Another Portsmouth Craning accident

[dapman281]

First of all the crane is a Grove GMK3055 which is a crane with a 55t lift capacity. Not 40t as stated in the Portsmouth News.

This crane has an on the road weight of aprox 45t, what weight is the jetty good for?
The crane when set up & working could in theory be putting down anything up to 35/37t per square meter on that jetty when on its outriggers.

Yes as pointed out in eariler articles modern cranes are fitted with lock valves to prevent all manner of mishap should hydrulic faliure happen. The crane in question was new in 2004 now making it 5 yrs old. However lock valves fail to stop human error....

After looking at another photo of this you can clearly see the crane has been half rigged, and the crane is on full 11t ballast.

There is a good chance that the op may have "forgotten" to inform the SLI system (computer)on the crane that he is working on half rigged duties, not full rigged.

The big question that the HSE will be asking is, was there a safe system of work in place ie a method statement, who was the appointed person, where was the lift supervisior during the lift.
If the lift was a standard CPA crane hire this will all be down to the sailing club to provide, however if it was a CPA Contract lift this will be down to the crane hire company, in this case Marsh Plant of Havant.

Lifting boats in or out of the water is a hazardous thing, when putting them in you need to allow for the fact that you may be lowering the load below the level of the crane which will have an effect on its centre of gravity, when aking them out you must always allow for the suction of the water which will always add extra weight to the load for a time until clear of the water.

At least no one was hurt and the insurance should sort out the damaged pride.

 

[sailorman]

 

[sighmoon]

Who needs a crane anyway.

link

 

[wotayottie]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're obviously at the "big company" end of life. But even then, when I was working in a large business, one of my regular safety problems was operators of everything from cranes to fork lifts to lathes bodging or bridging the safety lock outs and ignoring safety limits. How much worse the problem must be with the owner operators of old equipment.

 

[Bilgediver]

Lifting boats in or out of the water is a hazardous thing, when putting them in you need to allow for the fact that you may be lowering the load below the level of the crane which will have an effect on its centre of gravity, when aking them out you must always allow for the suction of the water which will always add extra weight to the load for a time until clear of the water

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You were doing well till you got to this bit.


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[wotayottie]

Since the only connection between the crane and the boat (ie the rope) stays the same, there is no difference in the turning moment on the crane whether the boat is at the top of the gib or way below the level of the crane - until the boat hits the water and the turning moment reduces to almost zero.

There is no suction in the water - the weight seen by the crane hook starts at zero and increases up to the displacement of the boat as the boat is lifted out of the water.

 

[sailorman]

[ stays the same, there is no difference in the turning moment on the crane whether the boat is at the top of the jib or way below the level of the crane]

things change dramatically when the operator "Jibs-out" increasing the leverage on the stabilizers & reducing the load allowed to lift @ that radius.
A 40T crane can lift 40 Tonnes with the jib fully raised & not extended & very close to the crane.
A 40T crane fully extended with the jib lowered to max radius might lift 500Kg

 

[Bilgediver]

things change dramatically when the operator "Jibs-out" increasing the leverage on the stabilizers & reducing the load allowed to lift @ that radius
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Another factor overlooked is wether the crane is level. The derating due to a non level surface can be quite surprising as seen on ships and oil rigs where the deck heels a few degrees.

This would affect a crane on a slipway !!!

Although there is no suction effect fro water the same is not true of soft mud. If you ever have to lift a boat out of mud then have a fire hose handy and water jet around the hull. This will help break the suction. I once watched a pilot in a Chinook risk life and limb trying to lift aircraft wreckage out of the Forth however the sand suction defeated it. The weight of the piece was no more than 2 tons.

 

[misterg]

Generally agree.

Unless there is some peculiar exemption for boats, the L-O-L-E-R regulations would normally apply (THE LIFTING OPERATIONS AND LIFTING EQUIPMENT REGULATIONS 1998) and ACOP L113. I believe this would also be a notifiable incident under RIDDOR, so persons responsible would be obliged to notify HSE. HSE normally very hot on this sort of thing.

As Crane_Spotter says, person responsible depends on the nature of the hire, and could easily be the YC, who would be expected to be able to produce *written* lifting plans, method statements, risk assessments, nominated 'Lift Supervisor' and proof of competence of those involved.

I would not like to be on the receiving end of the attention that this will attract.

I personally don't think suction is relevant lifting boats, but person responsible will have to justify this to any HSE investigation - I have seen a 4 tonne WLL chain sling broken lifting a 1/2 tonne load from a water filled pit (with a 2 tonne crane, as it happens, but that's a long story!)

I find it hard to believe that anyone could operate 'dodgy' cranes commercially, given the inspection & insurance requirements that abound these days.

Happily, we're talking about broken 'things', not hurt or killed people.

Still /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Andy