AN EVENTIDE OWNER'S GROUP PUBLICATION

The Eventider's News

Issue Ten, Summer 2008.

Page 6

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This page will be a collection of snippets and information, gleaned from owners and friends, newspapers, magazines and scurrilous here-say as well no doubt, hopefully all factual, as far as can be ascertained, and maybe humorous, we all need a giggle some times! Have you found a snippet we could add?

This one is a year old, but still valid. Watch out for it on the Crouch.

Huge marine wetland starts life

The sea pours through the defence breach at Wallasea Island

A 300m section of a sea wall has been breached to begin the creation of the UK's largest man-made marine wetland.

Almost 115 hectares has been flooded at Wallasea Island, Essex, to create wetland, mudflats, saline lagoons and seven artificial islands.

The £7.5m government-funded project aims to replace bird habitats lost to development, improve flood defences, and create leisure opportunities.

Excavators were used to breach the sea wall on Tuesday to allow the sea in.

Hundreds of thousands of wetland birds rely entirely on the Essex salt marsh for their food each winter

Biodiversity Minister Barry Gardiner

Mark Dixon, who is managing the Wallasea Wetlands Creation project, said the tide spread across land that was once wheat fields and it began the slow process of creating new salt marsh and mudflats.

He said: "It's eventually going to be a new sea defence, so you're going to have brand new mudflats, brand new salt marshes and they'll absorb the tide's energy.

"You've got a big new sea wall at the back, protecting land and property, and then in front of it a series of lagoons and islands and creeks, which birds and people can enjoy."

Biodiversity Minister Barry Gardiner said: "Salt marsh is more rare than rainforest, and is important to people, particularly as a flood and storm defence, and to wildlife.

"Hundreds of thousands of wetland birds rely entirely on the Essex salt marsh for their food each winter.

"Wallasea Wetlands will be a wonderful feeding and roosting habitat for birds like oystercatchers, avocets and little terns, which have been gradually displaced from the area during the last 50 years, as well as creating a haven for other rare wildlife."

It is hoped the wetland will also provide for better fish nurseries.

John Hesp, of Wallasea Farms, said the flooding would help improve the area's flood defences.

He said: "What we're doing here by setting the seawalls back - we call the process managed re-alignment, is that the existing seawalls were in such poor condition, they were simply not sustainable in their present location.

"We've built a new seawall landward and now that we've breached, we've breached at the points where we have the maximum pressure on the estuary.

"So, we've relieved that pressure, enabled the estuary to breathe and we've created more space for water."

I was browsing an old copy of PBO today and found this, could not resist it!

I think Mike Petyon would not mind!

Entrance to Bassin de l’Ouest

From various internet searches and discussion forums the commodore of Bradwell Cruising Club have gleamed the following:

The lock gates were broken last December and are going to be fixed some time.
There is a sill fitted to maintain the water level in the marina but the retained water level is about 2 - 3 metres lower than when the lock gates were in use.

There are 2 extra bridge opening + & - 3 hours HW but check the sill height. The first and last will be suitable for smaller boats. Large illuminated depth gauge on both sides.

The normal visitors pontoon has around 1m of depth next to it but this increase as you raft out. The bottom is soft mud.

There are plans to fit a new pontoon further out to give 2 - 3 metre of water for the summer. Do not know if this will be in place for end of May.

Please make you own check for updated information on entrance to Calais. Above is for information only and no responsibility can be taken by the RNSA or it author for how correct, complete the data is.

This is useful info.....

