Shore to ship installation

Ainscough Crane Hire was contracted to lift a helideck onto Seajacks' Kraken vessel at Falmouth docks in the UK.

Kraken is one of two jack-up vessels owned by Seajacks UK and used to carry out offshore construction operations, including the erection of offshore wind turbines and oil rigs.

The helideck had been removed to allow transportation of wind turbine blades to the Greater Gabbard and Walney offshore wind farms. The vessel's own pedestal cranes did not have sufficient reach to position the helideck and Ainscough was called in to assist.

Working with A&P's marine engineers, the Kraken's crew and locally-based MacSalvors Crane Hire, Ainscough's technical team planned the lift of the 83 tonne, 26 metres diameter helideck.

Ainscough rigged its 1,000 tonne capacity Liebherr LTM 11000 D telescopic boom wheeled mobile crane on an elevated concrete jetty, with the Kraken positioned in the adjacent deep water berth.

"The narrow width and proximity of existing structures on the jetty restricted the size of crane that could be employed for this lift, but by utilising the 1000 tonne Liebherr in luffing jib configuration, we could work around these restrictions and still achieve sufficient lifting capacity and boom clearance," said Bob MacGrain, Ainscough technical support and special projects manager.

"This was a challenging lift and it was crucial that the vessel and the helideck pick up location were accurately positioned, to allow the lift to be safely and efficiently carried out," added MacGrain.