difficulty.
