We were called to attend a vessel for emergency dry docking in Liverpool recently.
The reason?
The vessel had plastic/fender rubber caught between the starboard propeller and Kort nozzle.
Our Service Engineer attended within a few hours of the call coming in and oversaw the removal of the plastic by yard staff, before carrying out inspections for abnormalities & damage.
Here are his findings and recommendations:
- Visual inspection through rope guard to check for any oil leakage from propeller seal housing. No visible leaks were apparent.
- Blades checked along with blade tip clearances, blades 1,3 & 5 within tolerances. Blades 2 and 4 had approximately 130mm of deflection.
- Visual inspection carried out on port side Azimuth Thruster, with no issues to report.
- Visual inspection carried out onboard in thruster room, oil levels okay and no leaks from input shaft seals or flexible hoses.
- V belts needed slight tensioning on both units.
Once the investigations were concluded, the vessel staff carried out sea trials where no issues or vibration was reported.
Thankfully this time the outcome wasn’t too serious, though we recommend the starboard propeller should be repaired at the next drydocking.
If you have any maintenance or service requirements (planned or unplanned) for your propulsion systems, get in touch now, we’d be happy to help.
