Princess Yachts Luxury M Class Tri-deck Yachts Get a Lift from Goliath Cranes by Street Crane

To protect the assembly operations from the extremes of weather, and from prying eyes, the South Yard assembly facility is enclosed by a light-weight wide-span space frame building. This has insufficient strength to accommodate overhead cranes, while freestanding gantries within the structure would have occupied production space. Street Crane therefore recommended floor running Goliath cranes, using a slim leg design to maximise hook coverage in the manufacturing area.

There are three cranes in use. The main assembly area is serviced by two mirror image Goliath cranes of 16 tonnes safe working load, each spanning 13.75 metres. These cranes have twin hoists of eight tonnes lifting capacity that can be used independently or in tandem to give maximum load flexibility. A 28 metre span Goliath crane, with hook coverage over the whole production area, has a single 16 tonne hoist and will share the outer running rail of the smaller Goliaths.

Street Crane’s UK manufactured ZX hoists are used throughout. These offer high positional accuracy with true vertical lift and fall, protecting fabrications and components from damage by lateral movement. For safety, all cranes have warning beacons, alarms and an automated anti-collision system. Wire free radio controls allow crane operators to select a position to maximise their visibility and safety. Pendant controls provide a back-up means of operation when required.

Street Crane and Princess Yachts have a long business relationship, with cranes from Street being used at all Princess manufacturing sites. The company first installed ten cranes at the Coy Pool factory in 2002, when eight cranes of 6.3 tonnes and two cranes of 25 tonnes were installed for the building of V Class sports boats. These cranes were then relocated to a new factory when the Princess model range was extended.

Street Crane has consistently risen to technical challenges. At one location, the absence of stanchions between the bays and consequent flexibility of the roof required the use of pivoting pin linkages so that the cranes can move to take up the deflection arising from wind and snow loading on the roof.

Cranes from Street Crane are used extensively in the marine sector. This includes several luxury yacht and sports boat builders, major ship and sub marine builders, naval dockyards, oil rig builders and the marine component industry.