25.02.2008

Life's a beach

The first Sany crawler crane in the UK - a 50 tonne SCC500D purchased by Lancashire-based Anderson Crane Hire - came to the rescue of the stricken ro-ro ferry Riverdance when it was struck by a freak wave on its journey from Northern Ireland to Heysham Port leaving it beached just off the coast of Blackpool.

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The Sany SCC500D 50-tonne crawler crane helping the beached Riverdance ferry

The 6,000-tonne vessel was left listing at a perilous angle and had to be stabilised before any attempt at righting and, hopefully refloating, could be made. The stabilising operation had to be carefully co-ordinated to re-distribute the weight of the oil and water in the hold by pumping the bulkheads whilst reducing the weight at strategic areas of the deck to effect a controlled pendulum movement to right the vessel.

Martyn Anderson of Aderson Crane Hire said: "The Sany crawler crane gave the salvage experts the precision and flexibility that was crucial."

The range of Sany crawler cranes is distributed by East Anglia-based Watson and Hillhouse. The launch of a 900 tonne crawker crane at Sany Shanghai last month means cranes from 50 -900 tonne capacity are now available.