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Precision lifting was taken to new heights when Port Taranaki hefted a locally-built 315-tonne super yacht, the SY Zefira, into the harbour over three days at the end of June this year. BY HUGH DE LACY
Three cranes were used: two of the port’s Liebherr LHM 400 mobile cranes and a Liebherr 1400/2 crawler, belonging to Auckland company Culham Engineering, that had to be specially transported to New Plymouth in 18 truckloads and re-assembled on-site. Re-assembly took two days. The key challenge of the lift was to position the cranes to within two or three centimetres of precise points to ensure that, once under load, they offered no threat to the wharf’s structure. Three of the wharf’s 1.4 metre-thick fenders, which protect it from docked container ships, had to be temporarily removed to give the cranes enough reach to get the yacht into the water. The port had to plan ahead to keep 80 metres of the wharf clear of ships, and to fit the use of the container cranes between demands for their services by container ships and Shell Todd Oil Services. After being lifted onto a trailer by heavy hydraulic jacks, the Zefira travelled the 1.2 kilometres from the Fitzroy Yachts yard on a heavy transporter. So precise was the positioning required that the yacht had to be shifted two degrees longitudinally before it was positioned under the cranes to ensure that the trailer could be removed once the cranes had taken the weight.
A minor problem arose when it was found that the ends of the spreader bars had been closed up during fabrication, and they had to be ground off to allow the hoisting cable thimble to be attached and locking pins inserted. By the end of the second day everything was in position for the lift which, with the weather co-operating, took place early on the morning of Monday, June 28. After lift-off the two mobile cranes were assessed at bearing 92 tonnes each and the crawler crane 144 tonnes. This was three tonnes more than planned, but as it was within specified limitations it offered no threat to the wharf structure. The lift went ahead and the vessel was in the water within 30 minutes of the start of the actual lift. The Zefira’s engines had undergone testing while still at Fitzroy Yachts, and, after bunkering, the vessel left under its own power for Auckland where the mast and rigging were to be installed. Port Taranaki’s Olaf Numssen told Contractor the operation went smoothly, serving as an excellent dress rehearsal for a second such lift when Fitzroy Yachts launches a second super-yacht in two years’ time. This will be of about the same weight and dimensions as the Zefira, and the same lifting procedures will be used. Contractor understands that Fitzroy Yachts has tendered for a 1250-tonne vessel for the European market, and Numssen says that if this eventuates a slipway will have to be built at the port to launch it.
Contractor Vol.34 No.8 September 2010 |
The largest built so far by Fitzroy Yachts, the vessel has a length over all of 51.5 metres, is 10.35 metres in the beam and about eight metres from the keel to the deck. It’s understood to have cost between $55 and $65 million to build, and the cost of getting it in to the water was between $80,000 and $90,000.
The hooks on the two container cranes were replaced one at a time by beams fabricated by local firm Fitzroy Engineering to ensure that at all times there was at least a four-tonne weight attached to the hoisting cables until the rigging gear and block was connected. Forklifts were used as a counterweight to ensure the cables didn’t rush back up the jib.