| Specialized
Equipment for the Physically Disabled
Burger
Boat Company is in the process of delivering
the Motor Yacht Sis W to their clients Mr. &
Mrs. Charles Walgreen, Jr. The famed name of
Walgreen is associated with Walgreen's Pharmacy,
which, in fact, was founded by the father of
Mr. Walgreen, Jr. This tri-deck yacht at 126-feet
(38.4-meters) would end up becoming the largest
yacht built in Burger’s 140 year history
of boat building. The creation of SIS W has
been a collaboration between Casey Pratt, Mr.
Walgreen's grandson, Captain Jim Bean who has
been with the family on the last three yachts,
Joanne Walgreen, granddaughter and owner of
Belden Interiors and the engineers and craftspeople
at Burger Boat Company.
The
Walgreens are both in their nineties and are
both physically disabled. The ultimate challenge
for the shipyard has been to design and build
a yacht with full wheelchair accessibility,
enhancing the clients’ mobility while
on board and providing accessibility to all
decks. Further the shipyard was tasked with
the challenge to provide convenient boarding
at all embarkation points. Nautical Structures
was contracted by Burger Boat Company to collaborate
on this project. Nautical Structures has been
Burger’s primary supplier of tender-handling
equipment and hydraulic passerelles for over
a decade, and in this time has developed a close
working relationship with the shipyard. It was
decided that our previous experience in designing
boarding equipment and our current state-of-the-art
designs would become the basis for the new equipment
required for this project.
The Project is broken down into
stages:
- A
Hydraulic Pocketing Passerelle
- Wheelchair-access
to the lazarette
deck from the yacht’s main deck.
- Wheelchair-access
to the dock
from the yacht’ s main deck.
Special
Deck Crane for the Sis W
An EZ-4000-KB yacht-quality hydraulic
knuckle-boom crane was selected to provide
the highest level of flexibility in handling
tenders and servicing the lazarette deck. The
aluminum constructed knuckle-boom crane provides
an additional fourth axis of motion, not found
in a conventional deck crane. This allows exceptional
reach-range and the ability to lower the tip
of the crane’s boom towards the waterline,
reducing the amount of cable payout required
to reach the water. The benefit of this feature
becomes apparent in a rolling sea, when the
pendulum-effect of the cable causes the load
to become more and more difficult to control.
The shorter the length of exposed cable, the
less the pendulum-effect becomes. As with all
Nautical Structures crane
systems, the EZ-4000-KB knuckle-boom crane
is fit with our silent operating Hydraulic Linear
Winch system, housed in the second knuckled
boom section. The self-limiting feature of the
Linear Winch prevents the potential of two-blocking
the cable during hoisting operations. The non-fouling
feature of the Linear Winch system provides
the ability for the crane operator to pay out
extra cable into the tender during retrieval,
allowing sufficient slack in the cable to attach
to the lifting bridle without worry of snatching
the cable in a rough sea. The crane is configured
with a wireless proportional remote control;
allowing the crane to be operated from anywhere
on the yacht, or from the dock, up to 100-yards
away. Back-up controls are provided on the hydraulic
valve manifold, conveniently located in the
crane under a hinged access door. In the event
that the wireless controls are not available
or inoperable, the crane may be operated manually
with the proportional controls in the crane.
While the knuckle-boom crane’s primary
purpose is tender-handling, the crane’s
ability to service the Lazarette deck provides
the potential benefit of hoisting a wheelchair
up to the boat deck, as well as assist in emergency
wheel changes while at sea. |
