MDL Woolverstone

The access ramp to a,b,c,d pontoons was damaged with the heavy weather the other day so it has been closed, yesterday the guys put back access via the opening pontoon. That pontoon has not been used for a few years and I am guessing they are worried about lack of lighting on it at night if you went to the toilets etc.

However knowing how good the guys are at Woolverstone are I am surprised they didn't sort out an alternative berth for you to stay the night on.

Fuel pontoon is temporary until that end of the marina is redeveloped later this year, assuming the RYHC don't object to something yet again.
 
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I think Woolverstone is very HSE aware at the moment. The ferry that takes people out to the moorings is now subject to increasing regulations that frankly seem to be OTT. Next year there are more regulations on the way. However the latest rules about not staying overnight on the boats seem frankly ridiculous; either the pontoon access is safe or it isnt? However to get back to HSE, I thought that only applied to the employees?
 
iainbluk said:
However the latest rules about not staying overnight on the boats seem frankly ridiculous; either the pontoon access is safe or it isnt?
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I'd imagine that, even in their present state, the pontoons are essentially safer than a lot of east coast marina pontoons.
 
There seems to be something of a CYA (Cover Your Arse) policy at Woolverstone.

If the pontoons have been damaged too badly for pedestrian use, how come they can stop boats wandering off?
 
michael_w said:
There seems to be something of a CYA (Cover Your Arse) policy at Woolverstone.

If the pontoons have been damaged too badly for pedestrian use, how come they can stop boats wandering off?
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I stated that the ramp down to the pontoons was damaged, not the pontoons. Tony one of the dock masters worked all day Saturday reinstating the old walkway, even pressure washing it because he was worried the algae when wet would be too slippy.

As I stated in my post if people wanted to stay on board overnight and for whatever reason the pontoons needed to be closed it would not have been that hard to move the boat to the newer upriver pontoons that were not affected.

As for H&S I believe its actually because we are getting like the states with ambulance chasers constantly drumming up trade, I reckon that's the motivation behind this countries increasing CYA policy. Perhaps MDL has been burnt too many times.

As a berth holder at MDL I have found the guys there to be extremely helpful and they would only have closed them at night for a real reason. I wonder if the original poster was a berth holder or just wandering around.
 
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davidwf said:
I stated that the ramp down to the pontoons was damaged, not the pontoons. Tony one of the dock masters worked all day Saturday reinstating the old walkway, even pressure washing it because he was worried the algae when wet would be too slippy.

As I stated in my post if people wanted to stay on board overnight and for whatever reason the pontoons needed to be closed it would not have been that hard to move the boat to the newer upriver pontoons that were not affected.

As for H&S I believe its actually because we are getting like the states with ambulance chasers constantly drumming up trade, I reckon that's the motivation behind this countries increasing CYA policy. Perhaps MDL has been burnt too many times.

As a berth holder at MDL I have found the guys there to be extremely helpful and they would only have closed them at night for a real reason. I wonder if the original poster was a berth holder or just wandering around.
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As the OP I was invited to join some fellow club members aboard their boat which was moored at Woolverstone Marina having enjoyed a meal them, unfortunately we were not able to do so. Had I been wandering around I would not composed my original post.

For whatever reason moving the boat was not discussed but given it was dark, the boat did not have its usual compliment of crew available and most of us had consumed some alcohol - it might not have been a wise idea in any case.

I agree the staff there are generally a helpful bunch so it was a shame for the evening to have ended as it did.
 
Brent Goose said:
The new fuel pontoon which replaces the barge looks very nice but seems to be normal to the tidal flow which should give a few interesting moments...
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Firstly I would like to extend my profound apologies to the member(s) of the forum who had a wasted trip to the fuel berth on Sunday on the strength of my earlier post.

I now understand that the fuel facility at Woolverstone will not now be reinstated until late November, this is a real pain as fuel at Levington WITH the 60/40 split was £1.36 a litre last Saturday :(
 
Levington fuel is a rip off, even after 60/40 it's more expensive than the local BP garage. But Everything at Levington strikes me as what the Americans call nickel-and-diming, squeezing all they can from the punters. Still, nice mooring buoys which we've used a few times now :o
 
I winter at SYH - as my own marina doesn't have any hardstanding for boats of my size - and find it a painless experiance.

Apart from the price of fuel my only complaint would be that they will only energise power points for a minimum of 3 month which is inconvienant if you only want electricity for power tools for the odd day.
 
I now understand that the fuel facility at Woolverstone will not now be reinstated until late November, this is a real pain as fuel at Levington WITH the 60/40 split was £1.36 a litre last Saturday :([/QUOTE]

Is it any cheaper at Shotley?
 
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