Price Abdul Aziz - Malta Shipyards
Prince Abdul Aziz has been the largest superyacht in the world for many years and Aquablast has
helped to keep her hull in pristine condition.
At Malta Shipyards dedicated yacht repair unit early in 2005, Aquablast was contracted to remove
the anti-fouling coatings from the 428 foot long floating palace, which is owned by King Fahd of
Saudi Arabia.
Aquablast used some of the eight 'Aquablaster' pressurised wet abrasive systems supplied by the
company to Malta Shipyards. The work was accelerated by using Superstripper tools which allow
the 'Aquablaster' wet abrasive stream to be boosted by the injection of Ultra High Pressure (UHP) water.
Removal rates over 20 square metres per hour can be achieved by a single blaster using this unique
Aquablast system. There is no dust and, typically, abrasive consumption rates are up to 60% less
than conventional open dry abrasive blasting.
This allows garnet abrasive to be used cost-effectively and, taking into account disposal costs,
the nett blasting cost per square metre can often be less than open dry blasting with furnace slags.
The major advantage of these Aquablast systems are virtually no dust or mess invading the topsides
of luxury vessels such as the Prince Abdul Aziz and no interruption from blasting activities to
other trades working elsewhere on the vessel.
The Jeddah-based Abdul Aziz carries her own helicopter, contains a garage for several vehicles;
is fitted with an underwater surveillance system and communications systems literally
'fit for a king' ; and has such a high standard of fittings and furnishings that conventional
grit blasting anywhere on the vessel is considered out of the question.
Aquablast also provides 3,800 bar (55,000 psi) UHP water blasting as well as the Aquablaster
and Superstripper wet abrasive systems. For 16 years Aquablast has been specialising in
environmentally friendly surface preparation solutions.
Other recent projects for Aquablast at Malta have included the restoration of the
fire-damaged Rowan drilling rig Jim Cunningham and large-scale coatings repair to the
Glomar Santa Fe Explorer
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