Clearing mud from berth. Any other suggestions?

Oscarpop

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So our new berth on a mud berth has silted up and it will be a while until my marina can dredge the berth over winter.

There is a "lump" of mud as we enter the berth which is about 50cm high ( compared to the rest of the mud).


I have been patiently breaking it down over the weeks with a hose and nossle, which I periodically agitate with a stick while sat in a dinghy to remove the sludge away from the berth.

It is slow work, but does do the job.

I know that you can run the engine in forward gear to dislodge some mud, however the lump is more around our twin rudders and no where near the prop.
 
Years ago, the stalwarts of our club (no names, no pack drill) would take two work boats out with a chain dragged between the two and dredge a passage from the moorings to the slipway so that tenders could get ashore in all tides. The trick was to do it when the tide was flowing to carry the disturbed silt away.I believe this has now been stopped as the harbour authority has to issue a dredging licence - but what the eye doesn't see...

Rob.
 
I don't know if it's true but somebody told me that the rule in Portsmouth Harbour is that you can move the mud around but you can't take it out of the harbour!
 
When my parents had a boat at Faversham we used to move it back for a tide so that it sat on the hump of mud that built up during the winter. I seem to remember that one year we moved her back to much and she started to slip down into the channel until she really settled down.
 
Hire or borrow a portable 2" pump and blast the mud away. Drop the strum box in the water to provide the ammunition.

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Irrigation pumps don't work we've tried on a couple of occasions. Fire pumps do you need pressure and volume or water. A spade is by far the best method but it is tyring!!
 
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