Can you help Adam to retrieve life rings from Sun Pier?

Dear River users, we have several life rings tangled up under Sun Pier which need retrieving. Owing to limited budgets and lack of a boat, we’re unable to get to them and we’re hoping someone might be able to help please?

The life rings cost us £50 a time, every time some unhelpful person decides to throw them over the side.

If anyone can get them, please let me know (adam.taylor@medway.gov.uk) and I can arrange for them to be collected from wherever you are.

Many thanks Adam

MBA Business Meeting, Tues 28 Sept, Zoom

Please ensure your club or organisation is represented at our business meeting on Tuesday at 7pm. If you haven’t received an email with the Zoom link and the agenda and minutes from our June meeting, please contact us on info@msba.org.uk

Include in our meeting will be a presentation on Medway’s bid for City of Culture 2025.

Peel Ports dealing with abandoned vessels

Whitstable Marine on behalf of Peel Ports lifted this sunken vessel yesterday at Rochester Pier. The wreck was moved to the Strood side of the river where it will be broken up and disposed of. If you have any information about the boat or its owner please contact adam.taylor@medway.gov.uk

Furthermore the obstruction near Sun Pier (at only 0.7m depth) has now been marked with an orange pellet buoy which says “wreck.”

We are pleased to see Peel Ports and Medway Council acting together to clear such abandoned boats which are an increasing nuisance on our river.

Rochester Pier still closed but there’s hope

Adam Taylor of Medway Council advises that Rochester Pier remains closed to all river users, please do not attempt access via the brow (walkway between the pontoon and main pier).

Medway Council are working hard to secure resources to repair the pier and bring it back into full use, more updates will follow.

The MSBA understands that the pontoon is safe to moor on and this is allowed for short stays (no overnight mooring) but you must not attempt to go ashore via the brow.

Fingers crossed for funding!

Sun Pier closed for Festival 21-23 May 2021

Adam Taylor of Medway Council has asked us to notify local boaters that Sun Pier will be closed to visiting vessels while the Thames Sailing Barge Edith May is moored there for three days as part of the Ebb & Flow Festival

At the same time (22 May – 13 June) boaters with artistic leanings may also be interested in the Estuary Festival involving numerous events in North Kent and Essex.

New signage for PWCs

This is a sample of one of the new signs designed in partnership with the Personal Watercraft Partnership (PWP) and local authorities. The signs will be set up at known launching sites for jet skis (PWCs). Most PWC users are responsible boaters but an irresponsible minority spoil it for everyone else and will be liable to prosecution. Peel Ports will increase the number of patrols using a harbour launch or RIB, including holidays, weekends, and during heatwaves. The patrol personnel will be equipped with body cams.

Speed limits

This chart shows the zones where there are speed limits, yellow for 6 knots and red for 8 knots. The purple zone from Cuxton to Wouldham is where members of the Kent Boat and Ski club have exclusive permission to water ski.

Medway and Swale Heritage Harbours update

A joint initiative by the Maritime Heritage Trust (MHT) and National Historic Ships (NHS) Shipshape Network, with strong support from European Maritime Heritage (EMH), proposes that historic ports and harbours in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland become officially recognised as ‘Heritage Harbours’. The developing Heritage Harbours recognise the great value in sensitively developing their, often superb, historic buildings; waste land; mooring; and maintenance facilities for both local and visiting historic vessels and are identified within the NHS Shipshape Network regions.

MEDWAY HH1 – The proposal to designate Medway as the first British heritage harbour was presented to a meeting, of the local maritime heritage community and associated stakeholders at the Sun Pier House tea rooms on 10 December 2018. The meeting, at Sun Pier House, Chatham, was well attended by some forty enthusiastic representatives from the local historic vessels; the Medway Council; MHT Trustees; the Thames Sailing Barge community and representatives from Faversham. Medway Council have appointed a senior officer to represent the council on the Medway HH
forum group. We are in discussions with the directors of Sail Training International, with a view to Medway being a Tall Ships race port in 2025. This will be the main agenda item at the next Medway Heritage group meeting. The ‘Boat Shed’ and other historic buildings and wharves, which form part of the historic Sheerness naval dockyard, may lead to Sheerness becoming an integral part of Medway Heritage Harbour.

FAVERSHAM & OARE HH2 – Faversham & Oare Creeks Heritage (FOHHG)
have met regularly since early 2019 at Faversham Guildhall. Aims and objectives have been developed and considerable work in optimising balanced development and improvement of the creeks has already been carried out by group members. An exciting feature is that Kent County Council has continued the design work for the replacement Faversham upper creek bridge through the lockdown.