MV Narrabeen's 2017 Garden Island Dry Docking in Pictures (Part 4 of 4)

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Narrabeen's four steering motors have to travel through some very narrow corridors to get to where they need to go. In order to move these very heavy motors through the ship, ceiling panels are removed left and right to expose lifting eyes in the steel overhead framework.

The installation of Narrabeen's passenger seating is already in an advanced state. To keep their nearly-at-completion work area seperate from the dusty, sooty world of the drydock, the installers have virtually encapsulated the ship's upper passenger decks.

Narrabeen's hull is undergoing a week-long scheme of building up heavy anti-foul preservation. During this time, it will change colours a few times. The black phase is currently on show.

Narrabeen's aft shelter deck is receiving its final coats of epoxy ahead of the installation of new seating next week

Back and forth they go, all along Narrabeen's hull, until they get it right. The painting team operates under the scrutiny of its own leaders, who themselves are influenced by the hawk-eyed reps from the paint company. While the painters work the surface in the cherry pickers, the all-powerful paint company reps circulate the rim of the dock, making full use of the set-back view to scan Narrabeen's hull and superstructure. For various reasons, epoxy does not always lay down the way it is supposed to, and the reps know what to look for. If the surface coating is not applied to their standards, it must be touched up, layered again or taken back with orbital polishers and re-applied.

After crisscrossing the shipyard for various repairs since they were removed two weeks ago, all four of Narrabeen's passengers gangway ramps have wound up in the yard's painting and blasting shed at once. These gangways are raised and lowered on hydraulic rams an average of 25 times per day, every day, 365 days a year. Whilst in the lowered position, they are subjected not only to the regular, shifting loads of hundreds of transiting passengers, but also, whilst in the down position, to the random and often sharp effects of the surging sea state to which they themselves must struggle to accomodate by rising and falling in step. These gangways are underglorified workhorses.

Narrabeen's passenger gangways are attached to the vessel by two hydraulic rams, which are used to raise and lower them. However, the real work to support their weight and movement is carried by the pin-and bushing hinge arrangement by which they are attached, at two points each, to Narrabeen's hull. Not surprisingly, these stainless steel pins, two for each gangway, are all re-fabricated by yard machinists at each docking. Because of the differing age and state of each gangway, no two of these pins are exactly the same diameter.

To go along with the eight re-fabricated pins for each of Narrabeen's four passenger gangways, yard machinists have fabricated eight brand new nylon bushings. Each bushing must be specifically matched to the diameter of each stainless steel pin. Getting this right means the gangways will go back into position without incident. Craning the gangways back onto the boat is tricky enough in itself.

Craning the passenger gangways back onto the boat is a very touchy operation for the yard riggers. While the gangways are floated into position, fitters rise up eight meters from the dock floor along the ship's side in wobbly scissor lifts to join them up to the structure by sliding the new pins into the new bushings. Everything must line up and the gangway, which wants to swing like a pendulum in the wind, must be held steady while the fitters build the hinges by putting their steady fingers into very tight spaces.

At first light in the dock is when and where you will find the eagle-eyed paint company reps giving Narrabeen's hull coating a thorough examination. Narrabeen's off-centre position in the dock, as well as the fact that it is sharing the dock with another ship, makes it difficult to get a good look at Narrabeen, let alone photograph it.

With the major phases of hull coating now mostly completed, detailers ascend up from the dock floor in cherry pickers to begin addressing the finer points of the job

With both of Narrabeen's propellor shafts housed and stern tube seals tested, the final step in assembly takes place. Made up of two half-round collars welded together, rope guards are welded in to protect the otherwise exposed external stern tube seal against mechanical damage which could result in the event of a rope fouling the propellor. The rope guards bridge the gap between the hull and the hub as well as overlapping both sides, forming a gapless barrier.

There are eight columns of draft marks on Narrabeen's hull. The detailers are into it early in the day, before the sun fouls their close-up view

A draft-mark detailer works his way down Narrabeen's starboard forward side.

As well as the draft marks, detailers are also tasked with painting on the ship's propellor icons. In Narrabeen's case, this time is it a bit more challenging than usual as the icons have been moved into newer positions higher up on the hull, requiring tape measures and stencils in addition to the obligatory attention to detail. We are confident in this job being done properly: the lead painter is also an award-winning pastry chef.

Narrabeen's port side in nearly full view, seen from the lower deck entry platform. Both port side passenger gangways are resting on their pins, but are still suspended by chain blocks until ramp and cleat rams are attached. The upper gangway still needs further painting. Anchor chains are laid out in the dock.

With just over two days left in the dock, Narrabeen's scattered pieces are nearly all back into position.

Some before and after shots of Narrabeen's Starboard Fwd & Aft ends as she nears the end of her seventh docking.

Sacrificial anodes. If they are in good shape after five years, they haven't been doing their job. Some before and after shots of Narrabeen's old and new aluminium & zinc anodes. Their name is the answer to the question as to what exactly it is that sacrificial anodes do. Iron-hulled ships would literally disintegrate into the sea if not for the protection provided by hull preservatives which keeps the iron in them from reacting with oxygen. The second step in protection is the sacrificial anode, whose very existence accepts the fact that corrosion wants to occur and offers itself up as an easier target for corrosive forces. Aluminium and zinc are less stable metals than iron (hence more easily corroded) and are bolted to the hulls of ships like bait on a hook. While the easy-prey anodes are busy disintegrating away with corrosion, the bodyguarded iron areas around them will be virtually left alone by corrosion. In theory, anyway.