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Rare Dry Docking of Two Frigates in San Diego

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110503-14
5/3/2011

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW) Foster Bamford, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (NNS) -- Two guided-missile frigates moored side-by-side made their way into dry dock at General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) shipyard in San Diego Bay, Calif., for a scheduled maintenance period, April 29.

The ships, USS Vandegrift (FFG 48) and USS Curts (FFG 38), were moored to each other at sea in San Diego Bay before being guided into the dry dock by three tugboats.

Once the ships were inside the dry dock, Sailors aboard the two ships along with NASSCO workers used a series of hoists, winches, divers and even a laser to bring the ships to their resting place atop two sets of blocks made from wood and concrete.

"The coordination is the hardest part," said Joseph DeOcampo, a retired Navy Senior Chief Gas Turbine Technician who now works for the Navy's Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC) as a ship-building specialist.

"Dry docking two ships is kind of difficult, but at the same time, it will probably save the Navy a lot of money," said DeOcampo, who provided quality assurance for NASSCO during the dual docking.

According to DeOcampo, docking two ships at once is a bit of a rarity and NASSCO has only accomplished it five times with the most recent taking place in 2007.

According to Frank Russell, a dock master at NASSCO, there were only three people assigned to the project who had performed a double dry-docking evolution for NASSCO in the past.

"When you dock just one ship, you only have one ship's crew to work with for getting the ship in a certain condition," said Russell. "When you dock two ships, you have basically twice the amount of people to talk with and get the ships into condition as well, so it limits what you can do as far as how you have to condition the ships and the condition they have to be in and how you have to block them."

Russell said that with two 453-foot, 4,000-pound vessels, docking becomes a game of inches. "It's a very delicate dance, so to speak," he said.

While in dry dock, the two ships will undergo $17 million in upgrades and repairs before returning to the fleet. Located in San Diego, NASSCO employs 3,700 people and is the only major ship construction yard on the West Coast of the United States.