A ROYAL Navy vessel that spent three years operating in the Gulf has had an extensive refurbishment completed in Rosyth.

HMS Shoreham, one of the Royal Navy’s fleet of Sandown class minehunters, docked at Babcock in June as part of a maintenance programme ships are required to undergo every five years.

Babcock are contracted to deliver the upkeep of all seven Royal Navy Sandown class minehunters, which are base ported on the Clyde, and a range of improvements and alterations were carried out at the dockyard.

These included the refurbishment and installation of a new fire detection system, improvements to the high pressure air system and painting of the upper decks, which was required due to the vessel being exposed to a hostile environment in the Gulf’s heat and humidity.

Up to 80 Babcock employees have worked on HMS Shoreham each week during completion of the work, and project manager Dave Gibb said: “With a fibreglass ship, like the fleet of Sandown class minehunters, maintaining sections of the hull take time and precision.

"The hull is approximately 25mm thick and consists of many layers of glass cloth impregnated with resin. Our tradesmen would work in small steps, first cutting out, then layering each section with the fibreglass cloth.

"It’s not a skill you see very often as most ships are made of steel.”

The vessel has passed its ‘Ready for Sea Inspection’ and will return to the fleet this month.

Rosyth will welcome another vessel, HMS Grimsby, for the refurbishment and maintenance programme in June, followed by HMS Penzance in May 2018.