CMA CGM Seattle is a container ship. In May 2022 it came alongside at Rivergate Marina on the Brisbane River carrying a different name, and it sailed as this one. The bow, the stern and the port of registry were all repainted by rope access technicians hanging off the deck edge over the water.
A name change on a ship this size is not a sign job. The old name gets painted out and blended back into the hull, then the new lettering goes on by stencil, in white, at a scale where a single letter is taller than the person painting it. All of it happens over water, on a loaded ship, on the schedule the ship is keeping.
At a glance
Location
Rivergate Marina, Brisbane River
Services
Rope access painting, vessel name change
Access
Rope access off the deck edge, rescue craft standing by
Duration
Four working days, seven technicians at peak
Photos
On site
The work
Painting a name nobody can stand back from
The vessel carries its name in three places: both bow quarters, and across the stern above the port of registry and the IMO number. Every one of them had to go and be redone. The previous name was deleted and worked back to an even hull colour, the new stencils were set out and fixed to the plate, then the lettering was rolled in the specified white and the edges cut in by hand. Paint and stencils came from the client. The access, the rigging, the gear and the people came from us.
What that involves
Delete the previous name on both bow quarters and across the stern, back to an even hull colour
Set out and fix the stencils to the plate, working off ropes with nothing underfoot
Roll the letters in the specified white, then cut the edges in so the characters read clean from a distance
Repaint the port of registry beneath the stern name, and leave the IMO number legible
Check line and spacing from the water before the stencils come off, because a crooked letter is visible from a kilometre away
Four days, and one lost to weather
The job ran Sunday to Thursday, 29 May to 2 June 2022. Seven technicians started it, six carried the middle of it, and three finished it. The Tuesday was written off by weather, because wind and rain over water suit neither wet paint nor rope access.
Two hundred and fifty nine technician hours went into it. That is what a name costs when every letter is set out and applied by hand from a rope.
How we get to it
Over the side, with water underneath
There is no scaffold and no platform on a job like this. Lines are rigged off the deck edge and the ship structure, and the technicians work down the hull to within reach of the waterline. The surface is curved, it is steel, and it moves. The ship is afloat and loaded, so it lifts with the tide and with the wash of anything that goes past.
The rescue boat is not optional
A dedicated rescue craft sits under the working area for the whole job, in this case a jetski with a rescue sled and a skipper on it. If it goes out of sight, work stops until it is back.
A lifejacket will not float a technician wearing a harness and a rack of steel rope access gear. The boat is the rescue plan, not the jacket, so the boat is a condition of the work rather than a nice extra.
How we work it
Crew and gear ferried out by workboat at the start and end of every day
Lines rigged off the deck edge and ship structure, checked by a second set of eyes before anyone goes over
Everything tethered, because anything dropped goes in the river and is not coming back
Paint kept controlled over the side, with nothing allowed into the water
Work stopped on wind and rain rather than pushed, because wet paint on a hull only gets one go
Photos taken through the job, so the client can see the finish without getting in a boat
Challenges
What makes this one awkward
The scale is the first thing. A single letter is taller than the technician painting it, so nobody working on it can see what it looks like. The only person who can judge the job is the one sitting in the boat.
The second is that nothing holds still. The hull is curved and afloat, the light shifts through the day, and the surface a stencil has to sit flat against has weld seams, plate curvature and fittings running through it.
And it is a working ship on a schedule. The vessel sails when the vessel sails. There is no coming back next week to touch up a letter, so it has to be right on the day it is done.
Outcome
What the job delivered
A vessel that went alongside under one name and sailed under another, with the bow, the stern and the port of registry all matching and all reading correctly, finished inside the window the ship had in port.
It is not the work most people picture when they hear rope access, but the discipline is the same as a facade. Rig off structure, work a surface nobody can otherwise reach, do it once and do it properly, and get everyone home. The only real difference is what is underneath.
