Seaclear gains from a versatile crane
Versatility is what Seaclear’ s new owner, the Cowes Harbour Commission (CHC), wanted from its new 16m multicat type workboat, the first to be built by Southampton Marine Services. The newly completed boat received considerable attention on the floating pontoon at Seawork last month.
Cowes Harbour Master Stuart McIntosh told
MJ
that the crane, while mostly used for picking up buoys and moorings (both getting them onto the deck and lifting from the seabed), will also help to keep
Seaclear
’s options open for different kinds of outside contract work, which CHC will be happy to take on. The crane will also come in useful for getting equipment on board to carry out to other boats, such as the larger Trinity House vessels, a role that Cowes Harbour Commission has taken on before.
Paul Ruscoe of ACB Hydraulics, which supplied the knuckleboom crane, backs this idea up, telling MJ that more and more owners are choosing breadth of application over other considerations. ‘It means one company can do all the job instead of getting another contractor in’, he said. It thus makes economic sense to go that bit further when specifying deck equipment in general, and cranes in particular.
The crane itself, an ACB 300-4 model, has five extensions and will pick up 5 tons at a reach of 8.5 metres, or 2.2 tons at the full extension of 12.5 metres. The unit weighs in at 4.5 tons and is bolted onto a plate on the deck, making it entirely removable and, if necessary, able to be fitted onto another boat.
One of the more important aspects, Stuart McIntosh told MJ, is that it tucks neatly away. ‘The deck can carry 40 tons of equipment, which recently has meant 20 buoys, as many 20 metre risers, and as much as 1,000m of 36mm ground chain, plus two anchors weighing around a ton apiece. So what we need more than anything is a crane that will do its job but not take up too much space.’
He added that for CHC, another of the crane’s better qualities was the price, value for money in terms of capability. With the activities for Cowes Week underway and its attendant requirement for markers, Seaclear’s cost effective crane is certainly being put through its paces.
