Over the last ten years, Wise Engineering has ordered more than 50 JCB engines for its slipway and boat hoists. Now the company has experienced a run of orders leading to an order of four more engines from UK and Ireland JCB distributor, Mermaid Marine.
“The biggest asset for a boatyard or a marine is its lifting capacity,” explained Wise Engineering director Barrie Sutcliffe.
“A marine hoist is there to enhance. Ours have been developed for low maintenance using a lot of stainless and galvanised steel to perform in the harshest conditions which is why we’ve forged a link with Mermaid Marine and JCB. We’ve got every confidence in JCB. Like our hoists, the engines are British built.”
He added: “JCB is growing with us all the time, we’ve had 50 engines so far and have a great working relationship.”
The company has so far sold around 600 units worldwide with the latest orders for a 45 tonne capacity marine hoist for a marina in Brittany, a 12 tonne self-propelled slip with recovery hoist for lifting fishing vessels in East Anglia and a 75 tonne capacity standard marine hoist for the North of Scotland.
The fourth is for an industrial application for South Africa.
The slipway is a version of Wise’s standard hoist with multi-mode steering enabling it to move in any direction such as sideways, crab, straight or as a carousel.
“It’s an advantage for yards that are tight on space and the high torque drive allows the machine to be used on steep slipway gradients,” said Mr Sutcliffe. “They’re all remote controlled and a variable frame means boats can be parked closer together allowing more boats to be parked in the boatyard.”
“We’ve been supplying Wise Engineering with engines for a while,” added Mermaid Marine sales engineer Antony Berry. “They were one of the first OEMs to fit a JCB engine when it first came out. Wise is a great British engineering firm.”
The latest order is for a four cylinder 68kW JCB Ecomax engine, two 81kW engines and a six-cylinder engine.
The EcoMAX Tier 4i/Stage IIIB EcoMAX range is specifically designed to provide high torque at low engine speeds and a compact SCR system uses between 2-3% of exhaust additive to fuel ratio.
It utilises the same core engine architecture that has been used in the field since 2004.
Mermaid Marine will be exhibiting at Seawork on stand PY70.
