Franmarine servicing vessel mooring and navigational aid assets across Australia.
Christmas Island represents one of the most demanding and challenging environments for design, installation and maintenance of vessel moorings in the world. Located 2,600km north-west of Perth, Western Australia, the island’s 80km coastline is an almost continuous sea cliff. There is virtually no coastal shelf and the sea plummets to a depth of about 500 metres within 200 metres of the shore.
In 2016 Franmarine successfully installed multiple vessel moorings in water depths ranging from 6 msw to 160 msw, and has since been solely responsible for the management of the assets as part of a broader vessel mooring and navigational aid maintenance contract with the Commonwealth of Australia. Franmarine use a combination of diving, remote operated vehicle (ROV), non-destructive testing (NDT) and anchor handling tug (AHT) capabilities to maintain the mooring systems subject to analysis of inspection and survey data.
In 2022 a total of 210 meters of 64 mm chain was required to replace mooring componentry critical to the structural integrity of the mooring systems. Franmarine mobilised a AHT in Perth, WA with all materials and equipment required to complete the critical maintenance scope, with a separate survey team sent to Christmas Island by air to commence preliminary survey work prior to the arrival of the AHT at the island.
All mooring maintenance tasks were safely and successfully completed by Franmarine within time and budget. Our project management team in New South Wales also achieved significant cost savings for the customer by closely managing the project end-to-end, demobilising the AHT in Singapore as opposed to returning the vessel to Australia. The project was resourced nationally, managed by Franmarine NSW with greater than 20 tonnes of mooring materials replaced, and approximately 2,680 nautical miles travelled
Franmarine has also attended the Ashmore Reef Marine Reserve annually since 2015, a 660 nautical mile round trip from Broome, where we conduct critical maintenance to over 36 vessel mooring and navigational aid assets. We also extend our support further to the Mid-West Port Authority, the Rottnest Island Authority and Department of Transport for critical mooring maintenance throughout WA.
In NSW Franmarine recently delivered on a far North and mid North coast contract with Department of Primary Industries for servicing the VR4G tagged shark listening stations between Sydney and Byron Bay.
Our regional and / or deeper mooring and navigational aid diving campaigns are supported by Franmarine’s mobile emergency recompression chamber assets where necessary.
Interested in finding out how Franmarine can assist your organisation to repair and maintain your moorings, navigational aids, and other marine assets? We’d love to chat to you. Please email reception@franmarine.com.au