Jones crawler crane at Medway Wharf Marina

To complement the dockside lifting feature in the June issue of ICST (out today – available here) deputy editor Christian shot this 1973 Jones crawler crane which is still in use at the Medway Wharf Marina on the river Medway in Kent, UK.

The marina is a family-run business established by Ivan Dozin and his wife Jacqui more than 40 years ago and, since 1999, it has been run by their daughter Sally, who also operates the crane. According to Sally, lifting lovely boats needs a woman’s touch!

The Jones crawler weighs 46 tonnes (with extra ballast) and, originally, had a safe working load of 20 tonnes – although Sally says due to the age of the crane, with many parts having been refurbished, she does not use it to lift more than eight tonnes these days. It has a 60 foot jib and the spreader beam is also around 40 years old but has recently been refurbished by Crowland Cranes in Peterborough.