penfold
Well-known member
Presumably a contractor deepening the ferry berth getting a bit carried away?
Lochmaddy Marina unusable
- Thread starter cpedw
- Start date
RunAgroundHard
Well-known member
Also on Bluemoment. There is a current thread there on the marina woes.
chrislaw1968
Member
Sorry to hear of the damages to the marina , I was actually there for several weeks last year dredging off the end of Calmacs pier for the extension, I was drooling over the Bavaria motor Cruiser every time it went out and have since bought a cruiser yachts 330 express.
One day it would be nice to come back for a visit
.
One day it would be nice to come back for a visit
.
scottatsea
Member
Latest update regarding Lochmaddy Marina:
Further to the extensive damage caused to the marina by third party dredging operations on September 14th 2023, this is something of a long overdue update.
We are unfortunately no further forward at this stage as all parties involved have as I understand it so far denied liability. The marina remains closed as a result with limited capacity for local boats.
Today saw an opening ceremony for the pier at Lochmaddy, which is of course perfectly normal when this kind of project is completed. The fact that Lochmaddy Marina Ltd was invited, which was great- yet we feel we were subsequently ignored and actively ushered away from certain groups whilst there, is to some degree expected given the reason for the gathering, however a 5 - 10 second conversation would have been enough for us to know that certain individuals are supportive, but we are no more confident now of that than we were yesterday, perhaps less so with the apparent indifference displayed.
I also have to smile at the irony when an opening ceremony is held for a facility that is next door to a facility that was forcibly closed as a direct output from the development of said newly opened facility.
On the fateful day back in September, we know that the instructions that were agreed between the three engineering firms that were contracted to perform the pier work and they were meant to locate and remove the anchors with a local dive company - and that Lochmaddy Marina Ltd were meant to instruct - and I quote from the copy of the work instruction that I saw::
1. Dive company to survey current anchor positions, assisted by main contractor workboat. (Workboat can record position before lifting anchors)
2. Dive company to lift and reset anchors in temporary locations clear of dredge area, assisted by main contractor workboat.
3. Main contractor to sub contract and complete ploughing inner dredge area. For brevity I have excluded the rest of the items and also the named contractors but points 1 and 2 are the very crux of the matter.
To be very clear however, we had also asked for sight of an anchor reinstatement plan BEFORE any work was due to commence, as the anchors had been moved in 2022 (which was subject to many denials from the main contractor, where they were subsequently proven wrong) and we contend that the marina was structurally weakened as a result - I refer to this issue in 2022 as incident one.
So two things to note here;
1. The message re the work instruction to find and store the anchors must not have been given to the dredger - alternatively, the dredger ignored it and simply carried on. We simply don’t know, all is quiet here on the western front.
2. I never received the anchor reinstatement plan and I received a text a mere two days later from the main contractor (it takes at least 2 days to mobilise the dive company) to say that the dredge had commenced and the marina would be unaffected. We never agreed to the dredge taking place without the reinstatement plan and I note with interest that the local main contractor management team returned on a flight to Glasgow whilst this work was in progress.
One hour later the marina was destroyed - which we refer to as incident two.
We remain both very lucky and incredibly grateful that no-one was killed or maimed when the pontoon flipped over. If a boat had been tied to that part of the pontoon, I could easily argue that if they were below decks, there would be a high risk of death, severe injury and / or certainly hull loss as a minimum. If a boat flips over with someone inside it can be very confusing, water immediately rushes in and the risk of being knocked unconscious and subsequent drowning, is sadly all to real.
To summarise, the marina was catastrophically damaged when it was dragged eastwards circa 5 meters or so by a dredger that had not been instructed by us. We were aware of planned works yet had asked for additional information to be provided before the planned work commenced. That information never came and the marina was destroyed to the value of several hundred thousand pounds as a result of this piece of work for the pier project.
We remain now in the hands of the various solicitors when it would be much simpler in our view for reinstatement costs to be paid and we can all move on. The fact that a small community marina that was just starting to improve post covid years has been damaged in such a manner - with no liability admitted or offers to repair is I feel staggering and a real shame for the users of the marina and for tourism. Let’s see where this ends up and I appeal to the better nature of all involved, however, five months on, it is wearing a bit thin.
Further to the extensive damage caused to the marina by third party dredging operations on September 14th 2023, this is something of a long overdue update.
We are unfortunately no further forward at this stage as all parties involved have as I understand it so far denied liability. The marina remains closed as a result with limited capacity for local boats.
Today saw an opening ceremony for the pier at Lochmaddy, which is of course perfectly normal when this kind of project is completed. The fact that Lochmaddy Marina Ltd was invited, which was great- yet we feel we were subsequently ignored and actively ushered away from certain groups whilst there, is to some degree expected given the reason for the gathering, however a 5 - 10 second conversation would have been enough for us to know that certain individuals are supportive, but we are no more confident now of that than we were yesterday, perhaps less so with the apparent indifference displayed.
I also have to smile at the irony when an opening ceremony is held for a facility that is next door to a facility that was forcibly closed as a direct output from the development of said newly opened facility.
