World’s second biggest dredger Ham 318 in Colombo for repairs

The Ham 318, the world’s second biggest trailing suction hopper dredger, called at Colombo Dockyard for drydocking repairs.

The Van Oord, The Netherlands-owned massive dredger (67,471 DWT) was accommodated in drydock No. 04 (125,000 DWT) during her repair call to Colombo. The Ham 318 had completed her deployment in Brazilian waters and was shifted to the Indian Ocean for her next employment planned in Mumbai.

The owners placed the dredger in Colombo during the third week of March to prepare the Ham 318 for her next deployment in Mumbai waters. During this drydocking call the owners utilised the convenience of Colombo’s super fast logistics for connecting her requirement of spare parts, etc. and the ship yard’s experience in handling complicated dredgers.       

A trailing suction hopper dredger has large, powerful pumps and engines that enable it to suck up sand, clay, sludge and even gravel from ocean or river beds. One or two suction pipes run from the vessel to the bed. A draghead is attached to the end of the pipe and lowered to just above the bed, making it possible to regulate the mixture of sand and water that it takes in. A trailing suction hopper dredger generally stores the dredged material in its own hopper and discharges the left-over water overboard.

The key work package during this call consisted of replacement of drag heads along with modification of visors, introduce wedge pieces to drag heads, welding doublers in way of loading lines to hopper and suction lines and renewal of mouth rings of suction liner.  Load testing of cargo gears, load testing of gangways and five-year service of free fall lifeboats were carried out, along with misc hydraulic lines renewal, renewal of dredge suction liners, propeller shaft seal vulcanising, overhauling of sea valves and blasting and painting of poop deck, forecastle deck and part of the hull. Bottom door seal renewals/repairs and hopper cracks gouging and welding were attended to during this call.

Colombo Dockyard has been servicing the Van Oord fleet of vessels over the past decade and this was the biggest dredger to call Colombo Dockyard in its 39-year recorded history.  

The Van Oord Team was happy with the delivery of the full project and ability of Colombo to accommodate the dredger’s shifted arrival date smoothly, maintaining the redelivery promptness.  

The Van Oord team during this call comprised of Andre Kreemer – Plant Manager, R. Martini – Senior Technical Superintendent, Adrian Ion Bratu – Technical Superintendent and Saurabh Saravia – Technical Superintendent.

The Ham 318 project was headed by Priyanka Cooray – Ship Manager and all production departments contributed as one team to complete the project on schedule and prepare her to take on her next operational commitments successfully.

The repairs were carried out meeting the stringent requirements of the owners as well as the Bureau Veritas classification society. Sri Lanka Shipping Ltd. handled the husbanding duties smoothly during this call.