Why weld then unweld craddles? Why can't these be screwed and locked onto deck in a more standardized process? Wouldn't the weld then cut off eventually weaken the deck themselves?

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Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Why weld then unweld craddles? Why can't these be screwed and locked onto deck in a more standardized process? Wouldn't the weld then cut off eventually weaken the deck themselves?

They're surface welds and grind right off. The cradles will always be in a different position on the deck because the yachts (size, type,shape) are always different and the entire load is always different. The deck hatches are very thick/strong on these ships and need to be flat for when the ships carry containers. But, a lot (most) of the yacht shippers charter another companies ship, they don't own the ship, they're just leasing it for this one voyage. A lot of times they rent the entire ship, on some non common locations they may rent only X amount of deck space and weight and the rest is containers or something else.

Sevenstar YS and Dockwise YT own their own ships. Dockwise ships are the submersible ones that only carry yachts or ships like the USS MCCAIN and float the yachts off and on and have divers weld the cradles underwater, then float the ship. Problem is that's all they can carry is yacht/ships, whereas the Seven star ships are normal freighters that will carry General Cargo in their hold a lot of times and yachts on deck, if they don't have a full load of yachts or the yachts are all too tall to fit into the holds.