Britannia re-opens Wed 1 February 2012
As of Wednesday 1 February 2012, Britannia is open once again to the public after a month's closure to enable planned maintenance work to be carried out; this involved the ship being moved to the neighbouring Imperial Dry Dock within the Port of Leith.
A major part of this work was painting the area of the hull which is below the waterline. This area is 16 feet, approximately 5 metres, high. Taking Britannia out of the water allowed this part of the hull to be inspected, treated and repainted, the first time since the summer of 1998 that this has been done. Due to the quality of the work previously carried out, the annual underwater surveys found that it was not necessary for the paintwork below the hull to be redone in 2008 as was originally expected. However, despite there being no evidence to indicate that this work was now required, our insurance company wanted their marine surveyors to inspect the hull in order that they could give us a clean bill of health, hopefully, for at least the next 20-25 years.
The slow speed of deterioration in the paint surface that is designed to protect the steel hull from corroding may also be due to the fact that Britannia sits in a predominantly fresh water port. Sitting in salt water would have broken down the paint surface and rusted the hull quicker.
Britannia’s three masts and funnel were also treated and re-painted. Along with this, other maintenance work was carried out to areas on and off the tour route.
The cost of this essential work is entirely self-funded by The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust with revenue raised through admissions, events and our gift shop.
During this period we are relocating our offices to the Britannia Visitor Centre in Ocean Terminal and all phone lines, faxes and emails will be answered as normal.We will be moving offices the first week in February
Tel: +44 (0)131 555 8800
Email: enquiries@tryb.co.uk
