It was all hands on deck as the Inishcruiser – a boat formerly owned by Share Discovery Village in Lisnaskea – was recently relocated from Lough Erne to its new home of Belfast Lough.

Firstly, the boat, which weighs approximately 55 tonnes, had to be lifted out of the water.

Ronnie Crawford, owner of Crawford’s Marina at Carrybridge, was involved in this part of the boat’s movement, using his specialist lifting equipment.

Ronnie explained that since initially purchasing the marina at Carrybridge in 1982, he has been providing a service of lifting boats from the water for the facilitation of maintenance works and transportation.

With his background in engineering, following the purchase of the marina, Ronnie manufactured the first lift that was used on Lough Erne for lifting boats.

“I was assisted in that operation by Ernie Fisher of Fisher Engineering and Ken Dunlop, who had a business in Lisbellaw – he did the hydraulics,” said Ronnie, noting that the first lift was capable of lifting 10 tonnes and was powered by a tractor.

“At that time, the biggest boat on Lough Erne was a Seamaster 30, which weighed about eight tonnes. [My lift] was quite adequate in those days, but over the years boats got bigger, so lifts needed to be bigger,” he added.

To celebrate owning the marina for 40 years, Ronnie bought a new self-operating lift earlier this year which is capable of lifting 110 tonnes. It was this lift that was used for the moving of the Inishcruiser.

“The Inishcruiser was approximately 55 tonnes in weight,” said Ronnie, going on to outline the process of moving the boat.

“With the width and the length of the boat, normally it would be a job for a road crane, but getting one big enough and getting it close enough to the water is a bit of a problem.

“It’s always a difficulty, getting boats of that size in and out of the water,” he said, going on to explain that the Inishcruiser crossed the lough from Share Discovery Village to the marina at Carrybridge, where it was then lifted out of the water by Ronnie’s equipment.

“It has a special hoist to lift the boat,” he explained, noting that it took a couple of hours to move the boat from the water to land.

“It was a specialist job, it had to then be moved [on the road] to Belfast in the early hours of the morning,” Ronnie told this newspaper, explaining that once the boat was on land, the haulage was looked after by Monaghan Freight.