Pirates Voyage Show Rigging
The Myrtle Beach, SC show includes two life-sized pirate ships, bands of swashbucklers sword fighting across a 15-foot-deep lagoon, sails unfurling, and props descending from the sky.There’s nothing like a major family entertainment attraction to challenge every aspect of theatrical production. So when Mike Compton of Pirates Voyage took on the challenge of bringing the attraction to life, he knew he needed rigging experts to help out. Compton had worked with J.R. Clancy on other projects, so he knew their capabilities when it came to the technical aspects of the show.
The latest attraction from Dolly Parton, Pirates Voyage, moved into the building that housed her famous Dixie Stampede attraction for 19 seasons. Transforming a former Dixie Stampede hippodrome into a pirates’ show had to be completed in five months, which was no small challenge, Compton explained. “It’s a metal building with girders, so we installed a series of catwalks coming off the girders to access everything,” he said.
To raise and lower the massive set pieces, Clancy supplied 11 custom-built, variable-speed drum hoists, each with 750-pound capacity and a top speed of 416 feet per minute. “I’m familiar with a lot of the hoist configurations that Clancy manufactures, so we provided the drawings for the catwalk and the locations for the hoists,” Compton said.
With seating on every side of the arena, the hoists would be in full view at all times, which meant that they needed hoists that could fit into a confined space and still function well. “The hoists are mounted to the side of the catwalks, and diverting loft blocks are mounted from the roof steel to get the lines to drop in the proper locations,” Compton said. There are also four types of hoists, each designed differently to get the proper space and capacity requirements for the different scenic elements. The hoists lower pirate-specific props such as anchors, skeletons, and a throne into view at dramatic speeds to delight the audience.
To accomplish these exciting effects, the owners selected Clancy’s Altus controller. Altus controls up to 48 motorized hoists, and users can program up to 200 repeatable, reliable cues for a single production. Each cue controls up to eight hoists at once, and each hoist can have its own speed, target position, acceleration, and deceleration for a variety of spectacular scene changes.
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Posted by Bruce at 23 Nov 2011 
Categories: Entertainment Engineering
Tags: Mytrle Beach Rigging Pirates Voyage family entertainment Mike Compton J.R. Clancy Dolly Parton Altus controller
Categories: Entertainment Engineering
Tags: Mytrle Beach Rigging Pirates Voyage family entertainment Mike Compton J.R. Clancy Dolly Parton Altus controller
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