After a devastating blaze, we ensured staff at a luxury shipyard weren’t left at sea, getting them back up and running to deliver high-profile builds on schedule.
The incident
Pendennis World Class Super Yachts is renowned for building some of the world’s most luxurious yachts. Based in Falmouth, the 7000 sqm facility can house multiple large vessels in a complete dry dock.
The team was preparing to deliver ‘Steel’, the largest privately owned vessel constructed in Cornwall. It had been in construction for several years and costs totalled more than £31m. However, early one morning, a fire broke out in an electrical workshop, spreading smoke widely.
Although the indoor dock was unoccupied, damage to the area was of particular concern, as it was urgently needed for the finishing works on ‘Steel’.
Ground floor spray painting booths were also compromised. They contained aluminium exhaust flues which travelled up through the centre of the building, into the roof. These had melted through and dropped into a storage room, covering high-net-worth items in soot.
Our Initial Response
We immediately dispatched a response vehicle. Our team worked with shipyard managers and loss adjustors to assess the damage, identifying areas where secondary damage could occur and ‘quick wins’ which could enable work to continue, reducing business interruption.
Late delivery of ‘Steel’ would result in significant penalties for the shipyard, both financially and reputationally, so our key focus was enabling works on the project to continue.
In addition to this, the shipyard team had three other main concerns:
Spray booths out of action
Soot and extinguisher water had collected on the ground floor, putting the paint shop out of action. Our technicians immediately began to extract water and worked overnight to reverse the damage so the paint shop could reopen the following morning, ensuring critical projects did not fall behind.
Danger of corrosion
Chloride levels from the fire residue were high; teamed with the humidity from the standing extinguisher water, corrosion of machinery and ship parts was likely. We installed dehumidifiers to inhibit the process, ensuring that carefully engineered and costly vessel parts did not need replacing.
Staff facilities
While damage to the staff canteen was light, it had to close, as soot contamination could affect the wider facility. Hundreds of staff were left without space for breaks; we brought in a team of technicians to prioritise cleaning. In two days, the area was ready for use again.
“We’ve been so lucky – delivering ‘Steel’ late after four years of construction would have been a disaster. Thank you!”
– The shipyards Financial Director
Ongoing work
After our initial damage limitation, the shipyard was in a stable condition and key areas were back up and running. However, there was still significant damage to the dry dock, fabrication workshops and storage areas.
Our senior surveyors liaised with the loss adjusters to devise a scope of works that would restore the shipyard to full use, and ensure that high-value projects could be delivered on time.
During the second phase of restoration, we decontaminated the fabrication workshops, offices and design spaces, stairwells and storage areas so staff could get back to their workstations.
We worked closely with the crew of ‘Steel’, who had items in storage, keeping them informed at every stage of the cleaning process.
The outcome
Through careful management, our BDMA-certified technicians delivered the shipyard back to the management team in just four weeks. For the majority of this time, thanks to our early interventions, staff could continue working at near to normal production levels.
No major workshop machinery suffered corrosion, meaning the insurer did not have to pay out expensive replacement costs.
‘Steel’s final construction phases were carried out as planned and the vessel was delivered on time.
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