Two cheaper options for fuel delivery
AS A marine civil engineer, I have read with interest your recent articles and letters concerning the future delivery of fuel to the island and was very surprised by the estimate of 'hundreds of millions of pounds', which we clearly cannot afford. When we can no longer use our existing tankers that sit on the bottom at low tide there are two very obvious options available to us. The first, for fuel deliveries only, would be a single buoy mooring. This would be installed in the Little Russel and attached to the seabed with heavy chain and piled anchors. The tanker moors to the buoy and picks up the attached floating fuel hoses and pumps the fuel ashore by undersea pipeline.
The complete buoy head rotates 360 degrees, allowing the tanker to remain head to wind/tide at all times. The Sarnia would probably be required to assist with mooring operations. The limiting factor for this system may well be our very high tidal range. The cost for this option would be in the low tens of millions.
I have personally managed, on site, the installation of a large single buoy mooring in the Arabian Gulf.
The second option would be for a purpose built jetty constructed with a number of piled mooring dolphins connected by a walkway for use of the mooring crews. The fuel would be pumped ashore to St Sampson's by undersea flexible pipelines.
One obvious location for this mooring berth would be just east of Goubeau and Sardrette and to the south of the Reffee Buoy. Ships would moor heading roughly north or south depending on the wind and tide.
The advantage of this option would be that a wind-protected passenger walkway could be constructed on piles connecting the mooring dolphins to the east arm of the QE2 marina. This would allow the mooring to be used by cruise ships with walk-ashore facilities. It would also allow the fuel to be piped ashore under the walkway and delivered to St Sampson's by land pipelines.
This proposed mooring jetty would cost tens of millions rather than hundreds of millions. It has the further advantage that it could be modified to accommodate larger conventional ferries.
R. F. WHARTON, BSc (Hons), MSc, C.Eng, MICE, ACGI, DIC,
Chairman,
Boatworks+ Ltd,
Castle Emplacement,
St Peter Port,
GY1 1AU.