CROSSING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL / DOVER STRAIT

• A Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) is in use to help ferries safely cross the Dover TSS. It is not a formal Separation Scheme and is not shown on official charts, but small craft should be aware of its existence. Most cross-Channel ferries can be expected to be using the VSS but high speed ferries are not included in the scheme. The VSS is bounded by the following points:

1) 51°05’·35N 01°28’·00E

2) 51°00’·10N 01°40’·00E

3) 50°59’·30N 01°39’·10E

4) 51°04’·70N 01°26’·80E

A separation line extends from a point midway between points 2 and 3 above to 1M W of CA6 buoy. Parallel to and 1·5M to the NE of this zone a further separation line extends from 51°06’·40N 01°29’·90E to 51°01’·20N 01°41’·60E. Calais to Dover ferries keep to the W of this line; ferries to and from Dover and Dunkerque keep to the E.

Seago Lifejacket Recall.

found by John Stevens.

Seago Yachting has released a statement saying that some Seago 150 and 175 Newton Lifejackets, including Junior Lifejackets, may have a defect which could result in serious injury.

The lifejackets are marked with a manufacture date in roman numerals, for instance the last quarter of 2005 is shown IV/05. The quarters concerned are:

IV/05
I/06
II/06
III/06
IV/06
I/07

If you own a Seago 150 or 175 Newton Lifejackets, including Junior Lifejackets, then please check the manufacture date. The lifejackets in question were sold in chandlery shops, marine retail outlets & marine web sites throughout the United Kingdom.

If you have an affected lifejacket then PLEASE STOP USING IT IMMEDIATELY. Please remove the gas cylinder manually from the inflation system and return the lifejacket only to Seago Yachting Ltd, Mullany Business Park, Golden Cross, Hailsham, East Sussex, BN27 3RP for testing, along with your full contact details. Any faulty jackets will be replaced. Jackets which are tested and found not to be faulty will be returned.

If you have any queries then please do not hesitate to contact Seago Yachting Ltd on 01825 873632.

Practical Boat Owner, 28 May 2008

Thanks again to John Stevens for spotting this. Be aware of the radio mike at all times....

Helicopter scrambled to stop ch16 broadcast

A helicopter had to be scrambled to stop a yacht in the English Channel from broadcasting on VHF Channel 16 on Sunday.

The yacht was unknowingly broadcasting continuously on VHF Channel 16, effectively jamming all emergency communications in mid Channel and affecting the ability of Portland Coastguard, Brixham Coastguard, Solent Coastguard, CROSS Jobourg (France) and Guernsey Coastguard to handle emergency traffic.

The approximate position of the yacht was found from Direction Finding bearings from both sides of the Channel. After an hour of jamming and attempts to contact the vessel, Portland Coastguard scrambled the Coastguard Helicopter 106 to find the yacht using its on-board direction finding equipment. The helicopter circled the yacht, attracted the skipper's attention and eventually was able to make contact to stop him broadcasting on Channel 16.

Nic Lonsdale, Watch Officer at Portland Coastguard said "It is not only irritating to have the Maritime Distress Channel blocked, by what the yacht crew thought was a private conversation, but a danger to all other vessels. Eventually, we were forced to deploy a helicopter to silence the transmissions. Shortly afterwards a different vessel broadcast a Mayday, which would not have been heard had the yacht still been transmitting. All users are urged to be aware of this increasingly common problem. If you cannot hear any radio traffic in a busy area it is probably because you are continuously transmitting."

Details of the incident have been passed to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Enforcement Branch.

Yachting Monthly, 1 July 2008

Lifeboats handed over to Police
Dorset Police has leased two lifeboats from the RNLI to patrol Dorset's coast and rivers. The arrangement is a first for both organisations, and will provide the police with reliable boats maintained by RNLI specialist staff.

The two Atlantic class RIBs have been adapted to meet the strict specifications required for police vessels. They will be based at Poole and Portland, and will be used to patrol 89 miles of coastline between Christchurch Harbour and Lyme Regis.

Inspector Alan Ewart, of Dorset Police Marine Section, said, "The improved reliability provided by the new boats means that the marine community of Dorset will benefit from an improved police presence on the water."

Motor Boats Monthly, 22 September 2008

Another snippet found by J.S. Of interest to all ex marine police as well! Cheers John