Transporting a 98-foot, 60-ton, aluminum-hull crew boat and 25 giant fermenting tanks that weighed a total of 194.9 tons was all easily within the capabilities of the Worldwide Project Consortium, and its heavy-lift project cargo partners.
WWPC Managing Director Kevin Stephens explained that outsize project cargo is a specialized business that requires demonstrated expertise and understanding of how best to meet the client's expectations.
'The success of these projects show the strength of the WWPC team and the benefits of strong strategic alliances,' Mr. Stephens said.
SOS Global Express Project Shipping (New Bern, USA) and Gulf Maritime General Trading & Contracting Co W.L.L. (Kuwait), both members of WWPC, coordinated the transportation of the crew boat cargo.
Divers were used to attach two straps to the vessel, which sat docked alongside the ship in New Orleans. Two 300-ton onboard cranes then lifted the vessel from the Mississippi River and maneuvered it onto a cradle on the deck of the Rickmers Jakarta to begin the journey to Dubai.
Meanwhile, the 25 fermenting tanks were loaded onto the breakbulk vessel M/V Umiavut in Flushing, Belgium, and transported to the Port of Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada.
The tanks were then offloaded onto 25 separate trailers using a gantry crane and taken via the Trans-Canada Highway to a new Molson brewery in Moncton, scheduled to open in January 2007.
WWPC members LS International Cargo GMBH (Bremen, Germany) and Albacor Shipping Inc. (Toronto, Canada), were responsible for all logistics planning.
