What does a Dieci telescopic handler do at a port?
A telescopic handler is an agile and multi-purpose vehicle that is perfect for ports, where load handling, equipment maintenance and building repairs are a daily necessity.
The NATO naval airbase in Souda Bay, on the island of Crete, is a veritable labyrinth of depots, workshops, offices, pallets and shipping containers.
Wandering around this military port, in the land of the legendary Minotaur, is Icarus, the telescopic handler in our construction range. The Hellenic Navy has equipped itself with an Icarus 40.14 telescopic handler for numerous daily port maintenance and handling tasks.
Handling
Some 280 ships dock in Souda Bay each year and are refuelled and stocked with everything they need to remain at sea for long periods.
All this is made possible by our Icarus telescopic handler.
Thanks to its easy manoeuvrability and telescopic boom, Icarus transfers the materials from various depots to the wharf, where deck winches load them into the vessels’ holds.
In exchange it unloads waste and refuse accumulated during the ships’ voyage, as it is illegal to dispose of this in the sea.
Maintenance and repairs
In addition to handling, Icarus is also used for maintaining the base.
Every day the equipment and buildings undergo constant and thorough maintenance so that everything is always fully functional – another task for our Icarus telescopic handler.
The telehandler’s available accessories (winches, forks, baskets, buckets and clamps) allow it to perform various maintenance-related activities, such as hoisting workers to clean or repair equipment at high elevations.
Comfort
The cab with high-powered air conditioning system is essential for working comfortably during the hot Cretan summer.
In Icarus, the base operators and port employees have a multi-purpose vehicle that also offers a high level of comfort.
We like to think that the Greek navy chose it not just for its multiple qualities, but also for its name, with its links to Cretan history.
And for what it’s worth, we’d like to point out that our catalogue also includes a Dedalus, a Pegasus, a Hercules and even a Zeus!
Dieci in the world: Crete, between myth and reality
Crete, the cradle of the Minoan civilization and the largest of the Greek islands, is strategically placed almost in the centre of the Mediterranean. As a result, it has often been invaded over the centuries, first by the Ancient Greeks, and then by Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Venetians and Ottomans. It was finally unified with the Greek state in 1913, and was a battleground during the Second World War.
There are still clear traces of this long history, both in myth – Minos, Daedalus, Icarus, the Labyrinth – and in the landscape, with the spectacular ruins of Knossos and numerous other historic fortifications still guarding the island’s coast.
Its strategic importance is reinforced by the NATO naval airbase of Souda Bay, located amidst Cyclopean masonry and Venetian fortresses. Managed by the Greek navy, it is the biggest base of its kind in the eastern Mediterranean, and the only one with waters deep enough to host US aircraft carriers, NATO naval squadrons, and submarines. It also has a busy airport nearby. Due to its location, the base houses vehicles that are used both in training activities and in countless international missions.
The NATO base employs several thousand military personnel and its population temporarily expands every time a ship passes through. When one of the world’s largest aircraft carriers, the USS George H.W. Bush, docked at Souda, the population increased by 3200 naval and 2500 air force personnel, who were supplied and sustained by huge warehouses at the facility.
