Stayed at home this morning, loading the larger splice plates into the car and waiting for a call from the fixing supplier. Eventually rang them at just past twelve and the screws had just arrived. Drove to get the screws with the back of the car on the stops and the front wheels just touching the ground. The guy at SIG fixings looked at the car when he helped load the screws and felt around the top of the rear wheel as he didn't believe that I could drive with so much load in the back! Got down to the club and was encouraged to see the first three piles on the outer rank were standing up in the mud ready for the air hammer. Once again the up river pile didn't reach a set (jargon buster: the required set is when the pile moves down by less than 4mm per hit of the air hammer) but the other two did. As the set is now measured from the barge Tam can measure from the barge deck and I don't need to climb around under the club. Took the drastic step of washing my boiler suit tonight - hope it's not premature.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
28th September 2009
P10, the last pile of the rank near the Club was pushed in with the crane, then the air hammer was placed on top. As usual the pile sank a couple of metres under the weight of the air hammer (it weighs 2.7 tons). Then Cyril turned the air hammer on, we were expecting the pile to stop moving before the top reached the mud level, but in this case the pile kept going and very nearly disappeared into the mud. Not too bad as about half a metre was still visible and not too much digging was needed to install the splice plate. Really need the stainless coach crews now but they weren't ordered 'till this morning and are due in tomorrow at mid-day. Tam uses the time to start setting out the next rank of piles using a set of chest high waders to plod around the mud and bang in some stakes at each corner.
25th September 2009
I'm pleased that Tam and Cyril have got into a rhythm. The sequence is to drive 2 or 3 piles to a set, then as the tide rises, bolt on some top sections. As the set is achieved before the bottom section disappears into the mud, the tops just need bolting on. John Davis has relaxed his requirement for bolts so now each section has 2 bolts, placed at 90 degrees, the remainder of the fixings are coach screws. So I beetle off to SIG fixings to order coach crews. As the weekend arrives progress is becoming obvious with 6 piles now complete.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
23 September 2009
Down at the Club at 7.00 again. It's becoming apparent that drilling through the pile to bolt the splice plates on is quite time consuming as its difficult to get all three holes aligned. Talk to John Davis about the possibility of using coach screws instead of bolts. Used the air hammer to drive the piles to a 'set'. The piles are reaching their set when only about 4 metres below the mud level instead of the anticipated 6 metres so the piles are plenty long enough, thank goodness!
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
22 September 2009
7.00 at the Club, and Tam & Cyril have started at 6.00 preparing the air hammer. It looks massive as it is lifted off the deck, the crane looks pretty tiny alongside it. The air compressor is connected up to the hammer, then started up. Its not too early now which is a relief as I imagine there's going to be plenty of noise when we start hammering the piles. The air hammer is lifted onto the first pile and Cyril turns the air on. It's difficult for Tam to lower the air hammer at the same speed as the pile descends, sometimes the pile moves so quickly that the crane can't lower quickly enough, then the pile hits a harder bit and the crane has lowered too much and the hammer cants over and hits the pile at an angle. Tam first tightens the jaws on the driver then, when this doesn't fix the problem, welds some angle steel onto the jaws to keep the air hammer in line with the pile. Now the second pile...the air hammer works much better and the second pile goes in in a few minutes. In fact by the time the top of the first section is about 4 feet from the mud it seems to be getting quite firm. Once the barge is floating, more timber is loaded and the barge is moved downriver so that the downriver corner pile can be driven.
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
21 September 2009
Go down to the Club at 7.00am and Tam & Cyril have started clamping temporary frames to the existing Club pile to help position the new pile. The new pile is lifted into position and gently pushed into the mud with the crane. Quite difficult to get the pile to go in just the right place, but after a couple of goes Tam gets it right and pushes the pile into the mud with the crane. We hear it crunch through some gravel, then it sinks under its own weight again. Another push and its in about 2metres and fairly stable. The process is repeated and by the end of the day there are 4 piles pushed into the mud.
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
20 September 2009
The good news is that I return from a sail to see the barge moored in front of the Club complete with functioning hydraulics; I'm starting to get quite excited again. I speak to Tam and the bad news is that he is going to start work at 6.00am tomorrow when the barge is aground as it's low water at about 8.00am.
