Marine Slipway Carriage System and Control Tower

a blue and white vessel sitting in a slipway system having been winched out of the water
Marine Vessel Slippage System

Harbour Slipway Carriage System

Qualter Hall supplied this bespoke Slipway Carriage System to a busy Scottish harbour.

The boat lift cradle system has been designed to remove boats from the water and onto the harbour slipway for maintenance, repair or decommissioning.

The cradle can slip vessels up to 40m long, 10m wide and weighing up to 570 tonnes. The system is adaptable to cater for variations in length and vessel width, with the bilge arms being hydraulically operated via a Hydraulic Power Unit (HPU) sited in the integrated control tower.

The scope of supply included fabrication, machining, trial assembly and factory acceptance testing (FAT), delivery, installation and commissioning of a side slipway cradle system, including tower and control cab to facilitate the refurbishment of an existing slipway.

What work was done by Qualter Hall?

  • All new equipment was fully assembled and factory acceptance tested at our facility in Barnsley.
  • Complex cradle assemblies were manufactured to exacting tolerances, driven by a robust hydraulic supply and control system (including remote control panel) that was integrated with the existing main winch and side slip winches.
  • On site, full functional testing was carried out to prove key modes of operation. This reduced the overall project risk, prior to critical path installation works at the harbour site, reducing the overall slipway down-time.
  • Our Site Services team carried out the installation of mechanical and electrical equipment. This included comprehensive site acceptance testing (SAT) and a successful live boat trial.
  • Our Site Services team delivered formal operator and maintenance training to the client’s operational and maintenance personnel.
Slipway cradle system and control tower pictured on a harbour slipway with an empty cradle built from black steel.
A blue and white fishing vessel sits submerged in a slipway cradle system on a bight, cloudy day, waiting to be winched onto the harbour slipway.
An empty slipway cradle system sits on the harbour slipway on against a bright blue sky. The cradle is built from black steel and is attached to a control tower with white housing, which is shown in the foreground.
Port of Dover: MEICA Engineering Installations and Upgrades
A royal blue painted steel cradle sits at the top of a harbour slipway. A boat is held in the cradle's vertical bilge arms, which stand along the cradle on either side of the boat. The sky is cloudless and blue, and and we can see the grey, concrete slipway in the foreground of the image, a grey, pipework metal fence and cream-coloured buildings with dark rectangular windows at the slide of the slipway.
Slipway Hoist System, Portavogie Harbour, Ireland
Hull's Millennium Bridge photographed from the bank of the River Hull. The bridge is white and forms an 'L' shape with a striking yellow counter-weight on its elevated side. The skiy is blue and full of white/grey clouds. The river is light-brown and the Hull Tidal Barrier can be seen in the distance, behind the bridge.
Hull Tidal Barrier
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