Stator For Tanker Costs £30,000 To Land In N.Z.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28167, 4 January 1957, Page 3

Stator For Tanker Costs £30,000 To Land In N.Z.

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 3. The tanker Stanvac Manila, now berthed at Wellington, is expected to be back at sea within 15 days of the failure of a generator on Christmas Day. This has been made possible by the arrival of a replacement stator by air from the United States. A DC6A carrying the replacement landed at Ohakea at 7.40 p.m. yesterday, 55 hours after the stator was loaded into the aircraft at Newark, New Jersey. The aircraft, which is owned by Slick Airlines, a firm which specialises in this type of charter, costs approximately 2.40 dollars (17s) a mile and the total cost of the. return flight will be approximately 47.000 dollars ( £16,000). The stator itself cost 45.000 dollars (£15.000) so that the total cost of bringing the new stator to New Zealand and returning the damaged part to the United States will be in the vicinity of £30,000. However, so great is the current need for tankers due to the Suez situation that the owners of the Stanvac Manila, Standard-Vacuum Transportation Limited, London, count this cost as well-spent. It would have taken six weeks to bring the replacement stator by sea from the United States and, had the material been available in New Zealand to re-wind the stator, it would have taken approximately the same time.

Demurrage on a tanker of this type is approximately £l5OO a day, and had the tanker been held for only 20 days demurrage would have equalled the cost of bringing the stator by air. In terms of the weight carried, over 20.0001 b, the cost per mile is most reasonable. Customs Co-operation Due to the co-operation of the Customs and Health Departments, the aircraft was. able to fly direct to Ohakea rather than land at Auckland for Custom clearance before going on to the Ohakea airfield. Customs officers made a special journey from Wellington to clear the aircraft, and by 8 p.m. the

crew of the contractors in charge of the unloading were beginning j to free the stator of the steel | cables tying it firmly to the air-; craft floor. Inch by inch the 9}. ton stator; on its 15 cwt cradle was moved to I the unloading doors, but it was! not until 4 a.m. that it was gently I lowered to the deck of a waiting ■ truck. So fine was the clearance in the unloading doors that it took over; two hours from the time the; stator came in sight until the two; cranes were able to take its, weight, and the successful unload-, ing was a tribute to the ingenuity, of the contractors’ crew. Throughout, Mr M. J. A. Belhumeur, chief technical officer of the marine department of Stan-dard-Vacuum Oil Company, New York, supervised the operation, and travelled with the stator to Wellington, where he will superintend its installation in the tanker. The installation work is in the hands of William Cable Ltd., whose superintendent engineer. Mr J. Barr, also assisted in the intricate task of unloading the stator. ' It is expected the loading of the damaged stator will take even longer. The aircraft will leave Ohakca some time tomorrow.