Study shows costly hull fouling worst in the Caribbean, least in Alaska

FINLAND'S Eniram Limited has analysed hull fouling on 60 cruise ships in different seas, including the Caribbean, around California and Alaska, the Mediterranean and the Baltic.

The results show high levels in the Caribbean with Alaska coming in with the least. The study also shows that vessels operating in serious hull fouling waters can increase costs per ship to nearly US$500,000 a year.

This study also takes into account the impact of washing and dry docking on fouling by using data from over 38,000 operative sea days complemented with temperatures and salinity databases.

Data collected to understand the effects of dry and in-water cleaning indicated that even though as a combined figure, the first and the second wash decreased the added power consumption by two per cent depending on the coating, fouling continued to increase quite rapidly after the washes, and brushing removed some parts of the coating from the hull. On the other hand, dry dock cleaning reduced fouling five per cent.