Watchet Marina Update...

There is also another very simple reason ( and in fact many people ask why bother with a gate at all). If there are no stop logs the pontoons all sit at crazy angles and literally pull themselves apart. Also many boats sit very badly. The mud slowly flows towards the deepest areas, increasing the problems mentioned above.
 
pondfish said:
watchet what is the point of the stop logs if they don't keep the marina full of water,
surly if the logs were taken out or not even put in the first place a large amount of silt that comes in with the tide water would go out with the tide water
where as now with the logs in place the tide leaves at a slower rate giving more time for the silt to deposit,.
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bitbaltic said:
Silt only falls out from suspension in the water column when the water is almost still. If the water is moving at any rate whatever, the silt remains in the water. So it's not about the rates at which water moves in and out, it's about the time the water column is stationary.

Watchet's problem is that the marina's design has (in whatever way) caused the water once impounded (by either stop logs or the gate) to be too stationary for too long. This gives the opportunity for silt to fall out of the water and fill the marina and this is what has happened.

The fact that silt can only be deposited when the water flow is very small,

It is also the reason why watchet cannot now be dredged by using tidal forces/flow through the gate.
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That is the reason I asked the question with the logs in place during the gate problem it has caused even more silt to deposit so what was the point of the stop logs.
 
watchet said:
There is also another very simple reason ( and in fact many people ask why bother with a gate at all). If there are no stop logs the pontoons all sit at crazy angles and literally pull themselves apart. Also many boats sit very badly. The mud slowly flows towards the deepest areas, increasing the problems mentioned above.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply watchet,
I fully understand why the gate is there that's what makes it a marina with out it its just a harbour,
As I stated in my first post sorry if its a numpy question but I would have thought the pilings and ground chains would have kept the pontoons in place but seems not by your reply thanks again
 
No it was a very valid question. The other common one is why not drain the marina and bulldoze it all out. Aside from massive environmental issues, what do you do with all the boats. And the pontoons pull themselves apart as it all starts to 'flow'.
 
watchet said:
No it was a very valid question. The other common one is why not drain the marina and bulldoze it all out. Aside from massive environmental issues ...
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What environmental issues? If the marina wasn't there it would all have gone out to sea anyway, and the amount of silt in a small place like Watchet is trivial compared to the amount of silt in the Bristol Channel.
 
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watchet said:
Aside from massive environmental issues, what do you do with all the boats.
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Both of those problems faced Porthcawl. a) you landfill it at extreme cost and b) you move them elsewhere at extreme cost.

Of course Porthcawl had huge funding. But the point is that the challenge facing Watchet is not one of environmental concerns or one of boat storage, it os one of getting hold of very very very large amounts of money.
 
JumbleDuck said:
watchet said:
No it was a very valid question. The other common one is why not drain the marina and bulldoze it all out. Aside from massive environmental issues .../QUOTE]

What environmental issues? If the marina wasn't there it would all have gone out to sea anyway, and the amount of silt in a small place like Watchet is trivial compared to the amount of silt in the Bristol Channel.
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It's not the silt itself, it's the adsorbed/connate chemicals/pollution. Silt takes a long time to deposit and this means it has the opportunity to mop up lots and lots of nasties as it does, especially being from an area of boats and associated works, with surface runoff from the town bringing more pollutants to the party. Given what's going up and down the Bristol channel that may or may not be something to worry much about in the real world, but I can imagine lots of huffing and puffing in the world of officialdom if you were to propose dumping the lot over the sea wall all at once.
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bitbaltic said:
JumbleDuck said:
It's not the silt itself, it's the adsorbed/connate chemicals/pollution. Silt takes a long time to deposit and this means it has the opportunity to mop up lots and lots of nasties as it does, especially being from an area of boats and associated works, with surface runoff from the town bringing more pollutants to the party. Given what's going up and down the Bristol channel that may or may not be something to worry much about in the real world, but I can imagine lots of huffing and puffing in the world of officialdom if you were to propose dumping the lot over the sea wall all at once.
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It reminds me of the chap in Scarborourgh (I think) who was threatened with prosecution by his local council if he returned to the beach sand which had blown into his seafront garden.
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PCUK said:
Move the boats and pontoons to one side, then clear that area, then move them all over to the cleared area and repeat the process - simples!
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I don't think it's "simples", but that would seem to be roughly what Watchet have planned. To some degree anyway. Pontoon D is not there, so that area can be dredged fairly easily and then everything shuffled along a bit. And so on.

If the marina was just occupied by reasonably healthy boats in the 20 to 40 feet range the task would be easier. But rearranging a WW2 MTB and several very large crumbling hulks is not the work of a moment.
 
Indeed the boats are moved for dredging and for the most part always have been.
However moving them in line with a plan to bulldoze won't work.
Firstly the mud moves considerably when there's no water there. Therefore the boats (and pontoons without a direct attachment to a pile) move also, and has been noted there are some large vessels in the marina.
Secondly at some point you would have to move the vessels back to an area that had just been dug out immediately prior, and then drain the marina again to bulldoze the second half. Therefore the boats would be sat in either very shallow mud or worse still on the rock below. Obviously a big no-no. Coffer dams could be an option, but extremely expensive.
Therefore you either have to empty the marina first in order to bulldoze - and as said the further issue comes from dumping very large amounts of pure mud 'en masse'. There is no massive deal pumping mud as a fluid, except from a bureaucratic/ political point of view.
Or you keep the water in and dredge in one of the conventional manners.
 
An on a bright note, the gate went in yesterday. The new hydraulics are due to be commissioned over the next day or so.
 
Hi Watchet

If all goes to plan are you able to say what sort of depths are we to expect in the coming days? ie clearance inside when the gate opens and maintained depth on the hammerhead?

Thanks
 
After a frustrating few days with contractors forgetting to bring parts and also bringing incorrectly sized parts ( involving machining at 6am this morning!) the gate is in and connected to a new hydraulic ram.

Electrical commissioning is now underway but likely to take a few days as its all completely new. The marina is open again but we are considering continuing to use the stop logs/ fixed sill for a few more days whilst they finish and test/ tweak. Once the electrical are finished the gate will run on automatic control.
Further updates are available from the marina office on 01984 631264
 
watchet said:
After a frustrating few days with contractors forgetting to bring parts and also bringing incorrectly sized parts ( involving machining at 6am this morning!) the gate is in and connected to a new hydraulic ram.

Electrical commissioning is now underway but likely to take a few days as its all completely new. The marina is open again but we are considering continuing to use the stop logs/ fixed sill for a few more days whilst they finish and test/ tweak. Once the electrical are finished the gate will run on automatic control.
Further updates are available from the marina office on 01984 631264
Click to expand...

Great news - we'll be across tomorrow!
 
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