Cowes new floating bridge broken again ?

Clearly the increased lateral forces of the bigger vessel are dragging the bridge sideways and the chains are unlikely to be shortened to counter the drag, because of decreased underwater clearance.


No doubt some lessons will be learned... this year, next year...
 
sarabande said:
Clearly the increased lateral forces of the bigger vessel are dragging the bridge sideways and the chains are unlikely to be shortened to counter the drag, because of decreased underwater clearance.
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It's very difficult to tell from the photographs, but it looks to me as if the chains are substantially smaller than the ones I remember for the similarly-sized Renfrew Ferry. If that's the case, could it be a source of the problem?
 
JumbleDuck said:
Many thanks. Clearly more than an operational/commissioning peculiarity, and I shall have to watch today's performance as you suggest.
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Although it ran OK until normal end of service last night, once refloated.. They kept it out of service this morning until the ebb was finished........ maybe we will find it is taken out of service during the ebb this afternoon... They referred to weather conditions ( fine with W f5-6) but the ebb looked pretty fierce!.

Fat lot of good its going to be if operation has to be suspended on spring ebbs all the time!

Running OK at the moment but they have to zigzag the cars on and off to prevent them grounding. Much waving of arms by the crew involved. Some drivers don't get the idea though.... they approach at an angle then straighten up!

New forum spectator sport ... watching the Cowes chain ferry get into trouble.

I reckon if they blame the crew again They should not be surprised if it goes aground again at HW springs later this month and is neaped until October :)
 
They've already tightened the chains, I think. There's a Local Notice to Mariners on the Cowes Harbour Commissin website about it.
The gossip locally is that because it's an off-the-shelf design, it's not suitable for cross-currents of more than 2knots.
The old one used to ground sometimes, if they took too long to load/unload it. That's bound to be worse with the greater number of vehicles, and the palaver negotiating the ramps.
 
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StormNorm said:
They've already tightened the chains, I think. There's a Local Notice to Mariners on the Cowes Harbour Commissin website about it.
The gossip locally is that because it's an off-the-shelf design, it's not suitable for cross-currents of more than 2knots.
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There are off-the-shelf chain ferry designs? I wouldn't have thought the demand would warrant it. It looks to be similar in size to the King Harry Ferry, though wikipedia doesn't say who built that.
 
Looks like the builder is Mainstay Marine Solutions Ltd of Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire.

http://www.mainstaymarine.co.uk/news1/

One assumes they took into account the tidal flow when designing it unless they were only responsible for supplying the vessel and not the chainage system or shore ramps.
 
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It seems to be out of service again!

was not watching so no idea why
 
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It did have trouble coming onto the W Cowes side at 5ish with the ramp appearing to be swept down onto the big orange bumper.
 
Giblets said:
It did have trouble coming onto the W Cowes side at 5ish with the ramp appearing to be swept down onto the big orange bumper.
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They hit that head on earlier ..... quite hard! The trouble is they cannot see it from the bridge.
 
VicS said:
It seems to be out of service again!

was not watching so no idea why
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I was watching! It seemed to run to and fro for a bit, then have a long pause on the "near" side. As far as I could see it made about four attempts to get berthed on the "far" side on one occasion.

The webcam is now down.
 
colhel said:
We're blaming the ferry design but I wonder if the slipways aren't built to plan
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I did wonder about that the other day. I wonder if they need a big pile on the eastern side that they can lean on to get on the slipway.

VicS said:
They hit that head on earlier ..... quite hard! The trouble is they cannot see it from the bridge.
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I think they have a crew member come out on the ramp and conn it past the orange float.

JumbleDuck said:
The webcam is now down.
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Working OK from here.
 
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StormNorm said:
They've already tightened the chains, I think. There's a Local Notice to Mariners on the Cowes Harbour Commissin website about it.
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It's a significant reduction in depth - safe clearance is only 0.5m above the height of tide. http://www.cowesharbourcommission.co.uk/local_notice_to_mariners_no_11t_of_2017

That's 1.2m less than it used to be, which severely restricts access above the chain ferry for deep draught boats and will be a problem for many yachts on big tides.
If they tighten the chains much more you'll barely be able to get a dinghy over them at LW springs
 
JumbleDuck said:
I was watching! It seemed to run to and fro for a bit, then have a long pause on the "near" side. As far as I could see it made about four attempts to get berthed on the "far" side on one occasion.

The webcam is now down.
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I reckon they were afraid of another repeat of yesterday and saturday

First thing this morning they turned one of the cars that had been on board all night and headed for the east side, presumably to take that car ashore over there, but came back with it without actually attempting a landing.
Unloaded the other car on the west side but then moored off and stayed there until the ebb subsided.

I reckon there's a big "build up" of mud next to the slipway on the east side......... probably dumped there by the contractors rebuilding the slipway.

Web cam often goes off for a few minutes then comes back
 
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Webcam is working now: still two minutes fast. Floating Bridge is not moving.

I like the following helpful message:

"The webcam is of great use to the local people and tourists too who can log on and see where the ferry is before driving to board it saving lots of time that would otherwise be wasted waiting in a que"

Surely, if it was working it would be on one side or the other or in the middle of the Medina, not the Mekong Delta.

Perhaps the message should read:

"The webcam is of great use to the local people and tourists too who can log on and see where the ferry is stuck before driving to board it or going via Newtown"

Teething troubles, eh?
 
Its heading across the river now.... i guess to resume operation

One person disembarked and appears to be moving barriers. Ferry on its way back.

Now loading passengers

and cars!
 
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