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
18 September 2009
Ken Weeks rings to ask whether Tam will start piling; confirm that is the case. 2 minutes later I get a call from Tam to say that a brand new hydraulic pump that he has just installed isn't working and needs repair or replacement. Call Ken and reach him before he has left for Woodbridge. I feel disappointed that we aren't going to start until Monday. Tam will bring his barge down on Sunday ready to start piling on Monday. Have a sudden thought that the race on Sunday will probably finish just as Tam manoevres his barge in front of the Club, ring the OOD to ask him to finish the race downriver as its the Methersgate series.
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
17 September 2009
Drop by Mel Skeet's yard to see Tam and check that all is going OK for a start to piling tomorrow. Tam is collecting the air hammer from Lowestoft but there's a guy there craning a large looking air compressor onto Tam's barge which is looking very smart with a new deck in place. Just about to leave when Tam arrives with the air hammer and confirms that he will bring his barge down to the DYC on the high tide tomorrow morning.
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
Thursday, 17 September 2009
16 September 2009
Tam has a problem with one of his hydraulic cranes that needs to be fixed so piling won't start today. It may start tomorrow unless Tam has to go and move a ship. I'm getting very keen to start piling as I reckon it's only once we've got a few piles in will we know how difficult it's all going to be. The next load of timber is due today at 2.00, check that's OK with Eversons as they have a boat to move sometime this week and we can't do both jobs at the same time. Friends keep asking after my piles; unfortunately I can't give them any definite news as yet!
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
15 September 2009
Get down to the Club about 8.30 so I can try and check the delivery to make sure everything is there that should be there. Help load the first 10 piles onto Tam's small barge, then go to the club and get the plates for the pile joints and the nuts and bolts. Though its quite a small pile of metal it seems to weigh a ton, or several, and I resolve that the next lot needs to get straight from my garage to Tam's barge without any intermediate stops. Tam goes off to organise the air hammer and I have a paddle in the mud in front of the club to remove all the brick ends and hard bits that might damage the barge.
Simon Shaw
Nuts, bolts & washers arrive, today 15th in pouring rain and darn heavy. Really good exercise for our commodore though as my job is just taking the Pics.
(ok so I did help)
Dave Wagstaff
Simon Shaw
Nuts, bolts & washers arrive, today 15th in pouring rain and darn heavy. Really good exercise for our commodore though as my job is just taking the Pics.
(ok so I did help)
Dave Wagstaff
14 September 2009
The bulk of the timber for the piles is due today. Everson's are ready to crane the wood off the lorry into their yard, the crane driver finishes work at 4.00pm so I've asked the supplier to make sure that its delivered by 2.00 to allow time for unloading before 4.00. Get a call to say that loading is slower than expected but the lorry should arrive at about 3.00. Everson's reckon that won't be a problem. Between 3 and 4pm I wander round Kingston Road and Cherry Tree Road looking for a lost lorry driver..eventually he arrives at about 3.55 in an enormous low loader. Geoff Sinton says "that's not all yours is it" .... unfortunately it is. Then it starts to rain again so we get wet through unloading, which takes over an hour. Very grateful to Derek and Geoff for staying till the job was done.
Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw
Friday, 11 September 2009
1 - 10 September 2009
1st September - working party meets to remove all tenders from the pontoons so Tam Grundy has a clear area to work in. It’s a hot day and I start to feel pretty tired by the end. Permanently close gates to pontoons and attach pukka safety signs courtesy of Dave Wagstaff.
2nd & 3rd September - Tam Grundy removes pontoons and steel cantilever arms
4th September - Meet John Davis and David Poole to discuss what can be done to start the ramp before the 6th October planning deadline. I decide that I should buy treated softwood for piles so that Tam G can drive them in during his time on site. John’s test bore finds only 4metres of mud before firm ground so the ramp piles only need to be 5metres long. Look at drawings of existing ramp and find the piles are 1.5metres long so its no wonder the ramp is sinking into the mud. Find its quite difficult to get hold of 5metre long 6 inch square piles but get two from Buildbase. They are 6metre long but I’m hopeful that they may get cut down to form 2 piles from each length.
7th September – Go to collect Nuts and Bolts quite a large pile of bags and boxes; probably too heavy for the car so opt to get them delivered direct to Eversons next week.
