Show boat
07 March 2017
Bohnet’s twelve-line Scheuerle Intercombi modular trailer and 6 x 4 MAN tractor
Inland Germany might not be the first place that comes to mind as a venue for a boat show but so it has been for many years and Boot 2017 in January was no exception. With so many large and ungainly loads to be brought in to the exhibition venue at Düsseldorf, near Cologne, preparations for the show start early.
Low water meant that an extended ramp was built to offload from the pontoon
This story follows the journey of a UK-built Princess 30M, a 30 metre motor yacht that is 7 metres wide and weighs around 100 tonnes. Engine options on this luxury vessel include a pair of MTU diesels each with a power output of more than 2,000 hp. The yacht arrived on a coaster at the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. On 30 December 2016 it was loaded by crane onto a 12-axle Scheuerle Intercombi modular trailer from German specialized transport company Bohnet.
Off the pontoon and on its way
Bohnet, working with Hebo Marine, loaded a Hebo pontoon with equipment and several boats, all destined for the show. The pontoon sailed on the River Rhine from Rotterdam to Düsseldorf. In the morning of 5 January the pontoon reached the loading ramp in Düsseldorf near the exhibition grounds.
Low water meant that a longer ramp had to be built from the pontoon to the land. It was done with the help of a 100-tonne capacity Liebherr LTR 1100 crawler crane from Hebo Marine. After four hours the ramp was ready and the first two smaller yachts were taken off the pontoon by truck. After the pontoon was ballasted with water, Bohnet could begin its preparations.
Hebo set up its Liebherr LTR 1100 telescopic boom crawler crane on the pontoon to build the extended ramp
Driver M. Schmucker from Bohnet started the engine of his new MAN 41.640 6 x 4 truck tractor with ballast box. He began slowly with the roll-off from the pontoon. The MAN had no problem pulling the 12 Scheuerle axle lines and its vast load. The loaded dimensions were 30.5 m long x 7 m wide x 9.37 m high. All-up weight was 110 tonnes.
Thanks to the axle adjustment on the Scheuerle modules the yacht always stayed
in balance. In the course of the transport along the route, a gradient had to be overcome. To do that a Volvo truck was briefly employed to push. After a journey of about one kilometre the exhibition ground was reached without any problems and the Princess was unloaded inside the exhibition Hall using three cranes.
