Cargo Business Techwire

Friday, September 25, 2015

Top Story

Specialty boats move through JAXPORT’s heavy lift dock

Highly-trained master riggers moved 14 aluminum crew boats through the heavy lift and specialty cargo berth at JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal, one of the nation’s highest weight-bearing capacity docks.

The boats, 45-feet in length and weighing approximately 25,000 pounds each, sailed to JAXPORT on the St. Johns River from St. Johns Ship Building, a manufacturing facility in Palatka, Fla., according to a port statement.

Workers employed by stevedoring firm Portus lifted each boat from the river before loading them one at a time onto the Thorco Copenhagen. The crew boats are being sent to Maracaibo, Venezuela where they will be used to transport oil refinery employees to and from offshore oil rigs.

St. Johns Ship Building is a shipbuilding and marine repair company specializing in new construction and

repair of a wide variety of commercial vessels.

The heavy lift cargo berth at JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal ranks as one of the nation’s highest weight-bearing capacity docks, the port says, offering up to 1,800 pounds per square foot of load capacity with rail capability up to 78 kips per axle for heavy cargo.