Kaipara Karrier VII

Culham Engineering’s marine experience dates back to the 1960’s and it was this history that brought Atlas Group's Mt Rex Shipping back to Culham’s when they needed to add to their fleet that operates on the Kaipara Harbour.
The Kaipara Karrier VII is a 56-metre-long self-propelled sand dredge, at 16 metres in width and 900 tonnes lightship displacement, it is the largest vessel in the Atlas Group's fleet, and their second built by Culham Engineering.

Culham Engineering’s marine experience dates back to the 1960’s and it was this history that brought Atlas Group’s Mt Rex Shipping back to Culham’s when they needed to add to their fleet that operates on the Kaipara Harbour.

The Kaipara Karrier VII is a 56-metre-long self-propelled sand dredge, at 16 metres in width and 900 tonnes lightship displacement, it is the largest vessel in the Atlas Group’s fleet, and their second built by Culham Engineering.

Our ability to manage the entire project from receipt of design to handover on the Kaipara Harbour, our focus on planning and project delivery, and our ability to bring together supporting trades from our Northland marine hub, combined with our track record with Atlas meant that Culham’s were the first choice for this project.

A project of this type requires a unique range of skills.  The Culham Management engaged a team of local subcontractors all with the experience and skill sets to complete this project, that are all within our localised area.  This demonstrates the true value of the professionalism available in our Northland based marine hub.

Working directly with the Client and Lighthouse Naval Architects (Rupert Shaw) from the outset, we were able to add value to the design on the constructability of the project to deliver the Kaipara Karrier VII in the most efficient way possible.

Utilising capability gained from our wide-ranging experience, the Culham project team took a modular approach to the build, with the insight to detail the finishing and fit out requirements within each module throughout the project.

By collaborating with the subcontractors, we were able to plan work concurrently rather than at the end of the project so that everything was ready to install as soon as each module was ready.  Four of the seven modules were fabricated at Culham Engineering supported by Heron Ship Repair who fabricated three.

The launch of the vessel was undertaken using pressurised airbags, a first of its kind for a vessel of this size in New Zealand.   We initiated a number of upgrades on site including a new slipway to accommodate this launch and future launches of this type.   In collaboration with EngPro and the ABL Group, the Culham project team carefully calculated the load capacity for the pressure airbags that were used to move and support the vessel during the entire launch sequence.

This project demonstrates the strong marine construction skills of Culham Engineering and Northland marine hub subcontractors. Our combined skills and the new investments made on the Culham site open up further opportunities to see shipbuilding reignited in the North and for Culham Engineering to deliver more large-scale vessels.