The Marina - not all about housing . . .

Seemingly a long way from home the "Hebridean Explorer" has found it worthwhile to use Brighton Boatyard for some winter maintenance.

Locking through to the inner harbour 

Passing under the raised roadway, workboat assisted.

Entering the 60 tonne boat-lift

Boat-lift operator on station

Starting the lift

Moving off

Rampion wind farm progress

From Hove seafront

Installation of the 116 monopole foundations was completed last November. On a clear day the northernmost ones can be seen with the naked eye. Sixty interconnecting cables were also laid, followed in December by two 16km long export cables. Installation of the remaining 62 cables and the turbines is planned to start this spring.

Sea walls

View east from West Pier

This postcard from  the early 20thC shows, in the bottom LH corner, an exposed sea-wall on the east of the West Pier. It is of similar design to that on the west side of the pier,  a gap having been left between them to accommodate the already existing Pier. The build-up of shingle has presumably rendered them redundant, which is a good thing inasmuch as the i360 is now occupying the self-same gap.

See also:- Brighton Beach

The storm hits Brighton seafront.

Brighton Lifeboat

Brighton Lifeboat crew in all the latest kit 1913. 
Photo: Royal Pavilion and Museums. Brighton.

The Brighton lifeboat station, was established in 1824 in a cave in the cliff near the then new Chain Pier. It is said to be the first in England. no doubt it had to vacate this site with the start of the construction of the great Madeira sea-wall in 1830. Lifeboats then continued to operate from a variety of locations along the seafront ending up at arch no.111 now occupied by Brighton Sailing Club. A now unreadable plaque on the wall between arches 109 & 110 records the Robert Raikes, RNLI lifeboat of 1867 partly financed by pennies collected by Brighton Sunday School children. This arch was vacated in 1932 and for a number of years Brighton was covered by the offshore boats at Shoreham & Newhaven.

In 1965 an RNLI inflatable returned to a station just to the east of the Palace Pier and was removed to a pontoon in the partly-completed Marina in 1976.

A Ripping Yarn

From the Brighton, Hove & South Sussex Gazette for 26th December 1914.

Summer jumpers

The Rampion Wind Farm - update

The proposals (see previous post) for a wind farm off Brighton by the energy company E.ON are entering the end game. The public consultations, by means of a series of exhibitions ended on the 6th May 2012. They displayed the following visualisations of the wind farm as viewed from the seafront & Devil's Dyke:-

195, 3.6MW turbines

100, 7MW turbines

100, 7MW turbines

Click on the images to view full screen and the turbine arrays become visible. They can hardly be described as obtrusive or offensive to the eye. The effect will be more subtle. Where once there was nothing between here and France there will now be the hint of clutter, a loss of 'wildness'. A part of the English Channel will have been colonised to serve our energy needs. This may be a small sacrifice that has to be accepted, so long as we can be sure that wind power is an essential element of the plans for energy security & diversity. At least offshore arrays seem infinitely preferable to the equivalent on land.

Mojave desert - forest of wind turbines on skyline

The proposal has now moved to a formal statutory consultation including statutory bodies and publicising the application. The city council will submit a Local Impact Report, giving details of the likely impact of the proposed development on the authority’s area. E.ON will then refine its application, for submission  in August to the Government's Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) for development consent. The IPC decision is expected in Autumn 2013.

Down with seafront & other signs!

The Western Esplanade, Hove has its own special appeal to many residents which is entirely different from the razzmatazz of Brighton's lower promenade. Its informal atmosphere with fewer distractions from the sea, shingle and sky provides an ideal environment on a fine day for a leisurely stroll or jog.

Anticipatory pleasure was also provided by the approach to the seafront walk from Kingsway where on several of the paths, the sea, horizon, and sky is framed by tamarisk with the simple picture often completed by a passing boat. That was how it use to be before, a few years ago, the Council stuck up this obtrusive sign, blotting out a big chunk of the view.

Of course one NEVER sees anyone reading the sign, which is no surprise, since the amount of useful information provided is negligible. Most of it is in the tone of a bossy nanny. "Do not jump. Do not dive". The sea can be rough, the beach can be steep, don't go into deep water if you can't swim. - And does anyone really not know to dial 999 in an emergency, or to stay out of the sun if they don't want to get sunburned?

The Council has recently gone to some efforts to reduce the number of estate agents' signs in sensitive areas producing a vast improvement in the appearance of some historic neighbourhoods. It should also look to put its own house in order. There is surely a vast excess of unnecessary visual clutter in our urban environment, including traffic signs, that nobody takes any notice of whatsoever. I sometime think it should all be swept away so that we can start again with the really essential ones which, because of the lack of visual competition, would be all the more effective.

Autumn sunshine

See also:

Summer cloud

Winter sunshine

The Rampion Wind Farm

The energy firm E.ON is moving to the next stage of its planned 665MW Rampion wind farm in what has been designated as Zone 6, a 27 hectare area of sea, 13km off the Sussex coast. 

They have previously applied for permission to put a 100m mast on the proposed Rampion site and are on the verge of carrying out detailed environmental studies. The met mast will collect wind speed data and measure wave heights and sea currents. The data will then help E.ON to design the best possible layout for the location. Formal consultation with local communities will begin later this year but on Wednesday, 28th Sept. E.ON plans to have a public information stall at the Farmers' Market event in Churchill Square. The planning application is expected to be submitted in January 2012.

Rampion, which was named after the County flower of Sussex by students at Davison High School in Worthing, has the potential to supply around 430,0001 homes with renewable electricity. Underwater cables will bring the electricity ashore at Shoreham. 

If built, the turbines should be just visible on a good day from the promenade and clearly visible from the hilly areas of Brighton.

View of the Marina

If you choose your viewpoint carefully you can make the Marina look almost attractive . . . . 

See also: The Marina from Roedean

Summer cloud

See also: Winter sunshine.

Brighton Beach in the 19th century

This postcard of Brighton Beach between the Piers shows the typical Brighton 'hogboats' with all sails set. These seem to have favoured yawl rig and had transoms designed to deflect following waves when running ashore. They were beamy fishing boats which turned to providing joy-rides for holiday makers during the summer, the most famous being the "Skylark". Motor driven versions, and small rowed versions like the one seen in the middle distance, were still operating up to the mid-20th century. In the latter case the boat was propelled by a single fisherman rowing from the forward thwart while up to 4 passengers sat in the stern. If there was anything of a swell running it took quite a mixture of skill and luck to disembark them in a reasonably dry condition.

Long-lost sea-wall

This postcard from 1905 shows the eastern end of the sea-wall looking down from the West Pier. The wall is still there but has been buried for at least 70 years by the build-up of the shingle beach. This build-up followed the programme of sea-defence improvement in the late 19th century, particularly the construction of large concrete groynes.

On the sea-front near the right of the picture can be seen the sadly-missed late-Georgian Bedford Hotel; destroyed by fire in 1964 and replaced by a monstrous tower block.

Brief Encounter

One early evening many years ago I was floating in a small wooden canoe a few hundred yards off Brighton beach. It was fairly calm. I suddenly became aware of a disturbance in the water to one side and then to the other. Grey humps were briefly breaking surface 10 or so yards away and I realised I was in the middle of a pod of dolphins. I had just had time to feel a fleeting concern that I might be tipped over when one surfaced close alongside.  As it did so it rolled slightly and a knowing mammalian eye seemed to look straight at me. For barely a second we had eye contact and then it was gone, as were its companions. A moment to treasure.