Silja Europa is being tuned up at Gdansk dockyard

Vessel out of service for the height of the Christmas party season

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The cruise ferry Silja Europa, which suffered a failure in its rudder system in November, is being repaired at a dockyard in Gdansk in Poland.
      The divers who inspected the ship found that the technical failure in the ship`s rudder system was caused by a broken starboard rudderstock, which had to be replaced.
     
Tallink Silja’s technical inspector Ari Kavón and his Estonian colleague inspector Madis Lembit were standing on the car deck higher up, watching a group of dock workers winching the starboard rudder from below the deck.
      The workers were preparing for the installation of a new ruddershaft to replace the broken one.
      ”We have come to the most important stage of the repairs”, said inspector Kavón.
      The original starboard rudderstock of Silja Europa broke in the Åland Archipelago towards the end of November, whereafter the vessel was towed to Turku. After the rudder system had been locked, the ferry and its crew of 70 were escorted to Remontowa, the largest ship repair yard in the Baltic Sea area.
     
During the inspection, the shipping company decided that also the port side rudderstock had to be replaced, even though the representatves of the company did not find any obvious abrasion or damage in it.
      ”We will do it as a precaution”, Kavón pointed out. Both rudder blades were also repaired.
      Unfortunately Silja Europa could not participate in the current Christmas party season. She was taken out of service immediately and was subsequently replaced on the route by another Tallink Silja vessel, the Baltic Queen.
      The time-consuming repairs and the maintenance initially scheduled for March have delayed the ferry’s return to the Turku-Stockholm route.
      ”The safety of passengers comes first”, inspector Lembit stressed.
      On Monday, the blue logo of Silja was painted on the sides of the vessel, while the ship's keel was painted with anticorrosive coating.
     
Tallink is not willing to try to guess why the rudderstock got broken. A four-member board of inquiry set up by the Finnish Ministry of Justice immediately went to see the vessel and its ill-fated ruddershaft in Gdansk.
      The 3-ton ruddershaft, with a diameter of nearly half a metre, has been sealed and is now kept under lock and key at the dockyard. A report on the investigations is expected to be completed within a year.
      ”During my career of more than 20 years I have never come across anything like this. A broken rudderstock is something unique”, said inspector Kavón. Neither does anybody at the shipyard remember any other similar case.
     
The entertainment oasis sailing under the Finnish flag has become quite a sight at the Remontowa yard, according to project manager Jacek Madrala.
      ”We have never had such a tall [55 metres high] passenger ship before. Our management has been taken on a tour inside the ship, as it has obviously been furnished to the highest standard ever seen”, he smiled.
      Around 200 men from the shipyard are tuning up the vessel day and night, and the repair work should be finished by the 17th of December.
      Silja Europa should return to the Turku-Stockholm route on 19th of December, making her first departure from Turku at her regular scheduled time of 20:15, announced AS Tallink Group in its press release.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Silja Europa´s damaged rudderstock to be repaired in Poland (30.11.2009)
  Silja Europa´s rudder failure affects thousands of passengers (24.11.2009)
  Silja Europa facing lengthy layoff (25.11.2009)

Links:
  Remontowa
  Tallink Group press release 8.12.2009

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