The Portuguese Navy patrol ship Zaire is undergoing maintenance at a shipyard in Spain’s Canary Islands before being sent on missions to the Madeira maritime area, where there are currently two smaller ships with less ocean-going capacity. eg missions between Funchal and the Selvagens Islands.
The Zaire has spent the last five and a half years without maintenance on a mission in Sao Tome and Principe, training local coast guards, protecting the Gulf of Guinea from maritime piracy, and conducting search and rescue missions. It has been in service for 51 years (it is the second oldest active ship in the Navy, trailing by several months the corvette Antonio Enes, currently on a mission in the Azores). Delayed construction of six new ocean patrols prevents these two old ships from going to slaughter.
The urgent docking and overhaul at the Las Palmas shipyard, costing 574 thousand euros, comes after “a significant deterioration in the material condition of this ship in terms of the hull and superstructures, with violations of watertightness, as well as significant degradation in the material condition of critical systems such as the propulsion system and steering control of the ship, which together seriously affect the safety conditions of navigation,” the Navy order says. The last planned intervention in Zaire took place about ten years ago.
Author: Sergio A. Vitorino
Source: CM Jornal
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