Goldhofer moves 680 tonne super yacht.

American heavy haulage specialists Berard Transport has completed a mammoth transportation project which has seen a 680 tonne steel super yacht launched off the coast of Louisiana.

The operation was carried out on a concrete surface using a combination of Goldhofer heavy-duty modules, with two 8 line PST-SL/E and two 6 line PST-SL/E transporters placed under the yacht.

These Goldhofer modules, manufactured in Memmingen, Germany, rolled the 1,650 hp super yacht 250ft out of the hangar where it was built, before four 75-tonne hydraulic dollies were added for the second stage of the movement.

“At the push of a button, the 224 wheels of the Goldhofer self-propelled transporters turned 90 degrees, and enabled the yacht to travel a further 250ft in a different direction, taking it towards the quay where it was lowered into the water by crane,” explains Ivan Collins, Sales Director of Andover Trailers, Goldhofer's sole UK supplier.

“The self-propelled modules benefit from electronic multi-way steering which enables normal, diagonal, transversal and carousel steering. Despite the electronic installation, the height of these transporters is identical to the regular Goldhofer units,” adds Mr Collins.

“This enables operators to set-up large combinations and carry out operations in convoy more easily, without a time-consuming requirement to stop and use intermediate planks to bridge the height difference.”

Berard Transportation, one of Goldhofer's most high profile customers in America, has a long history in heavy haulage. In 1945, Roy Berard Senior, a struggling sugar cane farmer, was offered $50 dollars to move a friend's small house a few miles. Using an old truck and homemade trailer, he did the job in just one day for $50. This one job got people in the area talking, and his farming operation slowly emerged into a company specializing in moving large buildings and anything that no one else could move.

Today, Berard Transportation continues to offer a full range of heavy haulage solutions, with regular movements carried out on behalf of the power generation, offshore, petrochemical and shipping industrie