Strategic Marine Launches Floating Dry Dock Base
19 November 2008
Strategic Marine has successfully launched the base of the floating dry dock, which is on order from the Australian Marine Complex (AMC), on schedule from its Vietnamese shipyard.
The dock’s 4,400t base was launched flawlessly from the company’s facility at Dong Xuyen industrial zone at Ba-Riang Vung Tau at 4pm on Tuesday 18 November.
The 99m long and 53m wide base was then lifted aboard “The Teal”, a dockside submersible vessel, for its eight-day journey to the AMC at Henderson in Western Australia.
The method employed for the launch used dozens of long sausage-shaped fenders, which were inflated to their full diameter of 1.5m to lift the base of the dock off from the 1m pedestal it was resting on.
The dock, which was tethered firmly to prevent it moving, was then rolled slowly down a ramp into the ocean.
Five tugs were on hand to tow the dock base out to “The Teal”, which was moored about six miles away through a narrow outlet.
The submersible is expected to drop anchor off the Western Australian coastline before it gradually submerges, allowing the base pontoon to float off before being towed into position at the common user facility (CUP) at Henderson.
Strategic Marine then has two months to fit the dock’s 840t superstructure and four months to ensure all of the machinery works, before the completed dock is commissioned and handed over in July.
