European Causeway refits at Falmouth July 2007

European Causeway paid a visit in July 2007 to the ship repair facilities at Falmouth for her bi-annual overhaul. She was absent from her Larne - Cairnryan duties from the 8th of July and was redelivered to service as planned on the 23rd of July.

Aside from the general refit work European Causeway had a new starboard section of her forward cow catcher made and fitted whilst at Falmouth. The cow catcher aids her berthing at Larne, making sure she is always positioned the correct distance from the loading ramp at MacKean Quay. The starboard portion of the cow catcher was lost during a gale at sea this past winter but the vessel managed in the meantime with only the port side section.

Laid out below are a number of interesting pictures of European Causeway taken by her crew whilst in dry dock at Falmouth July 2007:

	Falmouth viewed from the aft mooring deck of European Causeway as she arrives at the port for her dry docking on the 9/7/07

With the dry dock pumped out work quickly gets into full swing to complete European Causeway's refit on time. Although the Cairnryan conventional ferries refit in mid July which is a slack time for freight traffic, the service only gets token support from European Mariner in between her Troon trips while European Highlander works harder completing an extra one way trip per day; thus there is always pressure to return the refitting ship into service as soon as possible so that the valuable freight traffic isn't lost to competitors.
	Looking down on the port stabiliser fin partly extended, work is in progress in this area cleaning the hull of accumulated marine growth.

The essential propulsion and steering systems get premium treatment during dry dock. They are the unseen key links that make European Causeway and sister ship European Highlander the reliable North Channel stalwarts that they are. The highly skewed propeller blades seen in the left picture of the port propeller maximises thrust from the four powerful Wartsila main engines, two of which are geared into each shaft. This helps the ships cope with inclement weather and add to the reserve power available to pick up time if the ships should fall behind schedule. The starboard rudder shown in the right picture is a Bekker rudder consisting of two parts. The main area of the rudder works like a conventional spade rudder turning as normal on the rudder stock. The tail section of the rudder also can steer and this allows the ship to complete breathtaking manoeuvres at slow speed in tight quarters, making berthing in inclement weather conditions slightly more manageable but no less stressful to all concerned! The hinges for the tail section of the rudder can be seen in the right picture running in a vertical line towards the extreme right hand edge of the rudder.