A&P Falmouth is working almost to full capacity as the company wins more ship repair contracts in the run-up to the Christmas period.

The bulker Gypsum Centennial sailed yesterday for Sierra Leone after her refit and repainting.

The Stena Line ferry Stena Lagan has docked for her annual refit and the Condor Lines ferry Condor Rapide, a fast cat vessel, is in Number 3 dock. 

A&P has found a niche market repairing smaller vessels such as tugs, survey vessels, offshore support ships and ferries, and up to three vessels at any one time can be accommodated in the same dry-dock.

The Red Funnel ferry Red Eagle, which plys between Southampton and Cowes, arrives for docking next week and her sister ship Red Falcon has already undergone a refit this year. 

Wightlink Ferries’ St Faith is dry-docking this week in Number 4 dock as A&P bids on other ferries in the Wightlink company, which operates, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, to dock in 2015
A&P has won three contracts to repair the vehicle carriers Autosun, Autorunner and Autosky over Christmas. These ships are part of the United European Car Carriers (UECC) fleet, which are regular callers at Falmouth. UECC was founded in 1990 and is Europe’s leading short sea RoRo operator, dedicated to the needs of the automotive industry. 

Today the company transports around 1.5 million units a year, comprising cars, commercial vehicles, high and heavy equipment and trailers. UECC operates a vessel fleet of 23 Pure Car and Truck Carriers (PCTCs), all of which have been designed or adapted to meet the necessary flexibility and efficiency requirements of the short sea market.

On the Ministry of Defence front, RFA Mounts Bay continues her refit on Duchy Wharf. That work will see her alongside until next April during which time she will dry-dock.

RFA Lyme Bay is expected to berth next week following a successful deployment to the Middle East.
HMS Echo, a Royal Navy hydrographic vessel, will be here until mid-January.

Earlier this year she spent several weeks in the southern Indian Ocean scouring 6,000 square miles of seabed in an effort to find the “black box” flight recorder from missing flight MH370, which disappeared from radar screens on March 8 with 239 people onboard.

The ship was en route from Salalah in Oman to conduct survey operations in the Seychelles when she was ordered to the search area.

A&P Falmouth managing director Peter Child said: “After a tough 18 months it is great for everyone to see the yard busy now, and with a good order book ahead. The market is still very competitive but our emphasis on repeat business is working with all the ships in being long-term customers of Falmouth and our employees.”