PFL Matai is a cargo ship that came into the Port of Brisbane in January 2024 under a different name. One day, four rope access technicians and a boat underneath, and it sailed with the new one on the bow.
A rename is two jobs stacked on each other. The old name has to disappear completely, which on a hull like this means covering it rather than taking it off, and the new one has to go on straight and even at a size where a single letter is longer than the technician painting it. Both happen hanging off the deck edge with water below.
At a glance
Location
Port of Brisbane
Services
Rope access painting, vessel name change
Access
Rope access off the deck edge, rescue boat standing by
Duration
One day, four technicians
Photos
On site
The work
One day, because that is all the ship had
The vessel was in port on a fixed window, so the whole rename had to happen between arrival and sailing. The previous name was masked and covered, the new stencils were set out on the blue hull on both bow quarters, and the lettering was rolled in white and cut in by hand. The client supplied the paint and the stencils. The access, the rigging, the painting gear and the crew came from us.
What that involves
Cover the previous name until nothing of it reads through the new coat
Set out the stencils on a hull that curves in two directions, from a rope, with no way to stand back and look
Roll the letters in the specified white, then cut the edges in by hand
Keep every tin and every drip controlled, because the only thing under the work is the harbour
Check line and spacing from the wharf and from the boat before the masking comes off
Four people instead of three
The job was quoted for three technicians over ten hours. It went out with four, with the rope access project manager on the tools at no charge, because a one day window does not survive being a person short.
That is the difference between a job that finishes and a job that runs into a second day the ship does not have.
How we get to it
Over the side at the bow
The lines rig off the deck edge and the mooring bollards, with protectors where they pass over the gunwale and anywhere the steel would otherwise cut. From there the technicians work down the bow flare to the lettering, which sits low enough that the water is the only thing beneath it.
The rescue boat is a condition of the work
A manned rescue boat sits under the working area for the whole job, on this one supplied by the client. If it leaves or 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 gear. The boat is the rescue plan, so no boat means no work, and that is agreed before anybody rigs.
How we work it
Lines rigged off the deck edge and the bollards, protected wherever they run over steel
Everything tethered, because anything dropped goes in the water and is gone
Paint and tins kept controlled over the side, with nothing allowed into the harbour
The bow worked in sections, so a drop covers a letter rather than half of one
A second set of eyes on every rig before anyone goes over the edge
Photos taken as the job runs, so the finish can be checked without getting in the boat
Challenges
What makes this one awkward
The window is the whole problem. A ship in port runs to a schedule that belongs to the shipping line, not to us, and it sails whether or not the paint is finished. There is no second day to come back on.
Then there is the shape. The bow flares outward, so a technician on a rope hangs away from the plate rather than against it, and every stencil has to sit flat on steel that curves two ways at once.
And the old name gets covered rather than taken off, so the coverage has to be complete first go. Any shadow of the previous letters sitting under the new coat will read from the wharf.
Outcome
What the job delivered
A vessel that arrived under one name and sailed under another, with the new name clean on both bow quarters, finished inside the single day it had in port.
Ships are not what most people picture when they hear rope access, but the work is the same as a facade. Rig off structure, reach a surface nobody else can get to, do it once and do it properly, and get everybody back on deck. The only difference is what is underneath.
