Carisbrooke decided to ‘go it alone’ on their latest two Optimarin BWT installations, saving time, maximizing vessel utilization, and unlocking a huge array of powerful business benefits.

Do It Yourself
ballast water treatment system installed on Carisbrooke vessel Vectis Falcon
– Photo Ries van Wendel de Joode

“It wasn’t really that technically challenging…. In fact, I’d compare it to putting together a giant jigsaw.”

That’s the words of Capt. Simon Merritt, Senior Fleet Manager, Carisbrooke, a leading UK shipowner and management company. He’s not talking about working on a new Lego set with his kids at Christmas, but rather the installation of two Optimarin Ballast Systems (OBS) onboard the Vectis Falcon and Vectis Eagle dry cargo ships.

Why wait?

Rather than installing the systems at dry dock, as the firm had with their previous four units, Merritt and his team decided on a new approach for the busy Vectis ships, which trade frequently in US waters.

Let’s go for it –
A riding squad installed Optimarin systems onboard Vectis Falcon with zero disruption.
– Photo Ries van Wendel de Joode

He explains: “Because US compliance dates are earlier than those of IMO, we had to install the systems before the vessels’ next scheduled docking, so we contacted Optimarin to discuss alternatives.”

Zero disruption

“It quickly became apparent that there was the potential for doing it ourselves, taking the simple, reliable system and – with some solid initial groundwork – installing it during scheduled operations, with zero disruption. The benefits of that were obviously very compelling, so we thought ‘yes, let’s go for it’.”

Thanks to expert 3D scanning from Goltens and well-planned preparations (including ensuring crewmembers were on board with both technical and electrical competency) the installation was “surprisingly straightforward”. 

The benefits of that were obviously very compelling, so we thought ‘yes, let’s go for it’.”

In-house achievement

We were always on hand to help here at Optimarin, but the Carisbrooke crew handled everything internally, leaving our own engineers with the simple job of commissioning for long-term reliability, performance and compliance. Well done guys!

It was also a case of ‘well done’ on the business benefits.

Arguably the main advantage of the firm’s DIY approach was the ability for the vessels to maintain scheduled operations and provide uninterrupted, high quality services to a global customer base. Zero downtime, Merritt says, obviously means zero lost earnings and optimal revenues.

Significant savings

With a modular nature, Optimarin BWT systems are flexible and easy to install on any vessel (newbuild and retrofit). Even those with the most restrictive space demands, our solution does not use nor generate chemicals in its process. Most importantly: It is simple to operate and maintain.

The cost savings were also “very significant” with no dry dock or port stay charges and no need for third party contractors.

Merritt says he’d have no reservations about recommending other owners and operators to ‘take matters into their own hands’ and fit simple, reliable and market proven Optimarin systems in-house.

“This was a decision that impacts upon bottom line, so in that respect the installation was business critical.”

“The benefits speak for themselves,” he says. “It’s an excellent way of achieving complete compliance simply, cost effectively and without any disruptions to sailing. A real win-win.”