Marval at smooth hulls at Seawork 2012

This is the argument of Brad Payne of Kent UK based Marval Marine Services, who added, “It’s simple, a poor finish under the water costs more in fuel.” He went on to tell MJ that as wind farm support vessels now need to think more about longer runs, efficiency at higher speeds is becoming more of a concern as the fuel is a greater percentage of the cost.

However, the Seawork exhibitor has a number of tricks up its sleeve when it comes to a smooth sailing, as it will demonstrate to visitors to its stand this year. Along with conventional garnet or shot blasting, baking soda also has its uses in the blast process. Mr Payne explained that the method, developed for cleaning the Statue of Liberty back in 1976, has advantages such as dissolving on contact with water, leaving only a non-toxic residue. It is also very gentle on older boat bottoms, even though it has great paint and corrosion removal properties, which means it can be used on both aluminium and GRP vessels.

“You can also finely control exactly how much you take off, so you can remove, say, a layer of anti-foul while keeping an underlying layer of epoxy in place”, added Mr Payne.

Another of Marval’s interesting methods is bringing the company to the boat rather than vice-versa. Although the Marval does have a 50m undercover dry dock facility at Turks Ship Yard in Chatham, if the company is working on site it can use the customer’s own hoist, which keeps costs down.

Marval also gets its work finished on schedule as weather issues are of no consequence. The company erects a scaffold around the boat it is working on and shrink wraps it so the work can be carried out as if it was indoors. The construction is then connected up to a ducted dry-heating, dust filtration and fume extraction system and the craft gets spray painted in a temperature controlled and dry environment, which helps the paint lay evenly.

It’s a method which can even be used for giving a boat a makeover while in the water. “One contract we are starting on requires us to build a low-level barge platform, shrink wrap a tower of scaffolding and work down the boat, prepping and painting section by section”, explained Mr Payne.

The company doesn’t stop at boats, Marval has also recently completed the new Savoy Pier for Woods Silver Fleet and the new London Eye pier extension, due to begin services this spring.