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Floating in shipbuilding involves filling the drydock with water and using tugboats to take the ship out. This method replaces the traditional launch and allows for completion of the hull and installation of propulsion systems. The process also prevents damage and allows for building ships in one area and launching them in another.
The term floating, which refers to shipbuilding, refers to filling the drydock with water and taking the ship out with tugboats. This floating procedure usually follows the laying of the keel and the almost complete completion of the ship’s hull. Once removed from drydock, the ship is routinely returned to drydock for painting and completion of the propulsion system, propellers, and any other final assemblies. This early floatation procedure has replaced and virtually eliminated the traditional launch of boats by dramatically sliding them into the water from a ramp.
Modern shipbuilding techniques often include construction of a double hull to protect against ice drilling, grounding, and other floating debris. However, this design creates the potential for a leak to form between the inner and outer hull. If early boat building techniques are left without the float, leaks could go virtually unnoticed when the boat is launched after final construction. This could lead to a disaster. This problem is virtually eliminated by using the float method of shipbuilding to complete a ship’s hull.
It is not uncommon for the outer hull of a ship to be incomplete at the start of the floatation. Once floated, the hull can be completed along with most of the inner decks and superstructure. Components such as the drive system can be installed on the lower decks, however it is not until the final dry dock session that items such as prop shafts, propellers and the rudder system are often installed. It is also during this construction period, after the initial floatation, that the hull is painted and the waterline markers are added to the painted details of the ship’s hull. Shaft water seals and other water related seals and pumps are generally checked during the secondary float period.
While it’s not as romantic and exciting as watching a large ship slide down a launch ramp into the water, the size and weight of the modern ship make that process nearly impossible. A great deal of damage, including breaking the ship’s spine, could result from such a launch. The flotation process allows the ship’s hull to be equally supported by the rising water as the drydock slowly fills, preventing any unnecessary flexing or tilting of the vessel as it becomes water. This technique also allows you to build and build a ship in one area of the world and officially name it and launch it at a dock in another.
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