The GOA Shipyard Limited has received 30 new ropes for its ship hoist, the heart of the GOA Shipyard.

The shipyard lies on the west coast of India, in Vasco da Gama, a city in the Indian state of Goa. The GOA Shipyard was founded in 1957 by the Portuguese colonial administration and was originally intended to build cranes for the local mining industry.

After Goa was annexed by India in 1961, the shipyard was taken over by the Indian government and, from then on, was set to work building battleships for the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard. As the shipyard began to age and became in need of numerous repairs, CASAR was first commissioned in 2009 to supply 30 ropes for a new ship hoist.

At that time, the Dutch company M/S Bosch Rexroth BV installed the new ship hoist and transfer system. This system makes it possible to lift ships up to 120m-long and weighing up to 6,000t out of the water and transport them to the dry dock.

Following an in-depth study of the plan and detailed consideration of the operation and reeving of the ropes by CASAR rope specialists, the choice made in 2009 was CASAR Paraplast, a double parallel rope construction with a plastic core.

To suit the warm, humid sea climate of Goa, the rope was made of special, very corrosion-resistant wires and additionally coated with a special lubricant which would provide the rope with effective protection. This is particularly important because parts of the rope are permanently submerged in salt water, or at least remain within the splash zone of the salt water.

Another reason for the special corrosion-resistant wire and special rope lubrication was the required lifespan of 7 years. This was confirmed by the director of our Technical Service, Mr Günter Knerr, following an extensive life-span calculation, based among other things on the load spectrum.

Since the shipyard began its operation in May of 2011, these 7 years will be over in May of 2018 and the ropes are now being supplied for the planned replacement. True to the adage, ‘never change a winning team’, the customer found no reason to change the rope specifications, meaning that 30 Paraplast ropes will again be used.

The ropes are delivered with a solid thimble secured by an aluminium ferrule. The ropes function in pairs and are each reeved 8 times. The reeving results in a particularly large fleet angle, though this poses no problem for the Paraplast.

The ship hoist covers a height differential of 10.7m from the lowest position to the transfer level. There are 12.75m to the final position, the so-called Service Level, meaning that there are an additional 2.05m, though at a reduced load. The tare weight of the platform is 1,700t, enabling it to move a laden weight of up to 7,700t.