East Cowes' Wight Shipyard Co has showcased its maintenance and repair capabilities by completing the refit of a cross-Solent ferry.
The Wightlink FastCat catamaran, Wight Ryder 1, underwent its annual refit in mid-November in a turnaround taking under three weeks.
A refit is a process in which an operator undertakes maintenance and inspections to ensure that a vessel is safe and reliable for operation.
During this year's refit of Wight Ryder 1, Portsmouth's Trafalgar yard was used by the Island-based team, to complete necessary tasks such as conducting maintenance on bow thrusters and upgrades to hydraulic systems.
Wightlink’s Fleet Technician Team Leader Chris Ancrum said:
"We were impressed with the professionalism and attention to detail from the team from WSC. Their engineers completed a variety of complex tasks with skill and finished the job on time and on budget. We are pleased to work with an Island company to keep our FastCats in good condition."
Jo Daly, COO of Wight Shipyard Co, said:
“This is another example of how British engineering is winning through, even in these challenging times.
"Our team undertook the work with the professional approach that people expect from the WSC, the project was delivered to the highest of standards both within the timeframe and to budget.”
WSC is well known for its ferry builds - earlier this year it achieved a UK first by building four ferries simultaneously at its own yard for a leading Maltese tour operator.
The order, which is WSC’s largest ferry export order to date, consisted of two 20m and two 33m lightweight ferries, designed by One2Three Naval Architects.
No other UK shipbuilder in living memory has been able to simultaneously produce four ferries in only nine months.
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