Another Portsmouth Craning accident

[lw395]

From the News website:
Published Date: 06 April 2009
A forty-tonne crane fell from Portchester Sailing Club's Dolphin jetty, smashing into a brand new yacht.
The hydraulic crane, which had been lowering the new £20,000 Westerly Konsort yacht on to estuary mud at low tide, collapsed into the bay at 3.35pm yesterday, crashing through a wooden jetty into the yacht's centre, writing it off.

The crane driver, who was in the cabin when the accident occurred, escaped shaken but unharmed, but the boat was smashed down to its base.

The accident was thought to have been caused by a hydraulic pipe breaking, causing the heavy lifting equipment to topple off the jetty and pin the boat to the low tide mud.

Coastguards and the Special Equipment Unit from Cosham fire station battled rising tides and quicksand-consistency mud to attempt to right the crane.

A 100 tonne crane from Southampton arrived at 5.20pm to try to right the crane, but rising tides saw work postponed at 7.20pm, to restart in the morning

I always thought my fear of having my boat craned was unreasonable emotion. Not so sure now!

 

[colingr]

New £20,000 Westerly Konsort?

 

[Allan]

I am so pleased to hear that Westerly are back in business and can make a Konsort for £20,000!!!!!
Allan

 

[sailorman]

News Here

 

[colingr]

That is really sad. I feel for the poor owner. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[sailorman]

Yes but on the brighter side he may well get a good price. & in this buyers market place might do well.

my guess the crane "Jibbed-out " too far for the base he was set-up on

 

[max]

As the owner of a 39 foot yacht that was dropped when the crane that was lowering it into the water at Spice Island fell over in 2007 I can only sympathise with the unfortunate owner of this unhappy Konsort. Its a horrible feeling one minute to be the happy owner of a boat being readied for the season and the next to possess what may be little more than a pile of junk. In my case I was lucky, and despite substantial damage below the waterline where the hull hit the quayside (and didn't bounce), and to the topsides where the crane derrick fell taking mast, rigging, and most of the stanchions with it, the boat is back in one piece as good as new.

 

[Cliveshep]

I cannot understand how, with modern cranes and all the fail-safes they are fitted with, these accidents can happen. It has to be solely down to the ground upon which the crane is set up not being capable of bearing the loads because all the cranes I've had on my sites have a MLI and computers which show exactly how much you are lifting and give the safe jib-out angles for the load you are lifting. If it is too heavy the crane shuts down and even before that as you approach maximum alarms go off. They have to be very old cranes not to be so equipped, perhaps cheapos that boatyards buy for their own use but even so under lifting appliance regulations there are standards that are law and which still apply.

 

[Piddy]

The News got a lot of the story right but not all. Obviously it wasn't a "new" Westerly Konsort and the crane wasn't on a jetty. In addition to the boat, it has demolished a wooden dolphin which is located next to the slipway.
The crane drives down the slipway before stopping and extending support legs prior to lifting boats off a trailer and placing them onto the mud.
The Club has gone to enormous lengths to ensure safety when craning and has never had any kind of incident like this before during the 30 odd years craning has taken place in this way. The craning exercise is contracted out to professionals (I can't remember who it currently is but it used to be Ken Brown in Portsmouth). Portchester only supply trained banksmen to supervise and ensure correct H & S procedures are followed.


It breaks my heart to see this boat in this state. The owners are good friends of mine and keep her in lovely condition.

I can't imagine what the repercussions of this will be at Portchester - it is a very DIY kind of place with a great community spirit - hopefully what went wrong will be established quickly so some confidence can be restored in the process.

 

[Achillesheel]

How awful. Our boat was craned in yesterday, I'm glad I didn't see this until today!

 

[samwestwood]

It was a relatively new crane going from the news reports.
"A hydraulic failure," This dose not seam to match the evidence in my opinion.
more likely he did not position his outriggers correctly or something he put them on gave way.

 

[sailorman]

It Toppled over if you look @ the photo

 

[fireball]

As it would do if one of the legs wasn't giving the support it was required too ....

 

[lw395]

Are these accidents quite common nationally or just portsmouth?
There was a very scary accident with a dockyard crane a few years back also.

 

[Alfie168]

This is quite an old link, but instructive about cranes and water. At least nobody was hurt at Porchester. Thats the most important thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u82CPjXV1Vw


Tim

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
This is quite an old link

[/ QUOTE ] not seen the video before but seen stills from it. What is difficult to explain is how they got all the bystanders in exactly the same positions to watch the third crane as they were in while watching the second!

 

[Rabbie]

That old video from the Irish harbour has long been pronounced a fake. Entertaining, but certainly not informative. Why don't we just wait and see what the result of the H&SE enquiry will be before speculating on something we know nothing about.

 

[Will]

I couldn't agree more. As a crane operator, some of the comments I've read here are flippant and uninformed to the point of being irritating.

Hydraulic failure could well be the cause, perhaps a seal or a hose on an outrigger. It's highly unlikely that the driver "jibbed out too far" - to do this he's have to override the SWL system. Sorry to rant a bit, but imagine the reaction if a failed seacock, dodgy skin fitting, or collision with a container sank your yacht, and you had to put up with a bunch of hairy-arsed crane drivers knowledgeably telling everyone that you "tipped it over a bit far, so it sunk, see."

Maybe it was just an accident. Of course it's very sad for the poor yacht owner, but mostly I feel for the guy in the cab; it must have been bl**dy terrifying.

 

[starfire]

Seal perhaps, hose no. The lock valves in the legs would prevent that happening.

Best guess would be for the SLI to be incorrectly set up, either the wrong ballast entered or one or more of the legs not fully extended, & the SLI set for fully rigged duties.

Seen it done, been there with a bigger crane to pick the mess up afterwards.

 

[rhumlady]

I reckon that is more like about £35000 to £40000 as it is a Konsort Duo and they were more expensive from new. Ver sad to see.