Ten competitors from five states competed in the Crane Operator and Rigger Skills Competition held at Wood’s CRW Corp.’s Northeast site in North Oxford, Mass., on Oct. 25. Wood’s has four locations in the Northeast, including Carlisle, Pa. Wood’s CRW Corp. also is celebrating 50 years in operation.

At stake, through four highly skilled crane-operating events, were $500, $250 and $50 prizes, with the winners in each category to travel to the national competition for a shot at the $10,000 grand prize next October.

The national event will likely be held in Louisville, Ky., although Jay Sturm, host of the local competition, said the location has not been officially confirmed.

Tyler Mayo of BGM Inc., Cabot Vt., was the overall first place winner and Craig Tanguay of Summit Crane, Bristol, Conn., finished second. They move on to the nationals.

The event was co-sponsored for the second year by Cranes101, headquartered in Bellingham, Mass., and Wood’s CRW Corp.

“There are four or five other events held in the country now,” said Michael Sylvia, vice president of cane sales of Wood’s CRW Corp. “This is a chance for us to give our good customers and vendors a chance to compete with both an event and an open house. We always like to host it. It gets people to come here who don’t normally come here.”

Sylvia said that the winners in the three major crane events — the two-barrel slam dunk event, the pipe event and the slalom will compete in the same events for the grand prize a year from now.

“It was formerly held at ConExpo in Las Vegas, but they are looking for a new home. That hasn’t been set yet,” said Sylvia.

The first event was a rigging competition that did not involve large cranes. Operators examined riggings and slings laid out over a table just outside the bay doors of the Wood’s CRW garage.

“There are 20 sling setups and they have to identify what’s wrong with each piece of equipment,” said Jenn Sturm, marketing specialist of Cranes101. “Then, we give them a test score of how they did.”

The other three events were all hands-on.

“There is the two-barrel slam dunk, where the operator has to move a heavy iron ball in and out of two barrels. You lose points if you move the barrel or knock it over. You cannot knock the barrel out of the circles. Best time gets highest points, of course,” said Sturm.

Sturm said there was a similar event held in Pennsylvania in June, with others set for North Dakota, Florida and California.

“The top two operators from each go to the finals,” Sturm said. “We pay for their flight, we pay for their hotel. The final, which I saw last year, is really, really awesome.”

This story also appears on Crane Equipment Guide.

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