Marine Travelift has announced that Orams Marine Services of Auckland, New Zealand, recently took delivery of a new 75 BFMII mobile boat hoist.
Orams, which has been building and servicing a wide range of vessels since 1947, brought the first megayacht into New Zealand in 1987. Yet it also maintains a comprehensive range of services for local boat owners, as well as for the local Port Authority and a number of commercial fishermen.
Located at the custom-designed Orams Marine Village, this full-service facility is adjacent to Westhaven Marina in downtown Auckland, also known as the “City of Sails” with approximately 2,000 slips and swing moorings.
“With such a prominent location in the heart of New Zealand’s marine services industry, Orams lifts a good amount of boats over the course of a year,” said Malcolm Fisher, manager/director at Marina Projects Ltd., New Zealand’s Marine Travelift dealer, in a Marine Travelift news release. “They got their first mobile boat hoist back in 1981, they operated it right up until they took delivery of the new Marine Travelift 75 BFMII.”
The 30-year-old machine only had an inside clear width of roughly 20 feet. While the new 75 BFMII has a similar ICW, Marine Travelift says, Orams ordered the new machine with a 3-foot top beam extension, allowing operators to widen the machine in the future to accommodate wider vessels.
“The average size of the private vessel is getting bigger,” explained Craig Park, Orams’ managing director. “We often see boats in the 50- to 60-ton range, and that was the upper limit of our old machine.”
Park said the decision to go with Marine Travelift was due to both reputation and a word-of- mouth recommendation.
“It’s a very well-established brand, and it was familiar to me,” he commented. “There is another 75-ton machine here in Auckland, and I spoke extensively to the operator to research the machine prior to deciding which one to purchase.”
Orams Marine Services took delivery of the new Marine Travelift 75 BFMII in August 2013. It was assembled and fully operational in early September, and according to Malcolm Fisher, the top beam extension also was installed from the beginning.
“Between the time they ordered the new machine and when it was delivered, they had made the decision to proceed with widening the lift-out dock,” Fisher says. “So we ended up assembling the machine with the 3-foot top beam extension on Day One. They are already enjoying the benefits of lifting the bigger boats they previously couldn’t accommodate and were able to save time and money ordering it with the machine.”
“The top beam extension has been fantastic,” Park says. “It has opened a new market for us that previously we wouldn’t have been able to consider.”
Another important option on Orams Marine Services new 75 BFMII: two-speed hoists. This is critical for high-duty cycles. When a Marine Travelift mobile boat hoist is in high demand, or when tidal fluctuations create a greater distance between water levels and the pier, the two-speed hoists will improve overall lifting efficiency. They allow lifting at roughly twice the standard speed with no load.
“The new Marine Travelift 75 BFMII has a number of new features which Orams never had on its old one,” Fisher notes. “Both sling sets adjustable fore and aft, the ability to lift the lower blocks to a higher level, all the modern technology.”
Park says he and the rest of the staff at Orams Marine Services couldn’t be happier. The new 75 BFMII is running very smoothly and quietly, and they’ve had no downtime due to breakdowns or operational issues.
“The machine has performed perfectly to date,” he says. “We’re surprised that even when lifting vessels of more than 60 tons, the machine hardly even changes tone! It simply performs exactly how it’s supposed to.”
