Repurposing old ships
LR’s chief surveyor Iain Wilson finds the challenging projects the most interesting.
“Conversions are always more challenging and therefore in my opinion more interesting than newbuilds because of the time pressure you are under to complete the work,” he told Horizons. “Shipowners don’t like vessel downtime and look to yards and class societies to help get their vessels commercially active as soon as possible.”
Wilson recounts one of his most interesting projects, which formed part of a multi-engine room swap for Spanish shipping company, Elcano.
The story begins with two steam powered oil takers built around 1976/77 which were re-engined by building two new engine rooms. The two vessels were separated and went on to be part of four conversion projects (two bulk carriers and oil tankers) that took place in the mid-1980s.
One of these four ships – bulk carrier Castillo de la Luz – had a new bulk carrier front end and one of the original steam engine rooms. This front would then go on to be fitted to the engine room of the Castillo de Monteatagon to form the Castillo de Belmonte – a conversion project that Wilson worked on in 1996, when he was in the Republic of Korea.
Wilson recalls how the insides of the two different parts of the vessel did not fit, “as they were built at different yards with different tank arrangements at the forward end of the engine room where the join was,” he said. “It was incredibly challenging as we only had 40 days to complete the work and we really had to think on our feet. It really stands out as one of the most exciting projects in my career.”
Working his way up
LR chief surveyor Iain Wilson spent the majority of his career in Asia and attributes his biggest career moves to a more senior colleague, Roy Thompson, who put him at the heart of Chinese shipbuilding during the boom years.
In 1995, Wilson moved from Hong Kong to the Republic of Korea to gain experience in new construction in the Korean yards which had started flourishing in the early 1970s and had by this time overtaken Japan, noted Wilson.
However initially he spent several months Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Ulsan on some “fabulous conversions” before being given his first management position as SIC during a temporary assignment to Xingang, China. On return to Korea he moved to Koje working on a BP Project and an FPSO for Woodside in Samsung Heavy Industries. Then in 2000 he was sent to Taiwan as Surveyor in Charge in Kaohsiung. “In May the following year I got a call from Roy,” he recalls, “who asked me to move to Shanghai as manager for Central China, in a role that see me responsible for a team of 20 surveyors. I arrived in July 2001, with my wife and two children.”
Three months later Roy left to go to Korea and Wilson was promptly promoted to fill Roy’s position as marine manager for China and almost overnight became responsible for around 50-plus surveyors and to build and recruit the team there to meet the increasing shipbuilding and repair work
“It was around the time when Chinese shipbuilding really started taking off,” he explained. The number of Chinese yards expanded rapidly with many became serious players and “and so between 2000 to 2008, LR expanded considerably in the region.”
Another call from Roy came at the end of 2004 and Wilson moved back to Korea, to manage Korea through one of its busiest periods.
He spent four years in Busan before moving back to Southampton, UK, and has worked there until now.
The article was originally published in Lloyd’s Register’s Horizons Magazine and is republished here with their permission and our thanks. Horizons can be read online at
https://bit.ly/41yiUCk.
130 | ISSUE 107 | MAR 2024 | THE REPORT
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