Robert Wynn & Sons, on behalf of Daher, has transported two transformers from the port of Lorient to Le Palais, Belle-Île-en-Mer, France.
The transformers were rolled onto the specialist heavy lift ro-ro barge Terra Marique at the port of Lorient and then towed 22 nautical miles to the entrance of the historic port at Le Palais, where the barge was disconnected from the tug En Avant 10 and made its way into the port under its own power.
Navigating into Le Palais required many months of planning, including local coordination, dive inspections and quay surveys to ensure the 80 m x 16.5 m barge could successfully enter the inner harbour. Robert Wynn & Sons engineers worked closely with the project team at Daher to ensure that an appropriate tidal window was identified ahead of an early morning offload.
The vessel’s hydraulic ramp was then carefully lowered on to the quayside and the cargo was rolled off, with the offloading operation taking less than an hour to complete. The Terra Marique then returned to the layby berth within the port where she waited 24 hours before the empty SPMTs were reloaded ahead of a return trip to the port of Lorient.
It has been a busy year for the Terra Marique, which has completed several complex transport operations. Earlier this year, Robert Wynn & Sons transported cargoes to Alloa, Scotland, becoming the first shipping company to deliver cargo via the River Forth, through the Kincardine and Clackmannanshire bridges, to Alloa in over 60 years.
During summer, Robert Wynn & Sons beached Terra Marique in northwest Wales to deliver a 155-tonne transformer for a National Grid substation at Trawsfynydd and transported four 170-tonne transformers to the berth at Pembroke power station on behalf of Germany’s Züst & Bachmeier.
