callamity at Maryport marina

[Avocet]

Yes it does, big quadrants that are forced together when shut. They were designed to act as flood defences for the town as well as lock gates. That said, I have personally been the "victim" of a gate failure at Whitehaven once. They've had their fair share of bother over the last decade or so, but not as catastrophic as this one in Maryport. I've no idea why the "flap" at Maryport was designed the way it was.

 

[DJE]

Whitehaven seems to have swing gates, which appear to be designed to take pressure from outsid of the lock. Looks far less likely to fail to me. It is also within a reasonably well sheltered outer harbour. Some lessons for Maryport?

Those are radial sector gates which have been installed in many marinas over the last 20 years or more. (I worked on the lock at Port Solent in 1987 which uses this type of gate.) The water pressure on the cylindrical gate surface always acts through the vertical pivot axis of the gate and they can resist pressure in either direction. The rams which operate the gates are relatively small as they don't work against any water pressure. There are no sluices with this type of gate; the gates themselves are rotated to open a slot against the lock wall and let the water in via the side chamber.
With this design of gate it is perfectly feasible to open them with a large difference in levels and allow a flood of water through. This has always worried me a bit; I believe that it is normally addressed by the use of level sensors and automatic interlocks on the controls. Obviously Sod's law applies to any control system, maybe some part was damaged in the rough weather or maybe the refurbishment included a software upgrade with a bug in it. But this last is just speculation.
Wasn't there a failure in the Isle of Man a while back where the gate opened at low tide and let all the water out in a rush?

 

[yachtorion]

My Boat

My boat (Hurley 22) is also in Maryport and thankfully unharmed. The marina phoned me within 3 hours of all this happening to let me know - so I found out from them.

It does seem a little odd on the face of it that the gate was used in this way given it's design, but on the other hand they were only trying to look after the boats in the marina...

I've found the staff to be very helpful and pleasant and the marina and it's facilities are good... so I'll be staying. They do keep a good eye on the boats and they seem to do their best to look after them.

I hope it all gets sorted soon and the marina can be back up and running...

Amazing and great that no-one was hurt.

 

[Bilgediver]

The lock gates in Cardiff bay are occasionally used to keep very high storm tides out and prevent flooding. As far as I can see there are no locks / catches on them.

They are specifically designed for this....Look at them carefully.

 

[[2574]]

Radio Cumbria report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p004kx7m/The_Mike_Parr_Breakfast_Show_06_10_2009/



whizz along to 36 mins to hear the report.

 

[jason -and the arguenauts]

They are specifically designed for this....Look at them carefully.

So were the ones at Maryport - apparently.

 

[cumbrian]

Wasn't there a failure in the Isle of Man a while back where the gate opened at low tide and let all the water out in a rush?

i was in douglas a couple of days after that incident and was told by the harbour staff that it was due to a software error.

we were discussing it because the gate had subsequently jammed in the up position, preventing us from leaving on the tide. it was eventually lowered, with little time to spare and yachts racing to get out beaneath the briefly raised road bridge

 

[pheonix]

Hi simon

When I kept my boat there, I don't think many of the marina management knew much about marinas, water or tides, never mind the journos!!
Do hope everybody safe and this mess can be resolved quickly and peeps back out sailing in the near future.

R

any thoughts of a replacement for oscar 2

 

[Rooster]

Hi Dave

Not yet. Had a RIB for short time but soon got bored with it. We had a weekend in South of France a couple of weeks ago. It was the Monaco yacht show so spent some time there. Still dreaming.

 

[mlthomas]

We had our last boat in Maryport for the last three years, I can’t fault the staff they are really good dedicated people who do not deserve any criticism at all.
Two things, the gate is on the wrong side as the design is to keep the water in (please see Sea rush) and it had just been repaired , can’t have been on longer than 12 weeks since the last failure.
We put our new boat into Whitehaven at the last moment (as in decision on the Monday, delivery on the Wednesday) who have a lock which is designed to take the correct pressure from either direction (high sea or high water in the marina).
Hopefully Maryport will be able to put two gates on, one either side of what could be a lock or they can get a permanent fix.
Maryport needs the marina, it is really good place and I hope they recover from this.