Several of the vessels have since drydocked again without needing a re-coat on these areas, the coatings manufacturer claimed.
Pleiades Shipping has over 50 years of purchasing experience, successfully managing and operating various types and sizes of vessels in both good and poor freight markets.
The company’s fleet operates worldwide carrying crude oil and petroleum products.
At the end of 2013. Pleiades coated the rudder of the Panamax crude oil tanker Evrotas with Ecoshield, followed by other ships in the fleet.
As of April this year, 10 tankers had their rudders coated with Ecoshield. At the same time, seven of these ships also had the coating applied to their nozzles, two more had their nozzles coated when they came in for a scheduled docking last year after sailing with Ecoshield on their rudders for two years.
No Ecoshield repaint was needed on these vessels, and they will not need a re-coat during future dockings. At the most, a quick and easy touch-up amounting to less than 1% of the surface area will be required, the company claimed.
Pleiades’ technical director Miltos Synefias commented that the decision to apply the coating on the first vessel was not an easy one, but that the results obtained made the choice to extend the coating to the other vessels obvious.
Ecoshield is claimed to be able to prevent corrosion damage from recurring on an existing ship or can protect the rudder(s) of a newbuilding against cavitation and corrosion damage for the life of the vessel. It is guaranteed for 10 years.