Marine Growth

Discussion board focusing on Great Lakes Shipping Question & Answer. From beginner to expert all posts are welcome.
Guest

Re: Marine Growth

Unread post by Guest »

The Ranger, Independence, and Constellation have all previously made the same trip safely from Bremerton.
RCRVRP

Re: Marine Growth

Unread post by RCRVRP »

Cleaning it may have to do with removing marine growth so that growth doesn't contaminate other waters and also it may have toxic antifoul paint on it that needs to be removed in a dry dock.
This info below pertains to scrapping of another carrier years ago.

"The Navy is scraping the hull of a decommissioned aircraft carrier docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard just outside of Bremerton. The goal is to prevent potentially invasive species from traveling with the ship when it’s towed to Texas to be dismantled.

But the Environmental Protection Agency and others are concerned the scraping itself could be causing environmental harm. That's because the hull of the ex-U.S.S. Independence is covered with copper-based paint, which Navy divers will be scraping underwater. Copper can be toxic to salmon and other marine life.

“We’ve expressed our concerns to the Navy about the potential impact on both the Puget Sound and the Superfund site there, since the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is a Superfund site,” says Mark MacIntyre, an EPA spokesperson. “And so we’ve asked the Navy to develop a more robust monitoring plan to address these concerns and to share that plan with us.”

Washington State requires ships with copper-based paint to be dry-docked before their hulls can be scraped, but the state does not have the authority to force the Navy to comply."
Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Marine Growth

Unread post by Jared »

It's not all that expensive to remove marine growth from the hull. I'll put a ballpark figure at around $2 million or below. Yes, marine growth could knock up to 3-5 knots off of the tow speed and hinder the maneuverability of the vessel. I think this tow will be one of the longest in US naval history if she survives the voyage. Luckily it's in the middle if the summer south of the equator, so the weather should cooperate.
srh7934

Marine Growth

Unread post by srh7934 »

The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), which was decommissioned in 2009, has been sold to a scrap dealer in Texas. Being too large for the Panama Canal the ship is being towed from Bremerton, Washington, down the west coast of the United States and South America through the Strait of Magellan and up to Brownsville, Texas. Prior to departing Bremerton the ship was dry docked so marine growth could be scraped off the bottom. Dry docking must be very expensive and my question is would the marine growth on the ships bottom significantly impact the towed vessels handling or was this another waste of tax payer money? Thanks.
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