We’re delighted to share that Rotterdam’s recent sea trials were a great success and a real example of teamwork across not just Corporate Shipbuilding but the brand and the Corporation as a whole.
Click on the image below to watch a short video:
The vessel departed Marghera on 25 April, with a number of our teams on board, including representatives from site and technical. Arriving in Trieste on 27 April the vessel went into dry dock for pre-delivery hull maintenance and painting activities. The quality of the painting and the condition of the hull were particularly impressive, with only some minor issues to resolve.
In these challenging times of Covid, the approach to these sea trials was a little different to the norm. To minimise the risk of exposure to Covid-19 and to keep travel and expenses to a minimum, as the ship went into dry dock, only a small number of the Marghera site team remained in Trieste. The Monfalcone site team then provided their support to carry out the routine inspections as necessary.
On 4 May, the Marghera site team returned to Trieste and re-joined the vessel, for the start of the official sea trials. A major achievement during the sea trials was the commissioning of the four Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) towers by Lloyd’s Register. The vessel then returned to Marghera on the evening of 6 May.
Talking about the logistics, Simone Pirisi, Senior Director, Site Management said:
“When it came to planning the sea trials, we knew we needed to think differently to minimise the risk for not only our people contracting Covid but also being quarantined as a result of working alongside someone who tested positive. Both of which would impact our operational capability.
This was when we came up with the idea of involving both site teams in Marghera and Monfalcone for the trials and everyone was extremely positive about the approach.
We also had team members travelling by train to minimise travel expenses, and for that I’m extremely grateful of the commitment to the bigger picture of the wider Corporation.”
Roberto Gonzalez, Project Manager & Building Manager for Rotterdam, added:
“Sea trials are always a challenging time with the team working long hours to get everything completed.
In particular, I’m really proud of the way the various teams across Corporate Shipbuilding came together to support each other for these sea trials as well as the representatives from the brand and the shipyard.
With international travel limited, the technical team was represented by Samuele and we relied on a number of different ways to get the other necessary technical input, including video calls, WhatsApp messages etc. The technical guys were on hand when we needed them and it all worked really well.
Thank you to everyone involved for your hard work and commitment, we’re looking forward to a successful delivery at the end of July.”