Nippon Paint Marine has completed the extensive re-coating of the four-masted, steel-hulled Peking, the 1911-built cargo ship which is coming to the end of a €32 million, three-year restoration project at Peters Werft GmbH, on the River Elbe, at Wewelsfleth, Germany, the company said in its release.
The 115.5m long, full-rigged barque, one of the legendary Flying-P cargo sailing ships built by Blohm+Voss for the F.Laiesz shipping company, is scheduled to leave Peters Werft in August.
Since the vessel would not be trading, operating only as a stationary structure, a hull coating with a 25-year lifetime and capable of providing three-year overcoating intervals was required. So as to avoid environmental impact at the future berth, the use of an antifouling paint was not permitted, adding to the project’s complexity.
It was agreed that Nippon Paint Marine’s NEOGUARD 100 GF, a durable, high-solid glass flake epoxy, would be the most suitable coating for the underwater areas of the hull. This was applied in two-coats to provide a total film thickness 350µm.
Blasting, carried out with the entire ship under canvass to safeguard against any environmental pollution, was also necessary to remove any hazardous materials in older coatings. Special attention also had to be paid to the riveted areas and overlaps.
Once blasted, Nippon’s Uniprotector, a corrosion-resistant two coat epoxy primer pigmented with aluminium, was applied to improve penetration capability and to extend the maximum overcoating interval by an additional 6 months.
The original rivets and plank overlaps, which were to remain as visible as possible, benefitted from an additional stripe-coat of EPOBARR, a solvent-free, fibre-containing epoxy filler, prior to the application of the NEOGUARD topcoat.
Two 150µm coats of company’s E-MARINE A/C were then applied to the Peking’s topsides, decks and rigs/masts, to provide an unlimited maximum overcoating intervals before Nippon’s U-MARINE Finish was applied in a semi-gloss shade.
Pfaff singled out the high-performance and longevity of Nippon’s underwater glass flake coating and the EPOBARR product, which were ideal for such a historic vessel.
In addition to the extensive paint job, Peters Werft restored the original hull form and was able to retain most of the riveted steel plates using contemporary welding and modern ship repair techniques.
All decks, compartments and interiors have been restored. Masts and rigging had to be partly restored and renewed.
When restoration works are complete, Peking will berth in the Hansahafen opposite to the new opera house Elbphilharmonie to undergo final preparations before the move to her final place where she will operate as the museum ship of the future German Harbour Museum.
Peking, the second fully-rigged cargo ship in F Laeisz Shipping’s series of famed Flying P-Liners, was delivered from Hamburg’s
Blohm+Voss shipyard in 1911, taking up duties shipping nitrate and saltpetre from Europe to Chile by way of Cape Horn – a transit she managed some 34 times.
ABOUT NIPPON PAINT MARINE
Nippon Paint Marine is a subsidiary of Nippon Paint, a top five global paint supplier. Nippon Paint has been producing marine coatings in Japan since the 1880s and has been the leader in the development of all kind of marine paint technology but especially antifouling paints.
Nippon Paint developed and launched the world’s first self-polishing (SPC) tin-free antifouling paint in the 1990s and followed that by the launch of the world’s first low-friction SPC in 2006. More recently, the company developed Aquaterras, the world’s only bocide-free SPC antifouling paint. Aquaterras is a unique micro-domain SPC developed by Nippon Paint Marine from raw materials used in the pharmaceutical fields.
ABOUT PETERS WERFT GMBH
Peters Werft GmbH is a shipyard located on the River Elbe, between Hamburg and the North Sea. Its facilities facilitate the building and repair of ships up to a length of 138m and a width of 2m.
The yard benefits from two large, fully-equipped drydocks with flexible protection halls, crew offices and modern storage sheds, as well as state-of-the-art workshops.
In its 150-year history, the yard has delivered more than 690 newbuildings of all kinds of vessels, alongside numerous conversions and refits.
The Peters Werft portfolio includes special purpose ships, multipurpose vessels, ferries, dredgers, passenger ships, containerships, and mega yachts (in cooperation with Kusch Yachts).