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Krake - B&M dive machine for Heide Park

Gazza

Giga Poster
Stolen from here:
http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewto ... 37#p958837

KRAKE: Attack of the giant octopus!

Coming to Heide Park in 2011 - A B&M Dive Machine!

The German amusement park Heide Park has benefited from its last opening weekend before the winter to formally present to the press its great new ride for 2011: a Diving Machine made by Bolliger & Mabillard, second of its kind in Europe and first in Germany.

In front of the park lake, the public was invited to listen a pirate storytelling about a terrible sea monster when, suddenly, one of the boats of the "Der Mississippi-Dampfe" ride has been attacked and virtually "destroyed" in a blaze of fireworks, before that the name KRAKE (means "octopus" in German) is unveiled.

With a total investment of 12 million euros, the thematic of KRAKE is focused around a giant octopus that has established itself in the new area "Bay of pirates" . The dark atmosphere will begin in the queue and visitors will be invited to challenge the monster, in a setting inspired by the theme of pirates and a ship destroyed.

The roller coaster layout itself:

- 476 meters long (1,532 feet)
- 41 meters high vertical drop (134 feet) which plunge into a pit (like Obålivion) representing the mouth of the octopus
- An underground passage and a splashdown
- An Immelmann
- A series of curves and a camelback.

Merlin Entertainments compliments B&M, with project manager Dirk Loppnow explaining they consider the swiss company as the "Ferrari of the roller coaster manufacturers". KRAKE is the largest investment made in Germany by the group, which opened recently in the United Kingdom Saw: The Ride at Thorpe Park and Th13teen at Alton Towers.

According to Merlin's artistic director, Candy Holland, KRAKE will go into the continuity of development already carried out at Heide Park in recent years with the Maya-Tal area and the Splash Battle Die Bucht der Totenkopfpiraten.

When asked "Why a Diving Machine?", Candy Holland replied with a smile "It's not just a Diving Machine, but a real experience that will be, for its passengers, not only physically but also mentally captivating. They will be like a pirate approaching the plank suspended above the mouth wide open of a terrifying sea monster".

She adds "With a first-class material and attention into the details of the theming, the ride will be unique in Europe, and it a pleasure to work on its design!"

The tracks represent the tentacles of the octopus, while the trains will be composed of 3 rows of 6 seats arranged like a staircase, allowing passengers seated in the back row to take advantage as much as others in the drop! Note that the trains will be the less wide in the world, other Diving Machine models offering a row of 8 or 10 seats.

Several technical details on the huge construction site (10,000 sqm) have also been revealed. KRAKE will require about 50,000 hours of work, 2000 cubic meters of reinforced concrete, 150,000 kilograms of steel rods (for ground works), 700 tons of steel (supports, tracks and structures) as well as thousands of screws, nails and nuts to fix all that! Several concrete blocks of 12 tons have already been used to construct the pool of water.

"Only the bravest will survive the attack of an octopus!" You have been warned!
To see the progress of construction, go to: http://www.heide-park-baublog.de


In particular these lines got me:

The thematic of KRAKE is focused around a giant octopus that has established itself in the new area "Bay of pirates" . The dark atmosphere will begin in the queue and visitors will be invited to challenge the monster, in a setting inspired by the theme of pirates and a ship destroyed.

The tracks represent the tentacles of the octopus,

Sounds like Nemesis with a bit octopus instead of an alien. Still a cool concept though.
 

Uncle Arly

Strata Poster
That does sound pretty amazing. Sounds like they have really thought about the themeing and visual aspect of the rollercoaster. Should be interesting to see how they do the 'plank' effect. (If they mean it literally).
 

Xpress

Strata Poster
^Yeah, I hope it turns out way more exciting looking than 13 does.

Antinos said:
Those triangles in the spine aren't welded. It's a solid piece of flatstock that was cut and bent to certain specifications. To cut the crossties, they have a large oxygen powered cutting machine that can cut out dozens of crossties from a single sheet of steel at the same time. To bend the rails, they simply use is a rail bender. Finally, they weld all the pieces together. Intamin track, on the other hand, needs many square and round steel tubes cut to certain lengths with correct angles and shapes on the ends, and weld dozens and dozens of pieces together. The B&M track is a lot easier to manufacture.

OHhhh.... I don't know why I was thinking they were welded the entire time... :? (which brings up another point: if the spine is made from a single sheet of steel, then how do they make it a tube without welding? )

BTW, don't you mean a plasma cutter?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cutting

(now that we're totally off track...)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
They could also use water cutter or lasers to cut the steel...

Anyway the spine is made of 4 length of steel that are bent and then welded together, since there is no way to make on of them from a single piece of steel.
 

spicy

Giga Poster
This sounds brilliant, this is B&M's answer to a Eurofighter by the sound of it and if they theme it as well as they say in that statement it will be awesome.

Quite a big year for Merlin parks abroad, with Heide's B&M prototype and Gardaland's.
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
*moved to Ride Construction forum*

Although the link has been posted above, they emailed a link to the blog thingy, so here it is: http://www.killerkrake.de

Germany is tempting me next year. Slightly.
 

andrus

Giga Poster
Gazza said:
- 41 meters high vertical drop (134 feet) which plunge into a pit (like Obålivion) representing the mouth of the octopus
This cought my attention. Maybe the ride wont have a lower drop then the other DM after all? :) 41 meters tall plus an underground part sounds pretty sweet since Oblivion is only 20 meters above ground but have a total drop height of 55 meters!
 

CPcisco

Mega Poster
UC said:
B&M supports are especially expensive because of the way they're manufactured.

I'm curious about this, how are these manufactured. I was always under the impression that standard sized steel tubing was simply cut and welded together and flanges where added at the ends.
 

CPcisco

Mega Poster
Ah cool, I always wondered why some coasters had rolled supports and some didn't. I didn't even think about the cost to manufacture them.

Anyways, sorry for getting off topic. :(
 

bob_3_

Giga Poster
I've noticed Intamin kind of mix things up abit, if you take a look at Rita, some of the bigger supports are solid, while the rest are wrapped.
 

SaiyanHajime

CF Legend
kraken.jpg
 

nealbie

CF Legend
So a new path and stuff over the lake creating a little lagoon for Krake?

That's AMAZING. Really REALLY have to go back! <3
 

andrus

Giga Poster
Heide Park has made some interesting updates on their blog. At the moment they're working on the "splash-pool" and they have started the construction of the foundation for the lift hill as well. But the most interesting update I think is from the 4th of november where they posted a picture of some theming, it looks very nice! I'm really excited now!!

http://www.killerkrake.de/blog/
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
@roomraider:
This graphic is a good few months old and origninally comes from a user of the german Heide-Park Fanpage.
Here are some photos of the theming, posted on Facebook. The first comes from the park itself.

76843_460324761628_120907856628_5459771_1885263_n.jpg


23795d1289935851-neu-2011-coaster-im-heide-park-155691_173293462697431_100000503364031_540886_5399652_n.jpg
 
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