Offshore cargo rack for use in transferring palletized loads between a marine vessel and an offshore platform

Abstract

A cargo rack for transferring loads between a marine vessel and an offshore marine platform (for example, oil and gas well drilling or production platform) provides a frame having a front, a rear, and upper and lower end portions. The lower end of the frame has a perimeter beam base, a raised floor and a pair of open-ended parallel fork tine tubes or sockets that communicate with the perimeter beam at the front and rear of the frame, preferably being structurally connected (e.g., welded) thereto. Openings in the perimeter beam base align with the forklift tine tubes or sockets. The frame includes a plurality of fixed side walls extending upwardly from the perimeter beam that include at least left and right side walls. A plurality of gates are movably mounted on the frame including a gate at least at the front and at least at the rear of the frame, each gate being movable between open and closed positions, the gates enabling a forklift to place loads on the floor by accessing either the front of the frame or the rear of the frame. Each gate can be pivotally attached to a fixed side wall. The frame has vertically extending positioning beams or lugs that segment the raised floor into a plurality of load-holding positions. Each load holding position has a plurality of positioning beams or lugs that laterally hold a load module (e.g., palletized load) in position once a load is placed on the raised floor.