Two newbuild projects at Turkish shipyards have been protected using specialist coatings from Belgian coatings company Subsea Industries.

Its Ecospeed hull coating and Ecoshield rudder protection coating have both been applied to a shallow-draught AHTS (anchor handling tug and supply) vessel and an oil tanker at the Atlas Shipyard in Gölcük and the Akdeniz Shipyard in Ceyhan, respectively.

The AHTS owner chose Ecospeed because of its proven performance in polar waters. The 65m, Ice Class 1A vessel will operate in the ecologically-sensitive Arctic region and comply with IMO Polar Code requirements.

According to Subsea Industries’ Turkish agent Orkun Çomuoglu, managing director at Amat Engineering: “This is a super ice-class vessel and required extensive hull protection for the operations the vessel will undertake.”

The Polar Code recommends abrasion resistant, low friction coatings to vessels operating in ice conditions. Ecospeed is certified for ice-going ships, and, moreover, is one of only a few such coatings which allows the thickness of the steel of the ice belt to be reduced when a certified coating is applied. This gives a significant financial benefit during newbuild projects

“There is a risk that conventional anti-fouling paints can degrade rapidly in polar ice, leach chemicals or leave paint fragments behind when ice impacts damage the coating. There is no such risk with a hard-type coating. Ecospeed and Ecoshield are tough, durable and highly abrasion resistant protective coatings.” said Manuel Hof, Production Executive at Subsea Industries.