10th September - Went to DYC to accept delivery of the 2 softwood piles for the dinghy launching ramp. Thought I’d take a carload of Stainless steel plates down as well. About a quarter of the steel seemed to have the back of the car more or less down to road level. It’s now spread around the DYC veranda to make sure I don’t exceed the floor loading in one place by too much. This stuff is far too heavy to keep moving from one place to another! Decide to hang onto the rest until it can be loaded straight onto Tam’s barge. Took one look at the wood piles, they are big…fortunately the crane driver was still at Eversons so the timber got craned off the lorry and left in their yard.
Simon Shaw
2nd & 3rd September - Tam Grundy removes pontoons and steel cantilever arms
4th September - Meet John Davis and David Poole to discuss what can be done to start the ramp before the 6th October planning deadline. I decide that I should buy treated softwood for piles so that Tam G can drive them in during his time on site. John’s test bore finds only 4metres of mud before firm ground so the ramp piles only need to be 5metres long. Look at drawings of existing ramp and find the piles are 1.5metres long so its no wonder the ramp is sinking into the mud. Find its quite difficult to get hold of 5metre long 6 inch square piles but get two from Buildbase. They are 6metre long but I’m hopeful that they may get cut down to form 2 piles from each length.
7th September – Go to collect Nuts and Bolts quite a large pile of bags and boxes; probably too heavy for the car so opt to get them delivered direct to Eversons next week.
10th September - Went to DYC to accept delivery of the 2 softwood piles for the dinghy launching ramp. Thought I’d take a carload of Stainless steel plates down as well. About a quarter of the steel seemed to have the back of the car more or less down to road level. It’s now spread around the DYC veranda to make sure I don’t exceed the floor loading in one place by too much. This stuff is far too heavy to keep moving from one place to another! Decide to hang onto the rest until it can be loaded straight onto Tam’s barge. Took one look at the wood piles, they are big…fortunately the crane driver was still at Eversons so the timber got craned off the lorry and left in their yard.
Simon Shaw
August 2009
9th August Start Mirror week – break my gooseneck on Monday – end Mirror week. Spend the time re-checking nuts and bolts.
13th August - invade Pat and Pam Morgan’s yacht complete with drawings and spreadsheets, persuade Pat to check my numbers. It takes 3 hours, not the half hour I’d suggested! Never mind, several errors were discovered and corrected.
20th August – get last quote for Nuts and bolts, decide on SIG fixings as they are close to any other price and are local, on Ransomes Europark, so if we need some more items at short notice we can easily collect. Order Nuts and bolts…over £2,000 worth!
27th August – Hire a drop side lorry to collect galvanised steel from fabricator, put the smaller bits in my garage but take the 7 large box sections to be fitted onto the piles by a company, Martin Childs, who are at Brandon and normally make lock gates and other large structures. Each box weighs about 130Kg so its either a crane or forklift for loading and unloading. Just out of interest thought I’d try and lift one, decided it was a bad idea when it seemed to be glued to the floor and stopped trying before I damaged anything.
28th August – Was due to sail in the OK nationals at West Mersea, but the wind was gusting 40 knots so racing was cancelled for the day and I came home. Just as well as the stainless plates were delivered to my house in the late afternoon and I helped to unload them into my garage. There must be a ton of steel, it certainly felt that way and the driver was pleased he got a hand to unload it.
Simon Shaw
13th August - invade Pat and Pam Morgan’s yacht complete with drawings and spreadsheets, persuade Pat to check my numbers. It takes 3 hours, not the half hour I’d suggested! Never mind, several errors were discovered and corrected.
20th August – get last quote for Nuts and bolts, decide on SIG fixings as they are close to any other price and are local, on Ransomes Europark, so if we need some more items at short notice we can easily collect. Order Nuts and bolts…over £2,000 worth!
27th August – Hire a drop side lorry to collect galvanised steel from fabricator, put the smaller bits in my garage but take the 7 large box sections to be fitted onto the piles by a company, Martin Childs, who are at Brandon and normally make lock gates and other large structures. Each box weighs about 130Kg so its either a crane or forklift for loading and unloading. Just out of interest thought I’d try and lift one, decided it was a bad idea when it seemed to be glued to the floor and stopped trying before I damaged anything.
