The 'Pacific Trainer', a fishing vessel owned by the Rimbunan Hijau Group, one of Malaysia's largest multi-industry companies, came into PNG Dockyard this month for "immediate ship repair and maintenance" due to "months of wear and tear".
PNG Dockyard's ship repair co-ordinator, Michael Konzii, was assigned to coordinate 'Pacific Trainer' and ensure all work tasks were completed.
Mr Konzii said various departments did an "excellent job" and tasks were completed as assigned. According to Mr Konzii, the only difficulty was language barrier as most of the ship's crew was Taiwanese with little or no understanding of the English language: "We used sign languages, hand gestures and drawings to communicate with our clients," he said.
The main completed was mostly steelwork. As a safety requirement, Gas free inspections were done by PNG Dockyard safety officers before any work proceeded. General Service was initially carried out with Hull cleaning and painting, anchors and chain cables were ranged only in the port side, and the shaft cooling line was renewed.
Other major structural work included cropping and replacing entire wasted structural frames on the starboard side, welding doubler plates on both the port and starboard side shell (from bow to aft), and extending the rudder blade in height.
Work was also carried out in other minor areas of service and repair. Oily and sewerage water were drained out and newly treated, and oil and fresh water for sewerage were supplied. Electrical faults were identified and properly fixed, and there were also some pipe work done. Scupper pipes and the fire line on portside were also renewed, old anodes were replaced, the ballast tanks were filled with water and the entire vessel was sandblasted and painted after all steel work was completed.
According to PNG Dockyard, work was "successful despite slight communication barrier between the owners of the ship and our workmen. The ship owners were pleased with the field workers and their friendly approach. They were also happy with the dedicated workmanship."
