The 2009 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show celebrated its fiftieth year!
Congratulations Show Managementof fifty fantastic years! It is sad and unfortunate that our friend and associate Kaye Pearson isn’t here this year to celebrate this significant benchmark. Kaye passed away this past March after his battle with cancer. We will miss him.
Nautical Structures has been in attendance as an exhibitor for exactly half of these past fifty years, and we are proud to have enjoyed such a long and beneficial association with the Lauderdale Show.
This year Nautical Structures continued our run at the FLIBS with our display in the air conditioned equipment builders’ tent, adjacent to the Yacht Builders & Designers’ tent at the Bahia Mar Yachting Center. We welcomed our friends, clients and associates that stopped to visit with us at our display; M25 during the week of the show: October 28 through November 1. We had on display our latest offerings; the HMC hydraulic davit with a telescoping boom extension and the newest light-weight crane; the EURO2500EX-T17N. Also on display we showcased the Deluxe Tri-Rail Yacht Stairway and the EURO1700-2 hydraulic davit system.
Walking the docks at the show you would have seen many new projects delivered by Nautical Structures. This year we enjoyed seeing an amazing variety of our products on the boats. We are proud to have been associated with some very special projects recently. The M.Y. Quantum of Solace (ex-Midlandia; a 52-meter Benetti) will be at the show after a brief refit period in the Rybovich Shipyard, Palm Beach, Florida. Nautical Structures was asked to develop a unique fore-deck crane for the project. This crane; an EZ2500EX-SOLAS deck crane is a fully-classed Lloyd’s Register of Shipping & Cayman Islands Shipping Registry approved Rescue Boat Launching Crane built to the IMO/LSA Rules for SOLAS. With a twist… The crane is also designed, styled and approved to deploy as the ship’s steaming mast; deploying the navigation lights at the appropriate height above the deck and approved by CISR for this dual purpose.
The project was contracted on the first of September and delivered on the 22 October; going from concept to completed project in under seven weeks. This was only possible due to the significant efforts of our suppliers, and support of Wally Nisbett of Murray & Associates the cooperation of Rybovich Shipyard and Cayman Islands Shipping Registry and the amazing effort of all of the Nautical Structures team in order to pull off the impossible! On Friday 15 October the crane was tested at Nautical Structures’ Largo manufacturing facility with a Lloyd’s Register surveyor in attendance. The crane went through testing and was issued a LRS certification number and approval for installation. There were numerous challenges involved in the process of developing this unique design. The Flag State had to approve the dual-purpose design. The crane had to “look” like a steaming mast while still performing to all applicable standards as a SOLAS Rescue Boat Launching Crane. The crane was configured to deploy to a fully vertical position, and built to live in a very wet environment on the foredeck of the 52-meter yacht. The end result is an attractive deck crane that does deploy as the steaming mast; form meeting function in an effort of superb engineering and manufacturing.
Trinity Yachts will have a small fleet of yachts on the dock at the FLIBS this year. All of these vessels are fit with Nautical Structures deck cranes (thank you Trinity Yachts). One boat in particular is somewhat special; the M.Y. Bacarella, a 60-meter (196-ft) motor yacht. She was one of the boats under construction in the New Orleans shipyard when hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast. She is built to class, and includes three tender-handling systems built and installed by Nautical Structures. Two of these are our EZ2500EX-SOLAS deck crane, an MCA approved fully SOLAS compliant, LRS certified deck crane provided for handling the rescue boat and crew tenders. A specialized SL6000DEX three-ton capacity aft tender garage crane is installed in the tender garage overhead. This crane transports a custom 28-foot Zodiac tender 8.3-meters / 27.6-ft aft to deploy across the swim platform.
Burger Boat Company will be showing its most recent launch; the M.Y. Sycara IV. This yacht is an amazing custom-built vessel, reminiscent of the classic naval architecture of the 1920’s. Nautical Structures designed and manufactured two very custom integrated pieces of deck equipment for the Sycara IV; a 5000-pound capacity integrated deck crane and a hydraulic passerelle. Detailed information regarding this project may be found on our web site: http://www.nautical-structures.com/blg/354/burger-sycara-iv-launch.html
Delta Marine will be displaying their new build; the M.Y. Katya, a 151-ft tri-deck motor yacht. The Katya is fit with a Nautical Structures EZ3000EX-MCA deck crane and a hydraulic passerelle. She is an example of beautiful navalarchitecture and is worthy of a second-look. At the FLIBS Nautical Structures was awarded the contract to supply the passerelle and crane for their next 50-meter build. Thank you!
Cheoy Lee is displaying the M.Y. Marco Polo, their 47-meter expedition style motor yacht. She has a distinctive green hull and a very special Nautical Structures' EZ7700KB-MCA; Knuckle-Boom Deck Crane. This yacht's success has led to a sister-ship currently under construction at Cheoy Lee.
