CYC Pontoon
What on earth is going on? Here part of Kinnell's mahogany rubbing strake has been smashed to pieces:
Dazzle is a 28ft boat which has been allocated to the berth formerly occupied by Kirsten. 22ft:
Dazzle barely fits into her berth. Kinnell's owner has been seriously ill and may be unaware of the damage done to his boat since the arrival of Dazzle.
The way things were: Kinnell and Kirsten, third and fourth from bottom on the left side. Then a vacant slot - Lucky Girl off sailing- then Dark Horse.
Dark Horse as seen from my boat: note the clearances fore and aft, port and starboard. this is a properly set out berth.
I took these photos in the first week of October 2008. On that day Ken Raven showed me the plight of his new neighbour arrived into the former Magic Dragon slot. This chap has a pontoon link line rubbing up against his gelcoat amidships. This is the end berth as you walk out on left side of A pontoon. The berth is under size given the dimensions of the boat. The chances are that the link line will damage the gelcoat in the area of contact and that water will enter the glassfibre.
Last year Chris Debono, Keith Venables and Howard Attwood each suffered serious damage to their boats as a result of the new policy of 'short berthing' on the pontoons. Having repaired the structural damage to the oak frame on Lady Rose Chris found himself fighting to prevent his repair being smashed in thirty knots of wind on his very first weekend afloat after last winter layover. I have personally surveyed a slot on B pontoon which is allocated to a Centaur, 26ft LOA. The length of the berth was 29ft. Clearances port and starboard on that berth are of the order of the diameter of a small fender.
I would suggest that the maximum LOA for a vessel on a berth should be about 8ft less than the length of the berth and beam about 4ft less than the separation of the link lines on the pontoon. We have had these clearance values on A pontoon since the move to the new site, prior to the sad resignation of the late John Palmer as Commodore.
I intend to speak on this subject at the next AGM. The chances are that there will be further cases of damage to report to that meeting.
What do you think?
Geoff