Client: RNLI
Contractor: MMC Diving Services
Duration: 3 days
Date posted: 09-04-2014
Island divers MMC have just completed emergency works on the Isle of Wight RNLI lifeboat station in Bembridge.
The vessel was struggling to launch on the very low water spring tides after recent storms shifted large rocks along the seabed inline with the slipway causing restrictions.
MMC Diving Services worked with Bam Nuttall in 2011 in the construction of the new Bembridge lifeboat station. With the violent storms the south of England has suffered recently, large boulders from the nearby ledge have been transported along the seabed like marbles, causing obstructions directly in line with the launch area.
Coxswain Steve Simmonds said "This has made the launches especially hard on low water Spring tides. We are having to lower the vessel half way down the ramp prior to releasing. We can't take any chances damaging her bow again"
Works started with an area in front of the slipway being marked out and a site survey was conducted. We pulled in a barge to remove the larger boulders, then placed steel crates on the seabed which our divers filled with the remainder of the rocks.
