Monster Crane Passes Along Sussex Coast

When having returned home last night (Mon, Aug 12 2019) just after 8-30 as dusk was closing-in, I noticed a lot of lights out towards the far horizon and a red light – ‘Oh, a distress flare’ I thought for just a moment but no, it was a flashing navigation light atop the world’s third largest floating crane.  It’s absolutely Gigantic!  It is currently on passage being towed to the the Bahamas for the Gulf of Mexico at just 6.5 knots.

Statistics.

The Saipem 7000 has two NOV Lifting and Handling AmClyde model Saipem 7000 fully revolving cranes. Each has a 140-metre-long boom fitted with 4 hooks. Each crane is capable of lifting up to 7,000 tonnes at 40 m lift radius using the main hook. The auxiliary hook capacities are 1st Auxiliary 2,500 tonnes at 75 m radius and 2nd Auxiliary 900 tonnes at 115 m. The whip hook has a capacity of 120 tonnes at 150 m. The 2nd Auxiliary hook can be deployed to a water depth of 450 m. The two cranes are capable of a tandem lift of 14,000 tonnes.  (Taken from Wikipedia).

Each crane was fitted with 15,600 hp (11,630 kW) engines to power the boom and load hoists, 9 tugger lines and the crane slewing system. The cranes use 48 miles (77 km) of wire rope of various diameters.

Ballast system.

The Saipem 7000 was fitted with two ballast systems: a conventional pumped system which could transfer up to 24,000 tonnes of water per hour using 4 pumps and a free flooding system. The free flooding system used 2 m diameter valves to open certain compartments to the sea thus trimming or heeling the vessel. This allows the vessel to lift cargoes from barges much faster than if just the crane hoists are used.

Power system.

The vessel’s main power is provided by eight 12-cylinder 8400 hp diesel engines built by Grandi Motori Trieste, a former Fincantieri company. Later Grandi Motori was purchased by the Finnish Wärtsilä. They provide up to 47,000 kW of electric power at 10,000 V 60 Hz for propulsion and positioning. Auxiliary power is provided by two 6-cylinder 4,200 hp (3,130 kW) GMT diesel engines. There is also an emergency generator.  Total power that can be supplied is 57,000 kilowatts (76,000 hp).