New Drydock for PR

San Juan Towing & Marine Services announces the upcoming arrival of the floating dry dock PERSEVERANCE which has been purchased for service in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is located in the Caribbean Sea and is in the main shipping lanes leading west to the Panama Canal.

San Juan Towing & Marine Services is a ship repair contractor that provides a variety of ship repair services in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

The purchase and development of a drydocking facility comes as a second step in order to provide expanded services in the Caribbean. PERSEVERANCE is currently located in New Orleans being upgraded prior to being towed down to San Juan in late October.

PERSEVERANCE is a 150 foot long x 70 foot wide drydock capable of lifting vessels of up to 1000 tons. With a wing wall height of 16 feet and a wing wall clearance of 62 feet she is capable of servicing a wide variety of tugs, supply boats and barges. This 6 year old drydock has always been in fresh water service and is in top condition.

In preparation for her movement to Puerto Rico, the drydock was dry docked in Harvey, Louisiana. Bottom and side shells were cleaned and sand blasted to near white metal. Several hundred gallons of a very high build epoxy made by Jotun and purchased Liferafts, Inc. in San Juan. The paint was appiled in two coats to the satisfaction of a National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) inspector. Since this drydock has spent its short life away from the sea, over 240 twenty-five pound zinc anodes were installed, inside and out, to protect her from corrosion. The drydock will be ready to work when she arrives in San Juan.

Concurrently, a bow is being fabricated down the canal from the site and the drydock and bow will be married up in the following weeks in a seldom paralleled feat of Cajun naval engineering. The bow will significantly enhance the drydock’s mobility and will add several tons of lift in the area where attended vessels’ machinery will be located.

While all of the above is going on, San Juan Towing is engaged in the final planning aspects of training the personnel with the skills necessary to provide the trades needed to support to the dock. One person has been formally trained at the Navy’s Dockmaster Course sponsored by the US Navy Sea Systems Command and the second one is scheduled to attend early next month. In late October, two persons will attend a University of New Orleans sponsored Project Managers course. Skilled and semi skilled workers will be trained according to their trade.