Dry dock repaint time

[Bill_Johnson]

Hey everyone,
Does anyone have work experience or know in general the time it takes to repaint ships in dry dock, especially large ones? Thank you,

[ItDepends]

What do you mean by "large ships"???

[HankOnthewater]

Hi Bill, welcome here.
I guess with the term "drydock", you mean taking the boat out of the water on a jinker or by way of a travel lift (also called tammy lift), and then on land on blocks, and props or/and in a cradle supporting the boat.

I always like it when the poster "it depends" responds as he did above, as the answer is nearly always "it depends".

As was said above, how big is big?
Repaint is that just applying a coat or two of antifoul, or actually repaint the whole boat?

One can do antifouling on your own in 24 hours of a boat 30-40ft (ie 6 to 12 litre of antifoul, or bigger boat if you have help. The drill is be very well prepared, and everything on hand that you possible could need. Take the boat out of the water late afternoon, remove barnacles and pressure wash, remove anodes. Let it dry overnight. Next morning, check everything below the waterline, remove any lose paint, barrier coat if needed, apply antifoul, fit anodes, then let it antifoul dry for 3-5 hours, then before dark, or just before the crane/lift operator goes home.... splash the boat.
But if you have an issue, and most of the time there is, then 24 hours is not long enough, you need 2 days..... or more.
Some yards allow you to to do it on a weekend, taking you out late Friday afternoon, and splashing first thing Monday morning.

If you do this work on your boat yourself for the first time I suggest you allow 3 to 5 days. That gives you time to make yourself familiar with the boat, the skinfittings, the prop, cutlass bearing, the speed impeller, the transducer (of depth sounder), the rudder and whatever there is below the waterline.

[chrisr]

i did numerous dockings while i was at sea.

how long the ship is in dock depends on a number of factors. some of these are ;

- how much work is to be done ? is it just a haircut and a splash of paint or are you replacing 500mt of steel work
- how valuable is the ship ? ie how much is the owner losing while his asset is not working
- where is the docking ? some yards / countries (eg japan) can be very quick. others (eg india) tend to take longer

it's a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but broadly you can expect a minimum of 7 days, and 4 weeks is not unusual.

cheers,

[wholybee]

When I was moored across from the Norfolk shipyards during covid, ships were in drydock for up to a year. Being worked on 24/7. Substantially more than just antifoul, but antifoul was part of it.

Given the effort to haul a large ship, I have to imagine it is standard practice to do more than just coat the bottom.

[SV Siren]

Well, not knowing exactly what you are asking, our local 410' coal fired historic carferry steamship was just gone over this past spring. Sandblasting and painting the entire topsides, everything, in 12 days, with a rather large crew of determined workers.

https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/s...me-in-70-years