Problem solving at Gweek Boat Yard!

We are a month into the re-opening of the boatyard and it is great to see a return to a semblance of ‘normal’. We have enjoyed safely welcoming back our boat owners to the yard; it has been great to see familiar faces and boats being worked on.

The past month has been a very busy one for the whole GCBY team and I’d like to thank all the staff for their hard work preparing for and executing the re-opening.

During a full week of craning earlier this month, we had a problem with the crane and had to stop lifting in boats when a small electrical/hydraulic part stopped working. Although boats were not in any danger we could not continue and had to hire in a replacement crane in order to get boats in the water as planned. Mark Aichroth’s son was despatched to Wigan to get a part on Saturday and Macsalvors courtesy of Cameron Macquarrie despatched a crane within 30 minutes of receiving the call. Our crane stopping working could not have come at the worst time coinciding with the big tides and when the largest boats wanted to go into the water. Macsalvors provided cranes for Saturday and Sunday with skilled operators including Ben Longman. The problem was that we could not lift and carry with the Macsalvors crane so had to do double lifts as we transferred boats onto our trailer to move them around the yard. By Tuesday of that week, bar one boat, we managed to get them all in the water with some intensive sessions of craning. An amazing example of team work from the yard staff.

Some boats we had to escort as they were leaving on lower tides than they would have liked - a problem that will be resolved as we now have permission from the MMO to dredge the channel right down to the seal sanctuary from November onwards.

Our crane is now back up and running: we believe the problem arose due to the crane being out of use for an extended period of time during the lockdown, despite weekly starts by our skeleton staff. I want to thank all the customers that were affected for bearing with us as we went forward. A tough time but working the problem we managed to achieve everyone going in bar one, even though it may not have been at the right time.

Huge thanks to everyone in the Gweek Classic Boat Yard team, Macsalvors and most importantly our affected customers. Happy sailing.