Buoy oh buoy

They span almost five metres, weigh in at a hefty 19 tonnes each and are a feat of engineering to behold.

Ten mammoth mooring buoys have been created by the team at Cuddon Engineering, destined for Christmas Island.

Ordered by the Australian Government, the special delivery is set to be loaded onto a freighter ship arriving at Shakespeare Bay on Friday.

But first the oversized cargo must make it to Picton on a series of trucks.

Cuddon CEO Terry Duff says the months of complicated work and dedicated hours by all involved in the project all come together brilliantly.

““Having the reputation, relationship, and experience, with a number of the same team working on this project helped get this tender across the line, and I’m proud of our team’s commitment to excellence and ability to overcome challenges with innovation and precision”, he says.

“Partnering with suppliers from Timaru, who indented and cut 150 tonnes of steel and local painters, Blastcoat, we were able to deliver this project, so it’s a credit to the entire New Zealand marine engineering industry.

“This is our third project for the Australian Government and Links Port Services, having supplied heavy-duty mooring buoys for Nauru and Christmas Island”.

The buoys will allow larger vessels access to the isolated, unspoilt territory 350km south of Java in Indonesia, and are expected to arrive in mid-February.

Cuddon worked closely with the Wellington-based design engineers after being awarded the tender in May, started fabrication at their McArtney Street facility in July, and finishing the main bodywork just before Christmas.

“Many of our workers spent long hot days working in these buoys, where the steel required preheating up to 300 degrees prior to welding which is a credit to our staff working in really tough conditions”, says Terry.

“We’ve maintained the mandatory strict welding requirements throughout with independent specialists undertaking ultrasonic testing every weld”, describes Cuddon Production Manager and Welding Supervisor, Darrell Grout

“Five assembly stations were set up with teams of two or three fabricators at each and one buoy would take five weeks from start to finish”.

For such a large job, the Cuddon engineering workshop had special modifications put in to accommodate moving the 4.8m buoys through their assembly line process.

“As part of this project, we constructed a specialised jig to move and manipulate the buoys between workstations”, adds Darrell.

“Our experienced staff followed excellent work practices to deal with the physical size of them without any incidents”.

For each buoy, the machine shop manufactured the heavy-duty latched hook assemblies cut from 250mm steel plate.

The contract required the destructive testing of one unit to ensure it was sufficient to withstand the tidal shiploads, including a successful 90-tonne pull test NZ’s largest test facility in Matamata.

For Terry and the Cuddon Engineering team, this side of Christmas has been completing final touches before the buoys head to the port next week for a mid-February delivery.