Spanish Tenders

[thomas michael]

Good afternoon, Seems the British goverment have now stopped the tendering by the spanish ship builders Navantia for three future naval vessels quoting that the steel used in spain is substandard compared with uk ,plus the uk workforce has the experience and the craftmanship required.
a remarkable statement by the minister, ( does his decision have anything to do with a future election being early )
tom

[Michael Black]

I agree about the substandard steel from Spanish yards. The Gryphon A is a F.P.S.O. built in Spain by Navantia. They built the hull and accommodation then it came to the Tyne to have the topside installed.
One of the springs was led through a panama lead and after a few months the spring had sawn through the steel. This was in 93 and it seems they haven't improved.
Regards Michael

[James Curry]

I did several dry docks in Navantia Ferrol Spain as crew and also as a contractor. Certainly appeared to be an excellent workforce. Also a great run ashore.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

If they're steel is anything like what the Spanish built the trams with in Sydney God help the Navy, every single tram had to be taken for repairs as the steel split and fractured as they moved on the lines, on all of them, cost went from $3Billion to $4 Billion, not to worry taxpayers money.
Des

[j.sabourn]

British built ships always had the reputation for the best built, but like most things that was due to the experience of doing such , like most reputable engineering firms have. However all can make mistakes . The navy during and after the Falklands war, were having a multi purpose vessel built which included saturation diving think it was called HMS Challenger. However due to the experiences of the Falkland war and how alumina was found to burn so easily , shortly after commissioning she was sold to foreign buyers with a loss of money I would not like to speculate on . Up until the Falklands war a lot of vessels both commercial and naval were built with aluminium in their construction..
Japanese shipbuilding is considered today to be good, but I can remember doing a guarantee drydocking in Yokohama where she was built by Mitsibuishi . This was about 1970 and I had to point out the arrangement of the ballast system was incorrect , being a bulk carrier the ballast system was very important to that particular trade . The problem being there was no bell mouths or baffle plates on the ends of the suction and ballast lines . Just one of a few mistakes due to ignorance at the time . I hope it was the last ship they built with such a nightmarish feature built in. That ship was the Maratha Envoy if anyone was ever on her , 32000 ton geared bulk carrier if remember correctly . JS. PS Challenger is a guess but believe the name began with a C. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, we had one of those big wheels put in here many years ago, built in China of course.
After about a month it began to fall apart and was shut down for months while fixed.

Closed now but no one wants to use it or buy it.

[Ivan Cloherty]

If I remember correctly didn't Australia have a lot of trouble with two frigates built in Spain, corrosion, cracking welds, shaft misalignment etc. The Spanish yard won on price, it's the old adage 'you get what you pay for'

[happy daze john in oz]

We did purchase two new, second hand ferries from some where in the EU some years back, maybe mid 80's.
They are to be replaced by two new ones next year also from somewhere in EU.