On the fateful day back in September, we know that the instructions that were agreed between the three engineering firms that were contracted to perform the pier work and they were meant to locate and remove the anchors with a local dive company - and that Lochmaddy Marina Ltd were meant to instruct - and I quote from the copy of the work instruction that I saw::
1. Dive company to survey current anchor positions, assisted by main contractor workboat. (Workboat can record position before lifting anchors)
2. Dive company to lift and reset anchors in temporary locations clear of dredge area, assisted by main contractor workboat.
3. Main contractor to sub contract and complete ploughing inner dredge area. For brevity I have excluded the rest of the items and also the named contractors but points 1 and 2 are the very crux of the matter.
To be very clear however, we had also asked for sight of an anchor reinstatement plan BEFORE any work was due to commence, as the anchors had been moved in 2022 (which was subject to many denials from the main contractor, where they were subsequently proven wrong) and we contend that the marina was structurally weakened as a result - I refer to this issue in 2022 as incident one.
So two things to note here;
1. The message re the work instruction to find and store the anchors must not have been given to the dredger - alternatively, the dredger ignored it and simply carried on. We simply don’t know, all is quiet here on the western front.
2. I never received the anchor reinstatement plan and I received a text a mere two days later from the main contractor (it takes at least 2 days to mobilise the dive company) to say that the dredge had commenced and the marina would be unaffected. We never agreed to the dredge taking place without the reinstatement plan and I note with interest that the local main contractor management team returned on a flight to Glasgow whilst this work was in progress.
One hour later the marina was destroyed - which we refer to as incident two.
We remain both very lucky and incredibly grateful that no-one was killed or maimed when the pontoon flipped over. If a boat had been tied to that part of the pontoon, I could easily argue that if they were below decks, there would be a high risk of death, severe injury and / or certainly hull loss as a minimum. If a boat flips over with someone inside it can be very confusing, water immediately rushes in and the risk of being knocked unconscious and subsequent drowning, is sadly all to real.
To summarise, the marina was catastrophically damaged when it was dragged eastwards circa 5 meters or so by a dredger that had not been instructed by us. We were aware of planned works yet had asked for additional information to be provided before the planned work commenced. That information never came and the marina was destroyed to the value of several hundred thousand pounds as a result of this piece of work for the pier project.
We remain now in the hands of the various solicitors when it would be much simpler in our view for reinstatement costs to be paid and we can all move on. The fact that a small community marina that was just starting to improve post covid years has been damaged in such a manner - with no liability admitted or offers to repair is I feel staggering and a real shame for the users of the marina and for tourism. Let’s see where this ends up and I appeal to the better nature of all involved, however, five months on, it is wearing a bit thin.
AngusMcDoon
Well-known member
Sad to hear that. Is it worth contacting your MSP Alasdair Allan to try to bring some pressure to bear on the guilty parties?
scottatsea
Member
Hi thanks for that and yes he is involved and has been most helpful already.
dunedin
Well-known member
Ditto. What a frustrating situation. We would have hoped that people would be more helpful in rectifying the damage caused.
Hope you get a resolution soon.
ylop
Well-known member
Unfortunately a case like this was always going to be an insurance claim and a messy battle between different insurers each trying to avoid the cost - which means lawyers, lawyering.
The only way it would get solved quicker is if your insurers paid out then recovered from the other party(ies), but they may not be willing to take that risk. Hopefully a growing loss of earnings claim this summer will focus minds to have it open for Easter 2025.
Of course the irony is that between all the entities involved there is probably the scope to have fixed this in the intervening period using their own resources for less than the legal bill will end up being - but companies don’t think like that.
Humblebee
Well-known member
A sad tale, Scott. Thanks for the update and don't give up!
Chris
Chris
mainsail1
Well-known member
If the marina has insurance....does it not cover this type of damage?? If so why not claim on your insurance and leave the arguing to others?
scottatsea
Member
Sadly how right you are. Let's see what happens, we are starting to gain some traction but it'll be slow I agree. All the best.
scottatsea
Member
Thank you! No chance of giving up and support like this and from a good few others helps to keep us focused, Many thanks.
scottatsea
Member
Not that simple in our case unfortunately. At least others are arguing our case now but we play the waiting game meanwhile. Many thanks.
wully1
Well-known member
Hopefully you can have this sorted soon.
dovekie
Active member
Just another vote of support for you. Great marina, great community, great location. Anything marina user can do? Write to MPs? Newspapers??
dovekie
Active member
"Anything A marina user can do?" ie me?
scottatsea
Member
Thank you!! Any and all of that. The more MP's aware the better. It's weird the way the press have semi picked this up - initial interest and then nothing despite being directly asked for interviews.
dovekie
Active member
Will do.
KeithMD
Well-known member
@scottatsea - so sorry to read of this assault on the well-being of Lochmaddy. I've just subscribed to the marina news letter, in the hope of better news, and being able to return by boat (sometime soon) to my homeland of North Uist.
NormanS
Well-known member
Well, we're now well into June, and the pontoons are still unusable. The notices say "No Berthing" but there are plenty of work boats tied up alongside. It just seems that they don't want yachts. Even the toilets are behind a locked gate. Surely the dredging accident didn't upset the toilets. We're anchored today at Lochmaddy, and would have liked to have had showers at the "Marina". Not impressed.