30 May 2008. MAN Diesel PrimeServ’s Service Center in Frederikshavn, Denmark, has successfully completed a large main engine repair and overhaul job aboard the Argentine fishing factory trawler Centurion Del Atlantico. The 21-year-old vessel arrived at Orskov Yard, Denmark for a complete main engine overhaul and an extensive updating and renewal of the accommodation, and the fish factory processing plants.

The Norwegian owner, Aker BioMarin, who is behind the company Estremar Argentina, decided to take the vessel all the way to the northern hemisphere due to the vast extent of technologically and rather specialist demanding tasks to be performed onboard.

The Centurion Del Atlantico (originally built in Japan 1986 as Akebono Maru, and the world’s largest fishing vessel at that time) is a 118m factory trawler, fully operational with a crew of 100 persons. The vessel operates in the triangle between Argentina, the Falkland Islands and the Antarctica. Various sorts of round fish like 'southern blue whiting' and 'hoki' are caught for the processing and fabrication of surimi.
  
The vessel is powered by a MHI licence-built (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) four-stroke medium-speed MAN Diesel main engine type 6L58/64, having clocked approximately 140,000 hours prior to arrival.
    
The extensive main engine tasks were handled by the MAN Diesel organisation’s repair teams at PrimeServ Frederikshavn, supervised by Mr. Jörg Oppermann, MAN Diesel’s L58/64-expert from PrimeServ Hamburg.
The MAN Diesel personnel were teamed up with Orskov Yard experts onboard managing the largest main engine components.

Mr Dan Larsen, Group Manager, PrimeServ Frederikshavn, says: “It has been a demanding and challenging process – not just another routine repair task. Jörg Oppermann, from PrimeServ Hamburg has been a great and indispensable help in this project. And the sourcing of components, which is rather difficult in connection with plate/item numbers for an old Japanese licence-engine originally built for a Japanese customer, went through Mr. Andreas Schmager at the PrimeServ Hamburg office. Most of the engine documentation onboard was found only in the Japanese language.”

    
The owner’s representative, Superintendent and Technical Manager, Mr. Aage Linningsvoll, and Chief Adviser, Mr. John Mortensen, were the key personnel in the coordination between the ship’s engine crew, and the teams of MAN Diesel and Orskov Yard. The yard teams were in particular involved in the efficient crane handling of major main engine components like the engine frame and crankshaft.

The vessel’s existing oil mist detector could not continue operation, and therefore the engine was updated with a new Splash Oil System - ordered from PrimeServ Hamburg and fitted in only two days. Starting-up, quay trails and the following sea trial commenced almost without problems. One fuel pump, however, had to be replaced.
 
Further details on the specific repair and overhaul tasks are available upon request.

In the meantime, the Centurion Del Atlantico has returned to its fishing operations in harsh Argentine waters – and has been operating there reliably without requiring any remarkable actions or parts for ship and main engine.

Principal particulars
Vessel name : CENTURION DEL ATLANTICO
Previous name : (1986 - 1992) Akebono Maru 
Class Relation : DNV Class - 1A1 Stern Trawler
DNV ID  : 17945. IMO No: 8610021
Port  : USHUAIA, Argentina
Year of Build : 1986
Loa  : 118.5 m  
Lbp  : 107 m
Breadth  : 18 m
Draught  : 7.546 m
GT (ITC 69) :  5,943 
DWT  :  4,797 
Crew  :  100 persons - fully operational
Yard  :  Mitsubishi Heavy Ind. Ltd.
 

Captions to four images:
Centurion Del Atlantico – before its return to the South Pacific waters
The reconditioned crankshaft is lowered from main deck to engine room
The under-slung 6L58/64 crankshaft is hoisted back in place
Cylinder heads are fitted for finishing the engine top section

Ref no. 6510-0063