Highly-trained master riggers at the Port of Jacksonville recently moved 14 aluminum crew boats through the heavy lift and specialty cargo berth at the port’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.

The boats, 45-feet in length and weighing approximately 25,000 pounds each, sailed to JAXPORT on the St. Johns River from St. Johns Ship Building, a shipbuilding and marine repair company in Palatka, Fla., according to the port.
Workers employed by the stevedoring firm Portus lifted each boat from the river before loading them one at a time onto the general cargo ship Thorco Copenhagen.

The crew boats are being sent to Maracaibo, Venezuela where they will be used to transport oil refinery employees to and from offshore oil rigs.

The heavy lift cargo berth at JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal, one of the nation’s highest weight-bearing capacity docks offering up to 1,800 pounds per square foot of load capacity with rail capability up to 78 ‘kips’ – about 390 tons – per axle for heavy cargo. At 20 feet high and 13 feet wide, the Florida port has the highest and widest cargo clearance available for port access by rail on CSX’s national system.

In addition, Jacksonville’s terminals are serviced by interstate highways I-10, I-95 and I-75, and the city has 36 daily train departures via three railroads: CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Florida East Coast Railway.