28th August – Was due to sail in the OK nationals at West Mersea, but the wind was gusting 40 knots so racing was cancelled for the day and I came home. Just as well as the stainless plates were delivered to my house in the late afternoon and I helped to unload them into my garage. There must be a ton of steel, it certainly felt that way and the driver was pleased he got a hand to unload it.
Simon Shaw
July 2009
13th July - order stainless steel for the Clubhouse pile splices, these are 4 plates and won’t be buried in the mud so are much more likely to corrode.
Start looking through the drawings counting nuts and bolts and noting sizes, yet another spreadsheet. Need to pester John Davis as sometimes I can’t work out how things fit together.
Start writing Club’s method statement which details how the Club will operate during the period when the contractor is working.
22nd July - Meet scaffolder to discuss quote for temporary handrail and either a safety net or floor under the veranda area.
Simon Shaw
Start looking through the drawings counting nuts and bolts and noting sizes, yet another spreadsheet. Need to pester John Davis as sometimes I can’t work out how things fit together.
Start writing Club’s method statement which details how the Club will operate during the period when the contractor is working.
22nd July - Meet scaffolder to discuss quote for temporary handrail and either a safety net or floor under the veranda area.
Simon Shaw
June 2009
Discover a Dutch company Wijma with a depot at Woolpit that specialise in large timber for marine use. They have stocks of certified Greenheart at their yard. Arrange to inspect the timber with Ken to see if it is straight enough for floating pontoons; if it isn’t pretty straight there’s a risk the pontoons will jam on the piles!
Need to decide how long the piles need to be…we have a test bore done, there’s 6metres of mud before we find any hard ground. In addition John Davis stirs the mud with a giant porridge stirrer to find out how stiff it is and therefore how much support it’ll give the piles; answer: not a lot! Add 4metres from the mud to the veranda, but the piles must go a couple of metres into the hard ground so that makes 12metres long, but the piles can’t be driven to a precise height, they must be over length and cut to the right height so we need 13metre piles. This causes 2 problems, our contractor can only handle 8 metre piles and 13metre timber may need a special shipment from the Guyana where the timber is sourced.
We decide to buy the piles in 2 lengths joined by a steel box section. John calculates the length for this at 1.5metres and specifies a fabricated Stainless steel box. This will cost over £1,500 per pile! As this is necessary only for the pontoon piles the steel box must lie below the mud level so the pontoons can easily slide up and down. John Davis does some research and confirms what everyone says, that there’s no wood rot and little corrosion below mud level as there’s no oxygen there. Decide that therefore we can use mild steel box section, drilled and then galvanised, only £500 per box!!
26th June - Order Galvanised steel from Mike Jackson who gave us the best quote and has supplied the extra railing by the side gate and the strengthening beam on the veranda.
29th June - Go sailing for 2 weeks, planned trip to Holland, even took my CEVNI qualification; in the event it was a foggy week so ended up going to Itchenor
Simon Shaw
Need to decide how long the piles need to be…we have a test bore done, there’s 6metres of mud before we find any hard ground. In addition John Davis stirs the mud with a giant porridge stirrer to find out how stiff it is and therefore how much support it’ll give the piles; answer: not a lot! Add 4metres from the mud to the veranda, but the piles must go a couple of metres into the hard ground so that makes 12metres long, but the piles can’t be driven to a precise height, they must be over length and cut to the right height so we need 13metre piles. This causes 2 problems, our contractor can only handle 8 metre piles and 13metre timber may need a special shipment from the Guyana where the timber is sourced.
We decide to buy the piles in 2 lengths joined by a steel box section. John calculates the length for this at 1.5metres and specifies a fabricated Stainless steel box. This will cost over £1,500 per pile! As this is necessary only for the pontoon piles the steel box must lie below the mud level so the pontoons can easily slide up and down. John Davis does some research and confirms what everyone says, that there’s no wood rot and little corrosion below mud level as there’s no oxygen there. Decide that therefore we can use mild steel box section, drilled and then galvanised, only £500 per box!!
26th June - Order Galvanised steel from Mike Jackson who gave us the best quote and has supplied the extra railing by the side gate and the strengthening beam on the veranda.
