SOUTHAMPTON shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft celebrated the end of and era yesterday handing over the final ship in a contract which has spanned 14 years.

The last Sandown class minehunter, built at the firm's Woolston shipyard, was officially released to the Royal Navy with zero defects, a rare distinction in the construction of such sophisticated warships.

With successful sea trials now complete and work finished on HMS Shoreham it was yesterday handed over to the Royal Navy - the 12th and final ship of its kind.

VT shipbuilding director Andrew Bunney said: "This was an historic day for VT. The Sandown Class has provided a stable workload for our shipbuilding division over many years and the technology has helped to establish VT as a world leader in this type of shipbuilding.''

He said the Sandown Class was originally a joint design between VT and the Ministry of Defence. Since construction of the first ship started in 1987, VT has consistently improved its productivity and quality of build over the life of the programme. HMS Shoreham will be the third ship in the Class to achieve zero defects on hand-over. She will be based in Portsmouth with the MCM 3 Squadron.

VT has built all 12 ships in the Sandown Class, having started work on the first-of-class in 1987. The programme has underlined VT's position as a world leader in the construction of fibre reinforced plastic minehunters, having built the world's first ship of this type in 1970.

VT has built a total of 24 FRP minehunters for the Royal Navy and, with future mine countermeasures set to focus on different technology, HMS Shoreham could be the last FRP minehunter built for the RN. Three ships similar to the Sandown Class have also been built for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces.

Commodore Richard Clapp, RN, Head of Minor War Vessels, commented: "HMS Shoreham represents the last of a very successful class of ships to join the Royal Navy, which have proved their capabilities most recently in the clearance of considerable quantities of live Second World War ordnance in the Baltic. The handover of Shoreham marks the beginning of the trials and training phase to prepare her for full acceptance as an operational unit."

A Vosper spokesman said: "We will retain our FRP expertise through other shipbuilding and industrial projects, while the lessons we have learned in productivity have also been valuable in contributing towards securing our current healthy order book for steel shipbuilding work."