Watchet Marina Silt

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beccaboo

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Following a good period of cutting, sadly the dredger is currently on the hard for impeller repairs and subsequently the number of drying berths (onto very soft silt) is more than I would have hoped. To ensure maneuverability, vessels drawing more than 1.75m are temporarily advised to enter the basin +/-1 hour either side of HW. For further information contact me at the marina. Iain, Marina Manager/Yacht Becca Boo
 
Hi Iain

Thanks for the informative post, we can't wait to re-visit Watchet in our, new to us, Sealine F36
We often visited in our previous boats, even got towed in by the RNLI once, so keen were we to visit!
We do have to say afloat however



Nice to see someone else who spells Iain correctly!!

Cheers

Iain
 
Through-hulls bring cooling water to engine, and drains for sinks and loos. All could be blocked as mud is squished into the hole. Also on outdrives, blockage of cooling pathways. Possibly ditto for some cutless bearings on shafts.
 
Re: Watchet Marina Silt see

beccaboo said:
Following a good period of cutting, sadly the dredger is currently on the hard for impeller repairs and subsequently the number of drying berths (onto very soft silt) is more than I would have hoped. To ensure maneuverability, vessels drawing more than 1.75m are temporarily advised to enter the basin +/-1 hour either side of HW. For further information contact me at the marina. Iain, Marina Manager/Yacht Becca Boo
Click to expand...
 
sarabande said:
Through-hulls bring cooling water to engine, and drains for sinks and loos. All could be blocked as mud is squished into the hole. Also on outdrives, blockage of cooling pathways. Possibly ditto for some cutless bearings on shafts.
Click to expand...

If its any help to you, for many years I had a mooring that dried to soft mud so the mud level wasnt that far below the water line. Not a moments problem with sea cocks or shafts of engine inlets.

Problem is of course that if shallow draught mobos go for the few deep draught moorings they dont really need, where do the boats that really need deep draught for deep keels go?
 
Just stayed there for three days. Fin keeler 5'6" draught. There were quite a few visitors' berths on B pontoon that didn't dry. Work on the dredger was apace. Mud was quite insubstantial, more of an ooze. Would have been quite happy to sit in it. Not as thick as home mooring.
 
We were there two months ago in Sea Opal Settled into 18" mud and 18" water. Absolutly fine and what a lovely place to visit. High on our list for a return.
 
Further to the recent posts an update from Watchet. The parts arrived from the States in late November and the re-built impeller unit returned to Watchet just before Christmas. Our engineers are now working flat out to match the old with the new and we're expecting re-commence dredging by early February at the latest. We will then dredge, subject to the weather, at least 5 days a week to re-instate initially our B/C basin back to working depth. Once this is done the team will then continue around the marina in general. I would like to apologise for the inconvenience and please rest assured we are doing everything possible to rectify the situation. Iain Lambert, Manager, Watchet Harbour Marina
 
I have to say that whilst the staff of Watchet Marina are doing their best the the current dredger is inefficent unreliable and very wasteful in fuel.

Watchet needs a 'capital' dredge, that means getting the mud out in buckets not in suspension.
Pumping suspended solids is hugely inefficient and expensive hydraulic motors and pipes immersed in muddy salt water is always going to lead to unreliability.

Time to get old fashioned buckets to dredge in bulk maybe?
 
You're quite right when you say Watchet needs a capital dredge and I'm currently exploring and costing the various options available. Meanwhile, our dredger is a cutter-suck unit and not a water injection system which means the dredged material is physically "blown" out of the marina and not just put into suspension. Following a protracted re-fit of the dredger, we're now doing our utmost to ensure as much of the marina is at impounded depth in time for the season. Kind regards, Iain Lambert. Manager, Watchet Marina
 
Sadly as others have pointed out the construction of the present harbour diverted that handy stream so it avoids both outer harbour and the marina rather than scour out mud. I know some of the history and the contorted arguments of the commercial fishermen but it has left a nightmare not of the present marinas making. Personally our craft sits in mud daily and I would be just as happy without the sill and its issues.
 
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