Medway Floods

[boatone]

Seems that the Medway area including Yalding and Maidstone have been considerably more affected by the flooding then the non tidal Thames areas this time around.
Caravan parks at Yalding evacuated by coastguard and this pic was tweeted this morning of one of the bridges in Maidstone town centre.

 

[byron]

Probably Old Gits fault. I bet he left his garden tap running.

 

[lynall]

Come on keep up at the back!
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?382299-Non-tidal-river-medway-in-flood

 

[oldgit]

There is normally about 13ft of clearance under that centre arch.
We can just get my flybridge underneath.
The EA water gauges are all showing levels equal to the record set around 2008.
Has gone down quite a bit since yesterday.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/136485.aspx
Corse the good news is that it will have cleared a great deal of " debris" of all types out of the river, especially in the town centre.
It has been a least 20 years or so that this amount of water has been seen in the town

 

[Murv]

Another view of the stricken cruiser, let's hope they can save her

 

[oldgit]

That looks like the footbridge at Tovil.?
Suspect Moonraker may have been moored up at Barming.
Looking at it with no "tide mark" with luck the hull is not breached and the earth on top of the concrete wall may have prevented serious damage to any stern gear ?
If the boat is where I think it is,on the old paper mill wharf, it should not be to difficult to get a mobile heavy lift crane in there and get the old girl onto a trailer.
If hull is OK,cheaper to lift boat ,pop it back into water,make fast and wait till level drops to get her under footbridge and then tow to yard below Allington lock capable of lifting out to check everything over.
My primary concern would be as the water level drops she slides into the water and does real damage to props and rudder stocks.

 

[Murv]

Hi Fred, the cruiser is Moonshadow, that is Tovil bridge. She was moored just upstream of the bridge, one of the props is holding her fast to the bank. The owner is trying to find a heavy crane to lift her free.
Once she's back in, she's apparently going to Cuxton for repair.
Hopefully the damage is largely cosmetic, but she's taken a pounding from the bridge. One of the drives is fine, the other is unknown but the hull is resting on a life ring post so hopefully it's providing enough support to prevent damage.

 

[lynall]

If you look at what she was moored to you wont be that surprised that she broke free, poles not long enough
Theres another boat sat on the top of the bank by the same mooring and another sank in town centre, you have all probably seen it, the sunfury with the red canopy, looked a tidy boat, could be wrong but looked to me like lines to tight so she sank herself.
Murv I think its actually sitting on the top rings/handrails of the galvanised ladder.

 

[lynall]

There is normally about 13ft of clearance under that centre arch.
We can just get my flybridge underneath.
The EA water gauges are all showing levels equal to the record set around 2008.
Has gone down quite a bit since yesterday.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/136485.aspx
Corse the good news is that it will have cleared a great deal of " debris" of all types out of the river, especially in the town centre.
It has been a least 20 years or so that this amount of water has been seen in the town

I checked the EA gauges every day and I dont think they are that accurate, I was out every day and spoke to people at every bridge/crossing and everyone said without fail the same thing, they have not seen it this high since the one in 2000.
The pic in the post is either when the water was on the way up or down as it was higher when i looked.
Even spoke to two different marina owners who also said the same thing.
Also spoke to some of the floating house owners at Little Venice and they said the houses were designed to go up 10 feet and they were at the top of their posts, they all seemed to think the Leigh barrier was the reason why the levels were so high.

 

[oldgit]

" the sunfury with the red canopy, looked a tidy boat, "

Was it the 10M (ish)sports boat moored in the town centre for most of the summer. Cannot remember ever seeing anyone around or onboard and was getting more dilapidated as time went along. Looked a really nice boat and how anybody could leave a nice boat like that to the tender mercies of Maidstone is a mystery, amazed that nobody had let it go or vandalized it.

 

[sailorman]

One has to ask, WHY when flooding is forecast, WHY were the boats not moved to the tidal Medway where they would be safer. The owners have a duty of care that certainly wasnt taken.
We had the East Coast surge 3 weeks ago & i went down to my boat, even took her out of the marina onto the Orwell,where i deemed it safer to be & stopped o/b all night

 

[lynall]

Yes thats the one, i often saw a table and chairs out on the path so assumed it was being used, every few months ii would move, not much but moved, I first of all assumed they were living on it
It was on ebay for sale a few months ago for 12k iirc, looked quite nice in the pics.
Theres a few boats that moor in the centre of town, im pretty sure they are liveaboards so guess they look out for each other.
The two that were in the centre had moved down to just below the railway bridge and the one i spoke to seemed happy enough, I assumed they moved to the bridge as theres no bank to come down on?
Old ebay link http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fairline-Sunfury-MK2-cruiser-SOLD-SOLD-/251315114781

 

[lynall]

Been down in town forced missus to walk over to see the sunfury, she wasnt impressed with the walk!
There was a guy in a wetsuit he was doing an initial survey, I guess for the ins company, I saw him get the front mooring line and lift it approx 1 foot out of the water and that was all the slack it had, still attached both ends, so my guess on she sunk herself was correct.
The bigger boat up by tovil footbridge has ripped the front anchor roller of as this is what they have attached the front line to, so im not actually sure what is stopping it slipping into the water.
The lattice bridge they had the weight of the boat hanging onto carries a main gas line apparently!

 

[oldgit]

One has to ask, WHY when flooding is forecast, WHY were the boats not moved to the tidal Medway where they would be safer. The owners have a duty of care that certainly wasnt taken.

The expected winter floods that affect the upper Medway every year are usually within a range that the EA and owners of boats are prepared for. This time the sudden amount of water probably simply overwhelmed the capacity of the river and additional flood defences put in place over the years.
From memory any water within the catchment area takes around 24 hours to get to the main river.
The chances of realising something exceptional is going on and warning owners is virtually nil.
There must be 1000 boats above Allington Lock,can you imagine finding berths and then getting them all out into the tidal river via the lock and all in 2 x 4 hour tidal window....Spect you might get 50 boats out if you are lucky.
The river will always flood to some extent in winter months and although have some sympathy with householders, they were all warned and it just goes with the territory if you live near the river in that part of the world.
Some of you know where I live and at some point we are going to become a cropper but would we move ...not a chance.
You will also have noticed that all of the new domestic and commercial properties that line the river use the ground floor for car parking or similar to ensure minimal damage after inundation of flood water.

 

[lynall]

Thats true with the newish flats I was walking past yesterday all had lower floor parking and all were flooded on christmas day!

 

[lynall]

The sunfury is afloat again, listing but afloat
Been and looked at the one down wharf road and I really cant believe it hasnt actually fell into the river as only about 20 percent of the boat is on dry land, the rest is hanging over the river.

 

[lynall]

The red Sunfury in Maidstone has sunk again!