Crane in day in Scottish yacht club - never seen it before - very interesting

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
Katie L spent the past winter at the Forth Corinthian yacht club

they maintain their own moorings - they use the word Junk to describe the bit between the concrete block and the boat - all boats here are double junked.

I have never seen a self crane in day before

they hire a crane, a driver and a banksman - £2,500

Sequence-033581-300x168.jpg


the boats are lifted out of the yard and down into the water 25 feet below

quite an operation I reckon

Sequence-034145-300x168.jpg


more snaps here

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/sailing-around-britain/old-blokes-yacht-clubs/
 
Giblets said:
Dylan, did none of the boats have their masts on?
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Not trying to answer for Dylan but when my boat was based in Scotland, the yard would not allow masts up through the winter - too much windage and danger of boats being blown over. That yard used a static crane to put on the mast and then a travel hoist.

Where I am now, if you decide to remove the mast for the winter, boats are launched with the mast off and then a large fork lift with telescopic arm is used to fit the mast with the boat alongside the launching area
 
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Exactly how we do it at our club, and as far as I know all the clubs up here. The only difference being the crane just comes with it's driver and one of the club members is the banksman, And we don't wear hard hats (a hard hat won't do much for you if a boat drops on your head)

Most boats at our club lift without masts, then use the crane to step the masts once in the water. A couple of the smaller boats (mine included) lift with the mast up (I raise the mast with the boat on the trailer using the trailers winch over the bow roller)

The crane hire cost is then divided between the members equally per lift (so those having the mast stepped by the crane pay for 2 lifts)

Unlike where you were, we never lift with people on the boat. As soon as the crane has taken the strain, it's everybody off for the lift.

It takes 2 days to get all our boats in, which this year was last Saturday and Monday (I went in on the Monday)

Here's mine going in mast up last year

crane-in%202014-020.JPG
 
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davewarburton said:
Not trying to answer for Dylan but when my boat was based in Scotland, the yard would not allow masts up through the winter - too much windage and danger of boats being blown over. That yard used a static crane to put on the mast and then a travel hoist.

Where I am now, if you decide to remove the mast for the winter, boats are launched with the mast off and then a large fork lift with telescopic arm is used to fit the mast with the boat alongside the launching area
Click to expand...

you are completely correct. It is odd though because Harmony was in a boatyard on the west coast where they were happy to leave the masts up - mind you, I doubt that a centair could ever blow over. Ditto Katie L.

To see this operation was a first for me. I am told there is a yard further up the forth where they have an old style railway system with tracks that go both ways

some lovely boats in the harbour - this one is being left to "take up" before beiong moved out to the moorings

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That's much how it happens at my local yacht club, at Kippford, though added interest comes from the small tidal creek into which boats are lifted, necessitating a strict order for launching as the tide comes up and then goes down again. All boats there keep their masts up. Mine stays up at Port Bannatyne, but I am directly to the east of a cliff higher than the mast so there is rarely much wind around the boat.
 
ProDave said:
..... a hard hat won't do much for you if a boat drops on your head ....
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It's there to stop the spanner that is accidentally left some where from breaking your skull if it falls off, or the stuff on the crane that can fall off, for example, not the boat.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
It's there to stop the spanner that is accidentally left some where from breaking your skull if it falls off, or the stuff on the crane that can fall off, for example, not the boat.
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I suspect you are wasting your time telling them.
We try to be very careful about boat movements in our club because if someone has an accident, then the insurance company might no longer cover the club & so it all comes to a halt.
Rumour has it that Thorpe Bay had a member with a damaged finger & sued the club. I am told the insurance implications caused havoc with boat launches
Perhaps a Thorpe Bay member can confirm/deny
 
dylanwinter said:
To see this operation was a first for me. I am told there is a yard further up the forth where they have an old style railway system with tracks that go both ways
Click to expand...

