The cold, rain and wind felt in the city these days have little or nothing to do with the microclimate of the Bouzas repair dock. The adverse conditions are getting worse in this open area by the sea, and they are trying to protect themselves as much as they can from the ships stranded there. really? ruined fishing boatsthe vast majority are packed with cars, huddled a few meters away in the shadow of the massive Ro-Ro ships tasked with clearing congestion in the terminal. Mecanasa is a marine auxiliary with more than 20 years of experience. installation, maintenance and repair of mechanical equipment. It is a ‘hospital’ for the many boats that come to Vigo with some kind of problem or just to undergo inspection.
Its 2,700 square meter warehouse serves many occasions. ‘Operating theatre’ for the ‘hearts’ of ships that come to a complete stop, without beating. The head of the workshop, Jorge Calo, admits that these are the cases he likes the most, saying that it is the turn of the home engines that are “seven meters long and almost three meters high”. “When we have someone like that, it’s the best. We dismantle it and fix it to find out what the fault is,” he elaborates during a visit to Faro de Vigo from the Prensa Ibérica group. all kinds of machinery: conventional and numerically controlled lathes, milling machines… Their teams work inside, protected, like doctors, but also go to the main shipyards of the Olympic city to provide assistance.
Normally the “smallest” engines come on board, greatly increasing the size of the engines used in any given car. Caring for those of larger sizes involves mobilizing staff to where the ‘patients’ are docked, as “otherwise caesarean sections would have to be performed on ships to remove them, transport them and place them with external cranes within the facility.” “. The ‘hearts’ of both main and emergency ships inspected by multiple professionals simultaneously to make sure all parts fit together perfectly. So much so that after thousands and thousands of hours of work, they work again or continue to work like clockwork.
Projects and ships
Among the projects they have undertaken here, Mecanasa is currently working on the repair of several important parts of the tuna vessel ‘Montelape’, which is flagged by El Salvador and owned by Calvo (currently Grupo Nauterra). The boat, in which they fine-tuned the dock roller, which, among other things, is the mechanism that helps dry the net and also accelerates the closing of the bag to reduce fish loss, has a length of 78 meters and is played with. He played a key role in 2020 during the rescue of 29 sailors aboard ‘Albacora 6’, which leaked and sank 260 miles south of Ivory Coast.
The company is also involved in the assembly of the engine of the 24-meter French-flagged ‘María Magdalena’ and the arrangement of various components of the 74-meter Estonian-flagged ‘Madrus’. In the first case, workshop professionals and shipboard workers meet remotely, Prepare the necessary parts inside the ship and then take them to Celeiro in Lugo. In addition to these three ships, Mecanasa is also completing the arrangements for two ships affiliated with the Customs Surveillance Service in Galicia, which are vital in the fight against drug smuggling. High altitude patrol vessel and an interceptor.
Cranes, rudders and other artifacts are also treated on his ship, where the day always starts at seven in the morning and ends at three. There are usually four or five repairmen at this facility, and the rest are distributed to different shipyards in the city unless necessary. And in the factory, as in many other traditional businesses, change is one of the considerations as it faces its future: “We are signing young people, but there is a generation missing. There is a generation leap. The old people are gone, there are very few middle class people, and this is also noticeable in the young people coming. Many had no ‘teacher’.”