Hird lifting power loads wind turbine support vessel

A mobile crane supplied by Hird Group has been used to load storage containers onto a new service operations vessel (SOV) being used to support a giant wind farm in the North Sea.

Port operations specialist Arthur Smith commissioned Hird’s Grove GMK 4100L crane, with a maximum safe working load of 100 tonnes, to carry out the lift at Grimsby Docks.

The ship, called Edda Passat, designed by Rolls Royce Marine, has been built to service the Race Bank off-shore wind farm.

It will be home to 40 workers and 20 crew who will work two weeks on and two weeks off maintaining wind turbines off the Lincolnshire coast on behalf of the wind farm’s owner Ørsted.

Hird’s mobile crane was used to lift 11 storage containers on the vessel, and support the installation of radar equipment, on two days it has come into Ørsted’s East Coast Hub in Royal Dock.

Project Manager Mick Bradshaw said: “We have a lot of experience of lifting loads onto and off ships of all shapes and sizes, so we were delighted to be able to support Arthur Smith in carrying out these lifts.

“As the dock is a suspended structure over concrete piles, we had to greatly minimise the ground loading by using specialist spreader mats under the crane’s stabilising feet.

“We provided a crane operator and a lifting supervisor to oversee the lifts which had to be carried out as soon as the Edda Passat came into dock, as it has just a 12-hour turnaround time before heading back out to sea.”

David Smith, of Arthur Smith, which provides port operations services across the UK, said: “Hird provided an excellent service, especially considering the low ground bearing pressure in the lifting area.”

The Edda Passat has been designed with sophisticated directional power systems that allow it to stay steady in the water while maintenance teams use elevated walkways to reach the wind turbines.

Hird’s Grove GMK 4100L mobile crane has a boom that can extend to 60 metres and can lift up to 1.6 tonnes at a radius of 48 metres.

Its Megatrak independent suspension and all wheel steering gives the crane all-terrain capability and, at just 10.7m long, its chassis is compact and highly manoeuvrable.

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