Barrow Marina

[SteveA]

A new marina of 450 berths is planned for Barrow-in-Furness as part of the port master plan - hopefully to be up and rinning in 2008. West Lakes Renaissance has issued a letter asking people interested in more information about a berth in the marina to contact them.
Their contact is:
Mr David Humphrey
West Lakes Renaissance
Unit 8 Phoenix Court
Phoenix Road
Barrow-in-Furness LA14 2UA.

Also as part of this plan I recently received a powerpoint simulation of the proposed lock arrangement; their aim is to have 24 hour access to the marina but the port authority have concerns about water loss from the docks. The solution is to have a travelling lock. This would be a water tank measuring 20m X 8m X 3m with doors at each end. The idea is that you would sail into this, the door would shut, then the tank would rise to ground level, a carriage would then move it about 800m across to the dock where it would then lower into the dock, the door would open and you're in the dock.
I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has seen anything like this elsewhere.

 

[claymore]

Doesn't sound a million miles away from the Falkirk Wheel principle.

 

[andy_wilson]

Inclined planes were very common in the heyday of canals.

Sounds very novel and more costly to run than an economical, (almost) constantly running, back pumping scheme.

By almost, whilst I don't know the tidal scheme at Barrow, I would imagine pumping would be needed mainly in the season, mainly at the weekend, and possibly around neaps and sometimes at other LW's.

 

[Lakesailor]

800m. That's half a mile! Good God how long will that all take?
I can't imagine that the capital costs of such a scheme would ever be recovered. And you of course realise who would pay?

The pumping idea seems so much more logical. A tried and tested technique.
BP refinery on the Humber abstracts 100,000s of gallons of water a day for cooling duties, from the estuary and returns it back. Their pumps in sumps on the dockside at King George Dock work all the time and run for years.

A travelling dock? Good grief. What about leaves on the line?

Stop Press Don't get too excited. Read This

 

[Juggler7823]

This is a developement of the Anderton lift which raises canal boats around 30 foot from the Weaver Navigation to the Trent and Mersey Canal (or is it the other way round) The distance moved is only a few yards horizontally.

 

[abraxus]

When I had my boat on Windermere a few years ago I visted Barrow a couple of times. I can honestly say that it was the most depresssing place that I've seen in my entire life. Hopefully some new investment in the area will help to perk it up somewhat.

 

[tyce]

i hope the scheme does work as its what barrow needs, and i would quite fancy a berth as well (depending on costs as we all have free moorings outside the dock).
but i must say i have my doubts about the travelling lock, it just seems like a expensive timely and no doubt troublesome way of getting boats into the dock.
im sure a big pump and a locking system would be far cheaper and less problematic, and im not sure what height is req to be maintained in the lock but with our tides there will be plenty of oppurtunity for topping up and free flowing.

i know a lot of people have looked into this in more detail than me so excuse my ignorance if im wide of the mark, and fingers crossed it gets sorted soon

 

[SteveA]

I think this would be quite different to either the Anderton lift or Falkirk wheel in that they are balanced systems i.e. one tank goes up as the other goes down whereas this uses brute power. The weight of the tank is estimated at 600tonnes!
The cost of this is estimated at £9.5million which would be paid for from the £105 million pledged for the regeneration of Barrow.
The docks do have pumps that were fitted to artificially lift the dock water level for movements of the Trident subs but the Docks Authority insist that it would be uneconomical to run these - the pumps that is!
The system would be fully automatic being activated either from a remote fob supplied to berth holders or by calling Dock Control on VHF - it would take 30 minutes for a transfer.

 

[tyce]

now when you put it like that, i must admit i quite fancy having a remote controlled boat lift - bring it on

 

[SteveA]

Andy,

I agree with you, I would rather have a normal lock system; cutting a new narrow dock entrance has also been looked at

We do have a large tidal range - up to 10m+ on springs but it's the neaps in the summer period that seem to be the concern. The Harbour Master has already said he would close all movements at these times to conserve water. This is in direct conflict with the developes who wish to have 24 hour access - I think this would be a first for a NW England marina.

 

[michaelh]

I agree, very depressing. But not as depressing as Millom (well the last time I was there)

 

[Lakesailor]

Barrow is very depressing, although Walney Island (the seaward side) is actually very nice, and when the windsurfers are playing with the F7s it's spectacular.

Millom is extremely dreary.

Between them is RoanHead and the Sandscale Nature Reserve.
Judge for yourself.............

 

[ditchcrawler]

They have this sort of system on the lakes in Canada.The one I saw was a large lock which you drove into in your boat,& it went up the hill(or down) on rails.The boats were held in slings as the water drained out, but filled up again at the other end as it entered the water.
There was also another system where there were two locks on pistons & they went up & down like lifts passing each other on the way.The top one always had more water in it than the bottom one so it acted as a counterbalance.The counterbalance one was built in Victorian times & I think from memory was on the Trent -Severn waterway system in Canada.
Canada was also the only place that I have seen a marina with a roof on(all for powerboats)

 

[andy_wilson]

Eye for detail

I like it!

 

[SteveA]

Lakesailor,

Please don't show any more photos of the area - it's far better to let people think of it all as very depressing so we can enjoy the area and have free moorings!

On a different note the Kng of Piel's reign finishes at Easter.

 

[tyce]

whos the new king to be anyone know