Another successful lift was completed when Johnson Crane Hire (JCH) was recently contracted to lift a large boat into Hartbeespoort Dam.
The vessel was brought in from Cape Town as a floating restaurant for the Hartbeespoort Dam. It took 10 days to travel up and the boat measured 22m long and 7m wide with a weight of 41t. It needed to be floated on the dam at a radius of 25m from the centre of the crane’s rotation.
There was only one space around the dam where this boat could be safely lifted into the dam due to its size. One of the challenges is the water level of the dam was dropping and we had a concern that the water level might drop too much for the vessel to be able to float.
This lift was planned for a LTM1500 8.1, with a 550t SWL. When the lift needed to take place their 550t was busy. However, the depth of JCH’s fleet allowed them to mobilise the LTM1750 9.1 (SWL 800t) as a 550t mobile crane.
Due to this we also had some extra capacity and could place it at 29m which helped with the water level that had dropped significantly by the time the boat arrived.
Hartbeespoort Dam is usually called Harties for short among South Africans. Hartbeespoort Dam is about half an hour’s drive west of Pretoria and is a popular weekend destination for residents of the Gauteng province, which is not not surprising because Harties is beautifully situated against the Magaliesbergen.
This was a lot of excitement for the Hartbeespoort community and the team from Johnson Crane Hire wish this community all the best with the new tourist attraction operated by the Harties Boat Company at Harties Harbour.
Source Johnson Crane Hire and the Harties Boat Company
