Chamarel

Southern Africa | Namibia

Resolve Marine executed the wreck removal of the French cable-laying vessel Chamarel as per a BIMCO Wreckstage agreement with a P&I club. Following an accommodation fire, the 118.2-meter vessel lost power and drifted ashore 30 kilometers north of Henties Bay, Namibia. It settled parallel to a shelving beach, resting in approximately 4 meters of water.

Resolve Marine assumed responsibility for the complete and secure removal and disposal of the vessel, inclusive of debris and pollutants. The extent of damage from grounding precluded any possibility of refloating. Resolve Marine proposed a wreck removal strategy, which entailed pulling the vessel further up the beach for onshore dismantling.

To facilitate this plan, an access road was constructed connecting the shore to the casualty, facilitating the transport of equipment and personnel. This infrastructure supported asbestos remediation, partial structure removal (1,200 metric tons), and the installation of pad-eyes for its 350 metric ton hydraulic chain pullers.

The casualty was pulled onto the beach by 13 chain pullers with a combined pulling capacity of ~4,000 metric tons. Once on land, a scrapping team dismantlied the remaining 5,000 metric tons of steel into 20- to 30-ton sections.