The first webinar in the Safinah Marine series titled ‘Safinah Drydocking Data: Coating selection and performance insights based on 800+ drydock projects’ took place on 11 June 2025 with a follow up session on 25 June 2025.
The webinar was an opportunity for Safinah to share some key findings on product and scheme performance as well as end user selection trends based on more than 800 dry dock projects and over 700 specification reviews. Dr Ral Mihaylova and Carl Barnes also discussed common challenges and issues related to project planning and maintenance.
Over 265 individuals representing owners, charterers, P&I and legal professionals, paint manufacturers, active ingredients and raw material suppliers, and shipyards registered for the event.
Insights from the audience
The sessions were interactive and included real-time polls on hot topics, such as the predominant type of antifouling coating technologies and frequency of in-water cleaning amongst others.
97 of the attendees took part in different parts of the survey in total.
Over 90% of the audience considers traditional polishing biocidal coatings as the main technology being used today. According to Safinah data the market share of other technologies is, however, growing. The trend is particularly well defined in specific segments of the fleet where biocidal fouling release coatings are a popular choice.
Participants ranked organisational experience and cost as the main reasons for opting for specific types of technologies. This is an interesting finding as a recent survey done by Riviera Maritime Media during a webinar on ‘Coatings’ key role in shipping decarbonisation’ (available at Riviera’s Webinar Library) indicated that the selection process is predominantly reliant on advice from paint manufacturers. Relying on organisational experience can give a positive outcome, however, it is important to validate such results as representative by considering the specification, selection and the operational parameters during the in-service period in order to rule out any anomalies. However, the development of fit for purpose testing programmes and monitoring them in a consistent, transparent manner is a challenge for many organisations in Safinah’s experience.
The question of what is considered acceptable level of macrofouling in terms of performance, not necessarily from a biosecurity perspective, is one that our team often discusses with stakeholders. Over 50% of the respondents consider up to 5% macrofouling as a proportion of the total wetted surface area of the hull to be ‘good’ performance.
Just as a reminder macrofouling is typically defined as large, distinct multicellular individual or colonial organisms visible to the human eye such as barnacles, tubeworms, mussels, fronds/filaments of algae, bryozoans, sea squirts and other large attached, encrusting or mobile organisms. To put this into perspective, 5% of the underwater area of a 50,000 deadweight product tanker is approximately 520m2. Over 25% of respondents consider no visible biofouling to be ‘good’ performance and 20% of respondents would accept 5-10% of macrofouling as a ‘good’ Only 5% of participants would consider 10-20% macrofouling as acceptable performance. According to Safinah data on animal fouling alone at least 18.3% of ships arrive in drydock in a condition that 95% of survey participants would consider as unacceptable. When other biofouling types are also considered, the proportion is even higher. It is important to note, however, that the above numbers on biofouling condition include areas with coating and hull damages so they may not be truly representative of coating performance.
At Safinah, we are often involved in failure investigation work so we were curious about what participants consider to be the most common cause for poor hull coating condition / in-service performance. According to over 35% of the professionals who took part in the survey the impact of operations, which includes trade disruptions, changes in trade routes or any other unexpected changes to the typical operation of the ship, is the most common cause for poor performance. This indicates that pre-planning with focus on developing specifications that can provide flexibility in terms of changes in trade is critical for achieving reliable in-service performance. Poor surface preparation and/or application were ranked as the second most frequent cause of issues with coating performance followed by product selection and product specification.,
We also asked participants about the likely in-water cleaning frequency at present and most (57%) believe such operations are conducted rarely – 1 or 2 times during the dry docking cycle, which would imply predominantly reactive cleaning when/if required. Around 26% of professionals who took part in the survey believe that cleaning could be carried out annually or every 1.5 years and the intervention is planned based on a change in hull condition. Interestingly, 7% said that no in-water cleaning is required in their experience, whereas 4% stand behind regular proactive cleaning as a biofouling management strategy.
Safinah Initiatives
Biofouling Management Plans and Record Books – free gap analysis
With the work on a legally binding framework for the control and management of ships’ biofouling to minimise the transfer of invasive aquatic species expected to begin soon, high-level Information on the uptake of the latest guidelines as well as data on the areas that are challenging to comply with from an industry perspective will be critical to inform the drafting process. We would like to understand the challenges in order to support industry and to raise awareness amongst Member States and decision-makers.
Inspection and In-water Cleaning Benchmarking
At Safinah we evaluate and interpret inspection and in-water cleaning reports on daily basis and we experience first-hand how variable the quality of the service and the output may be across service providers, technologies, and regions. This is why we are working with industry to ensure that service providers’ systems, procedures and reporting are in line with the latest best practice.
Niche Areas: Marine Growth Prevention Systems (MGPS) In-Service Performance
At Safinah we have a significant amount of qualitative data on MGPS performance, however, we are working hard on gathering quantitative information as well in order to be able to better understand the capabilities of different types and combinations of MGPS under variable conditions.
If you’d like to learn more about our initiatives or would like to be involved: info@safinah.com or ralitsa.mihaylova@safinah.com
What's next?
The next webinar in the Safinah series will be dedicated to ‘Tank Linings – In-service Issues” where Carl Barnes, the Head of Marine Consulting, will share some insights from a number of condition surveys and failure investigations.
For more information about our Webinar Series, or if you have any particular question about our services, please speak with one of our experts.
