An afternoon at the harbour part 4 of 4.

An afternoon at the harbour part 4 of 4

When all the harbour excitement died down, my attention turned to the giant Crain. I have never seen such a large crane operating in such a small space. 

In fact I’ve not really seen that many huge Crains at all. I started wondering how it got there and how it intended to leave. 

I sort of assumed it had arrived on some sort of trailer but no, I was informed it actually drove itself there and at the end of the day it was going to reverse itself out of that confined space and drive itself back from where ever it came. 

So……. We wandered over to watch. I was utterly amazed; I didn’t known that these things fold themselves up like giant transformer toys. First the tall extended bit that actually lifts things telescoped itself down into its base. 

Then, once telescoped down it lowered itself onto the top of the cab where it nestled safely in the little crevice specially made for the purpose. After it had safely secured itself to the top of the cab; the giant hook clipped itself into the front of the cab to stop it swaying about. After the top of the Crain was safely secured, at the press of a button, the enormous stabilisers that stopped the whole thing from toppling into the harbour, gently slid back into a space next to the wheels.
I’m pretty certain not every one will be as amazed as I was at this giant transformer and what it could do, but I guess as far as heavy machinery is concerned, my knowledge and experience is very limited, the whole thing was quite an education for me. I've decided I love the magic of hydraulics.
Oh... obviously there WAS a driver.........the expression 'drove itself' etc was not intended literally  :-) .

A afternoon at the harbour part 3 of 4.

An Afternoon at the harbour (part 3 of 4),
This is the third of four sets of photographs I took at the harbour one afternoon last week.

 The first was a yatch being lowered over the wall from the boat yard into the outer harbour.
The second was the same Crain being used to lower a new mast over the boatyard wall onto the waiting yatch below in the outer harbour.
This one is the launching of the new catamaran named Endurance, from the boatyard ramps into the outer harbour. 

The whole thing wasn’t actually built at the boatyard, apparently the hull and the cabin were delivered as shells and the rest was made and assembled at the boat yard. 

In this series of photos you see the preparations; there was quite a party going on onboard and some lucky lady had a beautiful bouquet of flowers plus the official photographers were there.

 Then the gates from the outer harbour into the boatyard were raised and Endurance, held fast in the cradle,  was gently lowered down the ramp into the water. 

When she was submerged and floating on her own she was released from the platform and another little fishing boat came alongside to tow her into her berth in the inner harbour.

 She did test her engines but, they weren’t used at the launch, that bit happened another day. 
 

They slung a roap between the two boats. 

And the little green fishing boat towed her toward the inner harbour.
 
Almost there.......

 
And inally to her berth in the inner harbour 

An afternoon at the harbour part 2 of 4

The second lot of photos………….this time it’s the new mast getting lowered onto the yatch. 
 

In case you didn’t read the first one…………..
AND……….. as if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, as soon as the first yatch was safely berthed in the inner harbour, another yatch glided up to take its place and the giant Crain proceeded to lower a new mast over the boatyard wall onto the yatch waiting below. 

This was quite exciting, just as the Crain was manovering the mast into place, there was a sudden gust of wind and the mast swayed around over the heads of the workmen. 

There were men on the yatch guiding the mast into place until it slotted neatly in, the men then had to secure it  (I was too far away to see how this was done) before the Crain relinquished its hold. And then the second yatch also glided through the harbour gates tom its berth in the inner harbour. 
 
 

An afternoon at the harbour part 1 of 4

 What an afternoon. I never thought an afternoon at the harbour could be so entertaining.
When I arrived there, men in day-glo waistcoats were busy attaching bright orange straps to the biggest Crain I have ever seen and then passing the straps around the underbelly of the yatch which was sitting in the boatyard. 

As the afternoon progressed the yatch was lifted out of the boatyard, lowered over the wall and gently sat in the outer harbour. 

There was a little fishing boat that was moored exactly where the yatch was destined to land and it had to be manually towed out of the way.

Once the yatch was safely in the water it turned itself around and glided through the harbour gates to its berth in the inner harbour. .
AND……….. as if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, as soon as the first yatch was safely berthed in the inner harbour, another yatch glided up to take its place and the giant Crain proceeded to lower a new mast over the boatyard wall onto the yatch waiting below. 

This was quite exciting, just as the Crain was manovering the mast into place, there was a sudden gust of wind and the mast swayed around over the heads of the workmen. 

There were men on the yatch guiding the mast into place until it slotted neatly in, the men then had to secure it ( I was too far away to see how this was done) before the Crain relinquished its hold. 

And then the second yatch also glided through the harbour gates tom its berth in the inner harbour.
AND……………..while all this was going on, the new Catamaran was sitting, partly obscured by boatyard gates, in the cradle at the top of the slipway waiting to descend from the boatyard into the water. 

Apparently I missed the bit in the morning where the giant Crain had lifted the Catamaran from the boat yard, over several other boats and onto the waiting cradle on the slipway. 

The Crain had travelled all the way from Peterhead that morning, my friend witnessed it arriving and reversing into the boatyard, which was pretty tight. 

Can’t help wishing I had seen that too. After all the action around the two yatchs the gates in front of the Catamaran began to lift and we had a really clear view of her sitting in the cradle at the top of the slipway ready to launch. She had flags and bunting flying and was full of people. I was told that our boatyard couldn’t build her from scratch she had been delivered as an empty hull and was built up from that. I expected her to slide quite fast into the water, but she didn’t, it took a while and then finally, once the hull was submerged, the cradle withdrew and a smaller boat came to attach a rope and tow her through the harbour gates to her berth in the inner harbour. It took a bit of reversing and manovering but she did eventually make it through to her berth where they all proceeded to party.
WOW……………I was so impressed at all the action. Every one started to leave the area, people returned to their cars and the cars all started to leave. My friend and I decided to go round to the back of the boatyard to see if we could watch the Crain leaving. I was amazed, I don’t know what I expected but I didn’t expect what I saw. It was like watching a giant transformer toy. This huge Crain folded itself away and then just got ready to drive away. We had to move before the Crain actually left because we were standing right in the way. It felt a bit on the dangerous side to hang around in the hope of getting shots of it moving off. There was no place to stand and take photos that would have been safe. It was such a huge vehicle and the space was tiny………..so after watching it fold up like a transformer, we left it in peace to inch its way out of the boatyard.
I took so many photos, I’ve sorted the first lot of the yatch being lifted into the water and well………this is them.
I’ll have to sort through the others of the new mast being lowered, the Catamaran being launched and the giant Crain folding itself up and post them in stages……..

Oh what a great afternoon.