Friday, April 30, 2010

Dreadful Dredging Drives Dosh To Dover

While the whole of Margate is so excited about Tracey Emin's visit that there's barely a dry gusset in the house, here in Ramsgate the news ain't so pant-wetting.

Riffling through my copy of Dredging Today this morning, I clocked an item about a former Shirley Temple Yacht Club commodore who's had to switch his allegiance to Dover because there's not enough water in our lovely Royal Harbour to float his boat:

Former RTYC commodore John Barrett says he's berthed his Beneteau First 35 race yacht Stiletto in Dover because Ramsgate’s harbour authority could not guarantee Stiletto’s keel would not get stuck in silt. Mr Barrett said: 'They are unable to accommodate Stiletto as they cannot guarantee the 2.5 metres of water that the boat safely needs.' Dover Harbour Marina has welcomed Stiletto with open arms, as they can guarantee the depth in their marina, and will undoubtedly use this problem in Ramsgate as a marketing aid.

Click on the pic to go to the full story. What with our marina losing one of its Yacht Harbour Association Gold Anchors recently, and the news last week that this year's tall ships race will be avoiding the harbour because of all the silt, it makes you wonder whether there's any reason why our beloved council's Director of Regeneration (and Acting Harbour Master) Brian White shouldn't be keelhauled!

3 comments:

Don Wood said...

Common sense would say dredge the harbor coss if yo u cant get boats in it will n ot get th e revenue sorry for typo's on different keyboard. I th ink a harbour without water is called a car park or at least dry land

Anonymous said...

My friend brought his boat down last Summer and ran aground several times whilst trying to get to his berth; a berth for which, he told me, he had to pay a lot of money. He won't be coming back.

It's my understanding that mooring fees for the harbour are very expensive compared to similar facilities elsewhere in the country. I think it's time we saw the books and found out just what they have been doing with all of that money.

In addition, I think it's high time that someone fell on their sword. I'm thoroughly fed up with hearing highly paid people telling me that they are paid so much because they have such a responsible job. If you are responsible you have to take responsibility, and if you have f*ck*d up you need to be replaced. We could have paid far less if we'd wanted to employ someone to ruin our harbour.

Anonymous said...

I park my submarine in the inner harbour regularly?