Thursday, June 3, 2021

Tugela, pretty in pink

 The Wilhelmsen Lines Large Car and Truck Carrier Tugela paid a visit to Autoport today. Unlike many of its fleet mates it has yet to be repainted on the new colour scheme adopted by the combined Wallenius Wilhelmsen fleet. It is still carrying the original Wilhelmsen orange - or at least what is left of that colour. I have noted before that the last go round of paint on the Wilhelmsen ships was a disaster as the paint began to rust through and fade very quickly. I put it down to a combination of poor surface preparation and possibly low quality paint.

Even back in 2018 when I last took a photo of the ship its paint was looking pretty sad. However like most ships these days they are only repainted in drydock and then only on a regular docking schedule of at least five years or more. Gone are the days when the crew is overside painting ship when in port. That only occurs now when ships change name or port of registry, far away from any shipyard.


Tugela was built in 2011 by Hyundai Ulsan, so should be heading back to drydock this year or early next year. The 72,295 gt, 28,837 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,934 cars.

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