Hello,
The state of the club’s moorings have been of increasing concern over the last few years. The oldest moorings were laid over 50 years ago and it is now all too common for them to break low down around the sinker. We have taken legal advice from the RYA who confirm that there is the potential for claims against the club in the event of a poorly maintained mooring breaking and causing major damage to 3rd party property. Such a payout would not be covered by club insurance but by legal actions against club members themselves. The chances of such an occurrence may not be high, but the committee’s view is that it is not a position any of us would want to face.
In order to make the checking and repairing of moorings more efficient and professional the club has acquired a small 250kg capacity hovercraft. It is anticipated this will be used in the following ways.
1. The mooring team will survey all moorings annually. A report will be compiled on the mooring and sent to the mooring user. When repair is needed the user can elect to repair it themselves or elect to have it repaired at a cost, yet to be decided.
2. For drying out repairs/ sinker laying, the craft will be used to transport those doing the work back to the club from the mooring raft.
I have no doubt that the danger and level of difficulty in getting ashore from raft has been a major contributor to poor mooring maintenance over the years.
The club has now taken delivery of the craft and 5 committee members have had training in using and maintenance. Only those who have undergone training will be permitted to pilot the craft. Any further training will be completed in house once we have gained more experience.
There may be adjustments to policy as experience is gained.
For those interested in the detail it is British Hovercraft Company “Beast”. They are based at Sandwich and one of 2 UK hovercraft manufacturers. It was built in 2014 for Jamie Oliver for use around his property. It is powered by a Briggs and Stratton petrol 4 stroke engine and comes with its own trailer in order to move it from it’s container to the slip and vice versa.
Graham.
