Fleeting Fleet Update

The Huon Supply Receives Maintenance Tick

Huon’s fleet of over 100 vessels has a few workhorses with perhaps none better known than the Huon Supply. In 2021, after some 41 years at sea, the Huon Supply was slipped and subject to an exhaustive bow-to-stern audit at the Hobart Queens Domain Slip, plus an on-water inspection at Port Huon.

In 1979, the vessel that was to become known as the Huon Supply began her life at the Skaalurens Skibsbyggeri shipyard in Norway. Originally a pallet carrier named the Tresnes, the vessel has had many lives and identities including Paletten, Mikal With, Frohavet, and NYKSUND II. After joining the Huon fleet in 2018, she was renamed the Huon Supply in reference to her role delivering feed to Huon’s southern leases.

Given her long operational history, the slipping was required to complete the checks and balances needed for its Australian Maritime Safety Authority renewal. Taking place at TasPort’s Queens Domain Slip, the Huon Supply is the heaviest vessel to be slipped in the site’s 116-year history. The team at TasPorts prepared for this historical event by reinforcing their winching equipment to accommodate for the Huon Supply’s record-breaking size. The preparation phase ran over a 12-month period and involved a Naval Architect undertaking calculations and designing a slip that could safely take the vessel’s weight. In addition to being slipped, the Huon Supply was examined at Port Huon for water tightness and operational pumps. Having passed both audits, the Huon Supply has re-joined the fleet and can be seen delivering feed to Huon’s operations in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Storm Bay.

Huon Supply specs:

Length overall: 64.16m Length between perpendiculars: 59.05m Breadth extreme: 11.02m Breadth: 11m Depth: 6.65m Draught: 3.804m Gross Tonnage: 1,155t Net Tonnage: 390t

–The Huon Supply – photo by Ed Rivett –

–The Huon Supply being slipped – photo by TasPorts –