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Crane at Willowbridge Marina


moggyjo

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...-collapses.html

 

How Tragic, Its a hell of a big crane.

Yes, very tragic, I'm afraid :lol:

 

However there is more than a bit of Daily Mail journalistic licence here, I think....

 

It says....

 

Staff were dismantling the crane which was used to move boats to and from the water, when the accident happened at 1.30pm.

 

No way in the world would a massive tower crane like the one pictured be being used for boat lifting operations.

 

If the crane was for boat lifts, it sure as hell isn't the one in the picture.

 

I just love the press - "here's a picture of a big crane, that will do...".

 

There's cetainly no crane like that at Willowbridge marina!

 

Theirs is mounted on a tracked vehicle.

Here's how they do it....

 

http://www.canalaction.co.uk/services.html

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Here's a bit more detail from the BBC.

 

I drove down to the boat at about that time today, which is moored about half a mile south of there. Normally I'd drive past Willowbridge but took a different route today as they had just re-surfaced the road so I didn't know.

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Hi,

 

This a very sad tale.

 

This crane seems to be 'jinxed' as it was involved in a bad accident with a couple of boats a few years ago.

 

I suspect another craning in /out facility will be lost on the Southern GU.

 

I used this facility a few years ago after bringing my boat down from Lincoln and they were keen to stress craning was done on the understanding that the boat owner was covered by their insurance for all risks.

 

Albi

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All fatal accidents at work are tragedies - that's why we have health and safety legislation.

 

Interesting how the false information becomes obvious when you know something about the subject. But just stop to think - is this the standard of accuracy in all newspaper reporting?

  • Greenie 1
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I suspect another craning in /out facility will be lost on the Southern GU.

I fear you may be right.

 

It would be a big loss, as it must be one of the few facilities where significant numbers of boats can be put on hard-standing, to allow significant DIY work to go on.

 

Interesting how the false information becomes obvious when you know something about the subject. But just stop to think - is this the standard of accuracy in all newspaper reporting?

I tend to find when it's a subject you know the detail of, that the reporting is very poor. However blatant use of pictures having nothing to do with the incident, with no captioning that makes this clear, does seem worse than you might expect, (but then it is the Daily Mail).

 

Reporting of rail accidents is another case - you see or hear what they say, and 80% of the time you know it's wrong, because either things don't work that way, or, more often, can't work that way.

 

My memory is there is more than one mobile crane at Willowbridge, but I could be wrong. Pictures in one report show emergency vehicles with a crane behind, with it's jib fully up, and the lifting cradle hanging from it, (so presumably current pictures).

 

This doesn't sound consistent with a crane collapsing on somebody, so I'm wondering if it's a different crane.

 

The story seems to be settling that it was a non-employee of Willowbridge, helping dismantle the crane - which again sounds odd, if it was their regular lifting crane.

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My understanding from an occasional travelling companion on the train who knows someone who has a unit on the adjacent land, the old tracked crane had been sold and was being dismantled by the unfortunate person who was killed. I'm led to believe that said person was taking it away for scrap as the yard now have a new crane.

 

I can't confirm the above, its just what I was told. Mind you, I was also told by the same person that the yard had recently changed hands, whereas BBC East last night said that the yard had been in the same family for fifty years.

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strange how the original report showed a tower crane which i believe wouldn`t be able to pick a boat up and the bbc report that shows an nck on tracks the only thing i can think of is he has removed the pins on the jib while it was down and gone underneath smacked it with a hammer and the jibs fell

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My understanding from an occasional travelling companion on the train who knows someone who has a unit on the adjacent land, the old tracked crane had been sold and was being dismantled by the unfortunate person who was killed. I'm led to believe that said person was taking it away for scrap as the yard now have a new crane.

 

I can't confirm the above, its just what I was told. Mind you, I was also told by the same person that the yard had recently changed hands, whereas BBC East last night said that the yard had been in the same family for fifty years.

When we stopped there at Easter this year, it had just been taken over by new owners, so you source would appear to be more reliable than the BBC.........

 

MP.

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strange how the original report showed a tower crane which i believe wouldn`t be able to pick a boat up and the bbc report that shows an nck on tracks the only thing i can think of is he has removed the pins on the jib while it was down and gone underneath smacked it with a hammer and the jibs fell

 

 

yeah thats what happened im afraid

he was underneath the jib and removed the bottom two pins and it pivoted on the top two and fell on him

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strange how the original report showed a tower crane which i believe wouldn`t be able to pick a boat up

Original report was from Daily Mail who don't seem to think it is necessary to show pictures relating to the incident, and that any library picture of a bloody great crane will do.

 

It's definitely a tracked crane, with a jib hinged at the base.

 

(Proper) pictures clearly show a second crane in the background, so there was more than one at the site.

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This my first post whilst actually on the move. I can't quite adapt to the idea yet!

 

We have passed Willowbridge Marina in the last hour or so.

 

I can confirm it's open for normal business, (diesel at 89p, I noticed).

 

The crane involved in the incident is canalside, with jib still attached, but laying across a stack of sleepers at the far end.

 

Another tracked crane is on the same site, with it's jib raised, and a narrowboat lifting cradle hanging from it.

 

I guess it's unlikely any craning will be being allowed at the moment.

 

We havep assed boatyards flying a flag at half mast, presumably as a mark of respect to the person who lost their life.

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Condolences to the family if any happen this way.

 

Never believe the press. To be first off the blocks with breaking news any picture/caption/line as long as it is vaguely relevant - will do. The BBC's track record is reliably poor in this respect. There's a picture of a Tower crane (Mail online), which it was not at Willowbridge, and later the accident described as being on a building site (BBC).

 

We came past the week after Braunston, and were told one of the two cranes was to be dismantled for removal due to track failure amongst possibly other things.

 

Willowbridge I'm sure will continue to lift out boats reliably in due course, and there are other yards that will provide a similar service. Winkwell and Cassio are two, though Winkwell's slipped into the cut a while back. No-one hurt, and there's a huge reinforced pad for craneage now, so unlikely to happen there again.

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  • 1 month later...

after fully reading this thread, i can confirm several things

 

yes the marina has changed hands, we took over on the 21st march 2008

 

yes the crane was sold, and was being dismantled by the new owner

 

yes, a tower crane would not be able to pick up the boats we do

 

we are still open for buisness, cranings have resumed, diesel is now at 86p a litre

 

there was no failure with the crane, the reason the crane was sold is that it wasnt economical to repair it, the tracks had come off, and the drive sprocket was beyond repair, there was no problems with the jib

 

yes there is a bigger crane, the jones 971c could lift upto 25 tonnes, we now have a nck c41c that can lift upto 30 tonnes

Edited by gooseman
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