Bournemouth surf-reef - a mad tangent

Greenheart

Greenheart

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Out of a blue sky...not that Bournemouth had many of those, last 'summer'...

...have they given up on the Boscombe Surf Reef? It was a lovely idea - to build an underwater shelf or wall which would concentrate and exaggerate the natural occurrence of incoming waves, into steep surf along a shortish stretch of beach. It seems to have stalled...

...I think I heard the wave-creation had failed so completely that funding for the scheme just evaporated. Heck of a shame.

Wouldn't it be fun, if...

... a couple of hundred metres of tough steel wall - perhaps a large section of dismantled-VLCC's bulkhead, ten metres high - was lain flat on the seafloor offshore, and hinged at the inshore edge so that the whole massive thing could 'flap', given a shove from beneath...

...then, at the time decided, an enormous quantity of compressed air gets piped very quickly (think of your auto-inflating LJ, or a car-airbag) through lots of under-beach ducts into RIB-fabric buoyancy chambers, attached to the massive, hinged steel sea-floor...

...which spontaneously hinges 5 metres upward, shunting a couple of thousand tonnes of water towards the beach! :eek::D:)

Ought to make a bit of a wave, oughtn't it?

Why aren't there any of those eccentric millionaires anymore, the type who paid to crash two locomotives, head-on? :( :rolleyes:
 
Dan,

this thing has featured now and again on the South Today news.

As far as I understand it, the ( Australian ??? ) creators took a great deal of money then legged it, while the council were just beginning to mutter " so when do we see it working then ? ".

That was quite a while ago, I think they're trying to make the best of the rather loony 'surf pod' accomodation built ashore, also at great expense.

Not heard of any plans for the 'reef' but I have an idea Mother Nature will remove that problem for them reasonably quickly...:rolleyes:
 
I expect you're right. I haven't visited Bournemouth since that extraordinarily warm weekend in April a couple of years back...the water was about 20ºc colder than the air, and none of the thousands on the beach, went in the sea...but some surf would have looked great.
 
dancrane said:
I expect you're right. I haven't visited Bournemouth since that extraordinarily warm weekend in April a couple of years back...the water was about 20ºc colder than the air, and none of the thousands on the beach, went in the sea...but some surf would have looked great.
Click to expand...

I once stayed at an hotel on Sidmouth seafront in a sea view room ( it was a Valentine's Day job as I was being suckered into marriage ) - the natural surf made a great sound, and a unique feature of the Bedfords' room was a draught under the carpet, causing a 'wave' about 6" high to roll along the room !

It was quite hypnotic, I hope they've kept it.
 
The reef has been out of action since March 2011 after being damaged by a boat propeller.

_60571385_60571384.jpg
 
I like that sign, ' reef not in operation ' !

Was it ever in action then ?!

I don't see why they are talking about spending money on demolishing it, nature will do that pdq and in the meantime I expect some sorts of beasties like it, probably not including that strange life form the common surf dude though.
 
Seems whole thing was quite a cockup the "reef" was just som eover grown expensive not very strong sand bags...

They leaked from the beginning the final damage, well it inevitable given the construction...
 
A total waste of taxpayers money ..........................yet again.
Gawd knows how these Councils come up with these stupid schemes.
 
I have a view of that surf reef from a top floor flat not very far away.

Yesterday I watched the small waves along the shore. There was no difference at all where the reef is submerged, and I never really thought there was before the alleged propellor strike. I say alleged because local opinion is divided about what actually caused the damage.

The local council paid a lot of monery for it, they even went to the other side of the world on a fact finding trip, and despite the evidence that such a scheme may just amplify existing waves locally (locally being right on to of the thing) they went ahead anyway, hoping that Hawaii style surfing would bring prosperity to an area more famed locally for being run dow. Part of the whole thing involved allowing a local developer to build on their land, so someone got something out of it.
 
It has been a criminal waste of ratepayers money.

The Council chose this option rather than build a marina which would have been a guaranteed money spinner and brought serious spenders to Boscombe.

Even if the expensive reef had worked, teenager surf bums are not exactly big spenders.
 
yellowspinnaker said:
I have a view of that surf reef from a top floor flat not very far away.

Yesterday I watched the small waves along the shore. There was no difference at all where the reef is submerged, and I never really thought there was before the alleged propellor strike. I say alleged because local opinion is divided about what actually caused the damage.

The local council paid a lot of monery for it, they even went to the other side of the world on a fact finding trip, and despite the evidence that such a scheme may just amplify existing waves locally (locally being right on to of the thing) they went ahead anyway, hoping that Hawaii style surfing would bring prosperity to an area more famed locally for being run dow. Part of the whole thing involved allowing a local developer to build on their land, so someone got something out of it.
Click to expand...

I'd image Harry Redknapp got a little drink out of it too.
 
tom52 said:
It has been a criminal waste of ratepayers money.

Even if the expensive reef had worked, teenager surf bums are not exactly big spenders.
Click to expand...

Good point. But a dim-witted (or underfunded) outlook by the council, shouldn't prevent the marina idea gaining ground...

...I know it's close to Poole, but avoiding Poole's sometimes tricky entrance, and locating one's boat so near the town centre would be an appealing benefit of 'Bournemouth Marina', for residents. Unless of course, yachtsmen in Dorset already live around Poole...:rolleyes:
 
Dan,

speaking as a yottie wot visits, Poole is amazingly short of marina or any other visitors' berths, so as long as they remembered to build decent breakwaters and a relatively safe entrance a marina at Boscombe would be great.

It would require something doing about the druggies who I understand frequent the area though...
 
The 'visiting berths' situation probably hasn't been eased by the new lifting bridge in Poole, which has Cobbs Quay users tearing their har out when it turns into the 'sometimes lifting' bridge.

The Harbour Commissioners proposed new marina stretching out nearly half way to Brownsea Island is beginning to encounter some serious local resistance.

The lifting bridge (Twin Sails Bridge) is accompanied by a bizarre road layout which has its geographic roots in making land available for development.

Both the surf reef and the Twin Sails bridge were supposed to work wonders for Bournemouth and Poole respectively, both driven by Councillors, both have attracted a lot of criticism.
 
Yes I thought it was beginning not to bode well for the new bridge when they raised it and a chunk of the tarmac surface slid straight off ! :rolleyes:

Cobbs Quay obviously don't have the right contacts in the council, the way their berth holders are treated - dredging would be nice too.

I haven't heard of this marina stretching towards Brownsea, something like that is certainly needed, it's always amazed me a town relying on tourism doesn't cater better for supposedly wealthy yachties.
 
The PHC proposals for anew marina have been well publicized with extensive consultations and environmental assessments. The original plan was to extend the current PYC marina to the west to create a new club marina and a public one. This was dropped because of all sorts of local opposition and access problems. The current proposal is to extend the existing marina on the quay southward and would include a dock for cruise ships. Unsurprisingly there is also opposition to this plan.

The big constraint in Poole is the lack of shoreside access and any development has to be at the expense of water space. The huge potential of Holes Bay has been cut off by the shortsighted decision to build the lifting bridge rather than a tunnel to cross the bay.
 
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