A lesson in smugness from Shoreham
by Sophie Mackley 1 Feb 2019 08:15 GMT
The view of the green at Shoreham Sailing Club © SSC
Last year with much fanfare we opened our wonderful new slipway, but Shoreham Sailing Club is not all about easy launching and the fantastic waters we sail on, we are also pretty smug about our expanse of lovely lawn - perfect for rigging, rolling your boat over, standing back to admire the bottom of it and generally serving its purpose as a lovely lawn and dinghy park.
That was then. Now we have a field of mud and there is some grass seed in it, but they are not special grass seeds that grow in puddles. Unfortunately (for us) we believe the soaked-seeded-mud has been laid on impenetrable-to-water subsoil compacted by the heavy machinery used to build the slipway and tidal walls.
Other areas of water-soaked-seeded-mud will also not grow, as they are being doused by seawater, which enters the club grounds on a high tide when waves break over the new slipway. Recently the contractors churned up some of this salt-water-soaked-seeded-mud which fully tested the rapidly shortening fuses of our battle-weary volunteers.
We do love our slipway, and we hope that when our sailing season starts on the 31 March it won't still be surrounded by salt-water-soaked-seeded-churned-up-mud. And did I mention that our winch doesn't work any more because that got covered in sea when it came over the new tidal wall that protects us... from the sea.
We felt the need to share so that any other smug sailing clubs can see that sometimes smugness can leave you with salt-water-soaked-seeded-churned-up-mud on your face.
Our recent letter to the Environment Agency and their contractors can be viewed on our website for those that want the full story.