United Kingdom

Testbank Ship Repair

Photo taken by Jake SugdenBritain’s largest independent ship repairer, Burgess Marine, has successfully launched the 65m Motor Yacht Shemara from its ship lift facility at the top of Portsmouth Harbour. Shemara Refit LLP completed the refit in just over three years at the ex Vosper-Thornycroft yard in Portchester.The vessel transited to the lift on Sunday April 13th and was launched today at approx. 1200hrs from Burgess Marine’s 1000T Rolls Royce syncrolift ship lift and has preceded under tow to the Port of Southampton for final fit out, commissioning and sea trials. The tow has been facilitated by Williams Shipping. Burgess Marine is one of over 200 local subcontractors to have supported Shemara Refit LLP.Burgess Marine provided specialist support and personnel to Shemara Refit LLP for structural and fabrication works, mechanical works and pipefitting. Mr. Peter Morton, the Owner of Shemara Refit LLP comments: “Burgess Marine has been an important partner in this project from the moment we took ownership of the vessel in Lowestoft in 2010”.Burgess Marine’s Portchester facility has seen major investment since the company acquired Testbank Ship Repair in January 2013; the channel and syncrolift ‘pit’ have been extensively dredged by Jenkins Marine allowing vessels up to a maximum draft of 4.5m to utilise the ship lift. In line with further major investment in Trafalgar Wharf the wires, bearings and winches have all been overhauled and the sites infrastructure has been significantly improved.<img alt="" src="https://syt-store-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/photo/148057/image/large-58a429eea32598b9b517470391146cea.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/148057">Burgess Marine’s General Manager in Portchester, Mr. Karl Kerry, comments: “the investment in the site has been well thought through and is substantial - we’ve spent over £250k on the footprint to both allow increased draft vessels up on to the ship lift and to better support our regular customers”.Mr. Nicholas Warren, Burgess Marine’s Managing Director goes on to say: “the facility at Trafalgar Wharf is of obvious longer-term strategic significance to us - the increased draft now allows us to seek new customers and better support existing clients. BAE Systems, Serco, the MoD, Wightlink and the Gosport Ferry will benefit from our investment as too will numerous other local and national operators. Portchester, and the South Coast, needs more ship repair custom and I genuinely do hope that this major investment will help, as will the positive publicity surrounding today’s successful launch of MY Shemara and the continuing major refit works onboard the 57m MY Tacanuya”.Shemara Refit LLP Mr. Peter Morton +44 7767 400144 <a href="mailto:peterm@myshemara.com?subject=Article%20on%20SuperYachtTimes.com">peterm@myshemara.com</a> <a href="http://www.www.myshemara.com">www.myshemara.com</a>

Burgess Marine launches refitted Shemara

A Southampton-based ship repairer has successfully completed a £1 million pound refit of superyacht Senses. Testbank Ship Repair spent three months renewing the 194 ft German built luxury superyacht. The bulk of the refit was done at Testbank’s ship repair facility in Portsmouth’s historic harbour using the company’s 1,000 tonne Rolls Royce syncrolift, one of the biggest of its kind in the South of England. Final checks and trials were completed at Southampton Docks. <img alt="" src="https://syt-store-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/photo/131477/image/large-ac2cf79ce03fe0fbcdaf787b27e5211b.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/131477">Up to 30 Testbank staff were at work on the refit at any given time led by Technical Director Brian Needle and Works Manager Steve Beck. After enclosing the superstructure, aft deck and boat house, the team replaced fittings and carried out a series of protective measures with repairs to caulking and teak deck boards. All areas were sanded down, refilled and repainted while every corroded feature including a black water tank was renewed. Testbank Managing Director Jason Coltman said: “It is without doubt the biggest yacht we have ever worked on at Portsmouth harbour. The skipper and the owners’ representative were over the moon with both the facility and the Testbank staff and were delighted that everything went so well.” The <a href="#managed-by-application" data-legacy="true" data-gid="gid://syiq/Yacht/256">Senses</a> work caps a busy year since Testbank reopened the ship lift facility on the Portchester waterside after five years of decommissioning. Thirty-five vessels have so far been hoisted beginning with the Serco Denholm cargo ship Teesdale in June 2009. The Trafalgar Wharf company, led by Managing Director Jonny Boys, has been developing the ex-Vosper Thornycroft site over the past two years with the aim of creating a world-class marine centre. At the same time, Testbank has been promoting the ship lift as ideal for refitting and repairing superyachts, pilot boats, tugs, commercial ferries and naval vessels. Testbank will be exhibiting at the Seawork 2010 International expo and conference at the ABP Port of Southampton from 15 to 17 June. Testbank has its head office in Southampton’s Western Docks. The company has a £7m turnover and employs 65 permanent staff. Testbank 44 (0) 23 80787878 <a href="mailto:testbank@testbank.co.uk?subject=Refit%20of%20Senses%20on%20SuperYachtTimes.com">testbank@testbank.co.uk</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.testbank.co.uk">www.testbank.co.uk</a>