29th June - Go sailing for 2 weeks, planned trip to Holland, even took my CEVNI qualification; in the event it was a foggy week so ended up going to Itchenor
Simon Shaw
May 2009
The order for replacement pontoons was placed with Walcon Marine as they had a 12 week lead time. Discover that the pontoons need assembly on site, but persuade Walcon to assemble them before shipment.
Feeling very nervous about my ability to manage a project of this nature so appeal in the DYC newsletter for help from people with suitable experience. Get a reply from Ken Weeks who has managed large projects in Tilbury Dock, Southampton Dock and is quite comfortable with managing pile driving. Meet with Ken and start to feel much more comfortable about things.
Simon Shaw
Feeling very nervous about my ability to manage a project of this nature so appeal in the DYC newsletter for help from people with suitable experience. Get a reply from Ken Weeks who has managed large projects in Tilbury Dock, Southampton Dock and is quite comfortable with managing pile driving. Meet with Ken and start to feel much more comfortable about things.
Simon Shaw
Background to the project
When Kay Yuill was Commodore back in 2002 she started to undertake strategic planning for the Club, surveying the members to identify whether the Club’s facilities should be developed and if so how. At a similar time it was becoming apparent that the stresses caused by the floating pontoons being cantilevered off the Club were causing the veranda to become distorted and its structural integrity reduced. The result of the exercise was two planning applications:
Both applications were granted in October 2006. Tenders were sought for the work detailed in the planning permission and resulted in responses of around £600k for the complete work, way beyond the Club’s reserves. In order to reduce the outlay it was decide to complete the project in phases:
The planning rules are that a project must be started within 3 years of the grant of planning permission or the permission will lapse. However once started the planning permission will extend indefinitely. It was important to start the veranda extension and the launching ramp replacement by October 2009 when the planning permission would lapse.
Fixed price tenders received in 2008 even for the Club veranda extension plus pontoons were around £250,000; beyond the Club’s financial reserves. Grant applications were made to the Foundation for Sport and the Arts and Sport England; neither was successful. The Committee felt that the only viable way to proceed was for the Club to employ a local contractor, Tam Grundy, to undertake the piling and some of the heavier joinery using Working Party labour to complete the veranda.
There was therefore a great deal more work to be done by Club members as all the materials would be specified and bought by the Club rather than a contractor. In February 2009 the Committee authorised the spending of £130,000 on the first phase of the project, the extension of the veranda by 3metres towards the river, plus pontoon piles and some replacement pontoons, with work to start in September 2009 before the planning permission expired.
All systems go then, spreadsheets were refined with new quotes for large items, and a source of good large size timber was sought.
Simon Shaw
- For an extension to the Clubhouse platform 3m towards the river and 10m south with an expanded set of changing rooms and an additional club lounge. New pontoons located by piles plus a new access ramp were also incorporated.
- A replacement dinghy launching ramp, 2.5metres wider than the existing ramp.
Both applications were granted in October 2006. Tenders were sought for the work detailed in the planning permission and resulted in responses of around £600k for the complete work, way beyond the Club’s reserves. In order to reduce the outlay it was decide to complete the project in phases:
- Extend the veranda 3metres toward the river and install marina pontoons located by piles to reduce the stresses on the Club
- Replace and extend the dinghy launching ramp
- Improve the changing rooms
- Extend the Club veranda south by 10metres.
The planning rules are that a project must be started within 3 years of the grant of planning permission or the permission will lapse. However once started the planning permission will extend indefinitely. It was important to start the veranda extension and the launching ramp replacement by October 2009 when the planning permission would lapse.
Fixed price tenders received in 2008 even for the Club veranda extension plus pontoons were around £250,000; beyond the Club’s financial reserves. Grant applications were made to the Foundation for Sport and the Arts and Sport England; neither was successful. The Committee felt that the only viable way to proceed was for the Club to employ a local contractor, Tam Grundy, to undertake the piling and some of the heavier joinery using Working Party labour to complete the veranda.
There was therefore a great deal more work to be done by Club members as all the materials would be specified and bought by the Club rather than a contractor. In February 2009 the Committee authorised the spending of £130,000 on the first phase of the project, the extension of the veranda by 3metres towards the river, plus pontoon piles and some replacement pontoons, with work to start in September 2009 before the planning permission expired.
All systems go then, spreadsheets were refined with new quotes for large items, and a source of good large size timber was sought.
Simon Shaw
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