The loading of a super heavyweight 736-ton reactor at the Port of Yokohama earlier this year presented its fair share of challenges for the master of the Beluga Intonation, Johan Buysse, and his crew. At around 10 o’clock in the morning a small barge with the 35 metre-long reactor moored alongside the multipurpose heavy-lift project carrier. Because of the extreme torsion forces that affect the vessel during a lift of such dimensions, strict safety regulations had to be observed and only the team members actively involved in the operation remained on board. Tons of ballast water kept the vessel in balance. Because of the weight of the loaded cargo, bunker was pumped as well to guarantee stability. “The most critical point during the whole process is when the cargo passes the ship’s rail. Then the centre of gravity moves from outside to inside,” Roberto Frigeni, head of Beluga transport engineering told FTW. “Due to the limited space on deck we could not take advantage of much room to swing the reactor and had to place it precisely in the designated position.” Steel mats were spread to reduce the enormous point load impacting on the hatchcovers of the vessel through the cargo. Pre-planning and accuracy clearly paid off with the super heavy-lift loaded without blemish. The Beluga Intonation headed for Singapore, her first and only stop en route to the destination port of India. In the port of Masan, South Korea the vessel had already loaded three plant components for the chemical industry, a 71-metre refining column, a 58-metre recovery column and a 30metre-long saturator. All three items weighed between 229 and 350 tons. For Beluga’s project division, it was all in a day’s work.
