New Club Pontoon - Final Stage

Published 19:46 on 27 Feb 2025

It took 330 days from conception to completion, but its finished.  A sight to behold and we must thank the following:  Gary Owens and Dave Summerhayes for leading the project, Mike Jones, Chris Olding, Simon Kershaw, Phil Brammer, David Lees, Steve Pitman, Nick Munson, Jamie Lawrence, Simon Ruddick, Mike Street, Joe Collins, Andrew Smith, Murray Fraser, Russell King, John Morrison, James Broderick, Graeme Matthews, Rodger Trim, Jon Stow, Mike Jury, Matt Webb, Charles Fielder, David Taylor, Ray Capp, Neil Prince, David Sharman, Paul Wilson, Euan McNair, Tim Day, Helen Webb, Paul Browning and Brian Twigg for his work on the MMO and Chris Dixon for the drawings, all seven!

The final stage was a sight to behold. The Quest Marine Contractors barge with two accompanying push tugs arrived on a bright sunny  Thursday morning and proceeded to position themselves.  It was enormous stretching 2/3rd of the way across the harbour leaving room for the RNLI to get out.  A rather shocked Gary mentioned that he was very pleased the Harbour Master was the other side of the bridge at the time.  

The first task was to lift three of the old piles to enable the barge to get close up to the landing steps.  This was made more tricky by an ebbing stream and a c.10 knot wind from the north east.  The water was pouring from inside the piles as they were lifted; they were perforated, their time was more than up!

Next the tugs had to manoeuvre the barge to align it with the first pile and first Cubie section to go in adjacent to the steps.  This was critical as it dictated all subsequent pile positioning.  The barge crane used a six ton hydraulic hammer to drive the piles and this was followed by the pile being cut to height with an oxyacetylene torch from a cage held by the crane.

There followed the positioning of all the piles that went out from the landing steps with club volunteers floating sections of Cubies into place. By nightfall this section was completed.

The next morning more Cubie sections were floated and old piles removed and new ones together and inserted to construct the east/west section. 

By midday Quest had departed, a good job done to time. Inserts were installed to ensure the Cubies held together followed by bolted on mooring cleats. Finally a safety barrier at the bottom of the landing was expertly installed by the landing by Pontoon Works who also supplied and advised on the Cubies.  And the final touch; white cones will be placed on top of the piles. 

Further work needs to be done to attach mooring rings and cleats and add numbers to each mooring position.  Next work commences on the new buoys for our fore and aft moorings to further improve the security with the buoys being aligned east/west to enable easier access for mooring holders.

Last updated 10:54 on 6 March 2025