SpanSet Australia delivers synthetic slings in record time for “classic boat” lift.
In the classic jet fighter ace movie, Top Gun, Tom Cruise’s character Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell shouts to his buddy Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw’ the line, “I feel the need, the need for speed.” Over the Christmas period, SpanSet Australia were able to ensure the lift of a classic boat was possible, by designing, manufacturing and delivering bespoke synthetic slings for a lift by Top Gun Cranes, in record time.
To ensure the lift happened within the tight frame required a co-ordinated effort involving the sales, design and manufacturing team at SpanSet and the teams at Australian Lifting and Safety (ALS) and Top Gun Cranes. Nathan McNeill is the allocator at Top Gun Cranes and he provides some background to the lift. “It was one of those jobs that was on and then off again. It didn’t seem urgent and then suddenly the customer gave it the green light and I knew it was going to be a scramble to make the tight deadline,” he said.
The cruiser weighed 41t and McNeill knew it was going to require purpose built slings for the lift to be completed safely. “With the tight deadline I knew the slings would need to be designed, manufactured and tested in a really tight time frame, we had four days to turn the slings around and two of those were over a weekend. That’s when I called Michael O’Brien at SpanSet Australia. I knew they manufactured locally and they were the only manufacturer that could produce the right quality of sling and meet the deadline,” he said.
Following this call O’Brien was instructed by Top Gun Cranes to call Glenn Dryland at ALS and explain what was happening.
“Here at Australian Lifting and Safety (ALS) we operate in a number of markets and we have a large network of suppliers due to the wide range of services we provide. SpanSet Australia is our main supplier when it comes
to synthetic lifting & height safety products including lifting slings, harnesses, lanyards and anything else which is ‘outside the box’,” said Dryland.
“They have a great technical team to answer any queries, are willing to work with us on the design and manufacture of custom products required by our clients and they always deliver their products and services in an efficient and timely manner. But the delivery times on these slings meant going above and beyond, normal levels of service as it was a week or two prior to Christmas.
“I sent the quote to Nathan and almost instantly we had an approval. One more phone call to Michael to make it happen, emphasising the need for speed and the manufacturing team at SpanSet Australia went into overdrive,” he said.
True to their word, SpanSet Australia provided updates throughout the manufacturing process and despite the time of year and the heavy workload, SpanSet Australia went above and beyond and ensured the slings were delivered to Top Gun Cranes within four days.
“As a company, we really support the position SpanSet Australia is taking with the industry with their Australian Made products. Although we are a supplier and not a manufacturer like SpanSet Australia, we are going down a similar path where we are backing Australian businesses making products locally
and recommending these products to our clients where-ever possible,” said Dryland.
“Over the last 12 to 14 months, and as a result of COVID and its impact on shipping costs freight delays etc. we are seeing many clients quite prepared to pay that bit extra for quality Australian products, delivered on time, keeping fellow Australians in jobs, all backed by the Australian Made logo. As a company, we are fully behind this development,” he said.
The lift went “like clockwork”, said McNeill.
“We deployed our Liebherr LTM 1130-5.1 I was on site just in case the boys needed a hand but we had a good crew and they managed the whole lift without any dramas. There were a couple old of marks on the hull where it had obviously been lifted before. We’d previously measured what size of Modulift spreader bar we needed, and we lifted off the points we could see. Everything was perfect. We had lifted the boat, had it
on the float and out of there all within a couple of hours,” he said.