The yard at Kilcreggan used a marine railway until the McGrouther brothers left, five (?) years ago. There was originally a full rail set up: the carriage when went into the see ran onto a traverses which went the full width of the yard and temporary tracks were laid to move boats into position. Largely disused in favour of a crane when I started there in 1980-ish, but they used the full rail system for bigger boats in just a couple of locations until near the end.

Launching that way was quite an experience. Just before launch all props were taken away, leaving you (in may case in a fin keeler) supported by an upright on one side only. They lowered you very slowly out of the yard and across the beach until the carriage got to the sea, then the brakes went off and down you hurtled in the hope (always fulfilled) that you would float before you fell over.

Like everything the McGrouthers did it was basic, simple and worked extremely effectively.
 
Daydream believer said:
Rumour has it that Thorpe Bay had a member with a damaged finger & sued the club. I am told the insurance implications caused havoc with boat launches Perhaps a Thorpe Bay member can confirm/deny
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It wasn't just a "damaged finger" - it was a finger torn off completely.

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/sailors-dump-health-safety-yacht-club-1756

I don't know if the chap sued, but I know that many liability policies stipulate that they will only pay out if the insured loses a law suit, so sometimes there is no alternative but to sue if a claim is to be met. I think it is fairly safe to assume that a lifting procedure which results in a lost finger is perhaps not quite as well thought out as it might be.
 
Good pictures that relate the atmosphere of the event.
Reminds me of the time my mate & I had my dad's Sillyette for a fortnight on the broads when I was 14. Moores of Wroxham lifted it off the trailer & it fell out of the slings. Fortunately the weight went onto the keel but the boat leaked badly all the holiday
 
Dylan,

we have always had a self-help club lift in at Langstone SC; it spreads over 4 days now, a long weekend so the people with jobs have Saturday & Sunday, retired ones take weekdays.

Used to use a hired in mobile crane as shown, but the club had a whip-round some years ago and bought our own rather wonderful tractor driven hydraulic travel hoist.

The tractor and hoist is operated by trained club members, with hoist teams of members helping boats launch or recover.

Yes we do wear hard hats on the hoist teams, and those going afloat wear lifejackets; one useful feature is a sturdy little workboat on standby to help get helpers on and off boats, handy in event of engine failures on launch etc; the fees compare well with those you quote Dylan, and that's for boats on club laid & maintained moorings in Chichester and Langstone.
 
We launch and recover our keel boats as well. We hire a 120T crane and driver and a small launch team orchestrate the proceedings with help from club members. For my sins, I'm on the team as is Krew2 of this parish. We are severely limited by water depth and can only launch/recover a few hours either side of high water springs. These occur very early in the morning which also limits us until it gets light enough to see. This year we had high pressure which further reduced the depth to about 6' 3" at high water. Most of our boats are fin keelers which doesn't help. We had about 10 minutes per boat and got 45 launched in two tides. Lift out takes three tides due to the time taken to ensure boats are secure in their cradles.

I took a short time lapse video of the proceedings. You can view the unedited video here if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RoBtWROsZp0 Next time I think I'll slow the time lapse down a bit. It was my first proper effort and it's a bit fast.
 
dylanwinter said:
Katie L spent the past winter at the Forth Corinthian yacht club

they maintain their own moorings - they use the word Junk to describe the bit between the concrete block and the boat - all boats here are double junked.

I have never seen a self crane in day before

they hire a crane, a driver and a banksman - £2,500

Sequence-033581-300x168.jpg


the boats are lifted out of the yard and down into the water 25 feet below

quite an operation I reckon

Sequence-034145-300x168.jpg


more snaps here

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/sailing-around-britain/old-blokes-yacht-clubs/
Click to expand...

Is that £2.5k for one day? What size crane? Seems quite expensive compared to the price we pay for the same thing in Devon. Perhaps Scotland demands a premium. Maybe others can compare with what they pay (for contract lift)?

Yoda
 
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