Britain’s largest independent ship repairer has been created with the acquisition by Burgess Marine of Testbank Ship Repair in southern England.
Burgess Marine, headquartered in Dover and with sites in Poole and Portsmouth’s naval base, has acquired Testbank Ship Repair, with locations at Southampton docks, Portchester, near Portsmouth, and Avonmouth, near Bristol.
The deal will see 120 full-time staff work under the Burgess Marine banner from the six sites, with a combined annual turnover of £20m-plus.
Building on extensive experience gained from over 30 years at the forefront of commercial ship repair and the mechanical and structural support of aluminium fast craft, Burgess Marine offer proven marine engineering expertise to super yacht owners, builders and refit yards alike.
The company’s core business is the provision of coded Aluminium welders for repairs, renewals and modular fabrication to DNV, Lloyds, RINA and Bureau Veritas standards, as well as the service, overhaul, removal and replacement of medium and high speed main and ancillary diesel engines. Furthermore the company extensively supports shaft removal and alignment, rudder removal, and water jet propulsion systems.
Nick Warren, Managing Director, Burgess Marine, said: “The various work streams of both companies very much complement each other, so it made compelling business logic for family-owned Testbank to join forces with us.
The company has over the years amassed many hundreds of thousands of man hours in the support of super yacht projects.
Examples of some of the completed projects are listed below:
- Fabrication and fitting of new bronze centreboard on a 45m sailing yacht
- New build of a 40M sailing yacht hull and superstructure in aluminium
- Emergency steel plate hull renewals on a 39M sailing yacht.
- Replacement of all raw water engine room pipe work on a 37M motor yacht
- Complete rebuild of a 64M classic motor yacht including all structural fabrication (steel and aluminium), full mechanical and pipe work fit out.
- Main engine fuel pump refurbishment and replacement on a 62M Feadship
- Fitting a new steel transom, extension of two aluminium upper decks, new engine room; fitting of new engines, generators and pipe work installation to a 44M Feadship.
- Fabricate and fit new main engine exhaust system on a 42M motor yacht.
- Fabricate and fit new steel crew access deck house and hatch on a 42M motor yacht.
- Emergency pipe work repairs to a 38M Benetti
- Complete overhaul and rebuild of both main engines on a 22M motor yacht.
The merger deal has not effected the joint venture between YachtprojectsInternational and former directors of Testbank.
This joint venture company known as “Testbank Yachtprojects Ltd” was not part of the merger deal and still holds the UK and Europe agreements for Atlas Shore Power Systems and Headhunter water treatment and waste systems.
Phil Nicholas the technical director said “ The Merger, has done many things for us and has simply allowed us to expand the areas and ability of the staff we draw on to help us in the yacht sector. The ability of the other yards in the Solent area to attract larger refits to the UK has done nothing but help us as well.
Management companies, Captains and Owners will have to take note of the quality and cost that we are able to offer in the south of England now which is at best 25% more effective than in the Mediterranean based yards.
Testbank Yachtprojects advantage in having options to assist clients in the USA and globally with the network of yards and service providers we have arrangements with makes us a great option for any yachts refit and ongoing customer service globally.