Bulverhythe Silt Boat

[Marina]

Does anyone know what the large boat is doing at bulverhythe the last few days? It looks like it is chucking the silt from the sea bed back on to the beach. Why?

Marina

[Anonymous1]

The ship is squirting shigle (mixed with water)back onto the beach, I assume it loads up at sea at low tide and then chucks it on the beach at high tide. This weekend was spring tides (ultra high) so it could get closer to the beach.

This is to counteract the longshore drift which naturally occures as shingle gets moved by the waves from west to east. In days gone by the groynes used to stop the drift but as half the groynes are now gone they have to resort to mechanical means_ _ __ _ _..a false economy perhaps

[Anonymous1]

We were down the beach hut on Sunday, by the drill hall. We took a long distance pic of the ship, now I've seen the pic on my PC I can see the name:

"Sospan dau"

here's all the info I can find:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipde ... =244990000

http://www.pevensey-bay.co.uk/recharge.html

http://www.boskalis.co.uk/fleet-equipme ... ospan-dau/

http://www.pevensey-bay.org.uk/Pages/Be ... /2011.html

[Marina]

All very interesting thanks GK. Amazing the Sospan Dau can carry 1800 tonnes. Any chance you could upload your photo to the forum. I wanted to take one but didn't have my camera that day.

Marina

[Anonymous1]

Not a great shot, but it is all I have:

[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/Beach_005.jpg]

[Anonymous1]

ZOOOOooooom

[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/Beach_005_zoom.jpg]

[Marina]

[quoted]
G.K. wrote:
Not a great shot, but it is all I have:

[/quoted]

Thanks GK, that's excellent with the canoes in the foreground.

[Richard]

It's called "Beach Nourishment"
Presumably the shingle is put there to give the waves something to do with their energy because we want to stop beach erosion / littoral drift from W to E.(assisted by groynes where necessary)
Erosion would destroy the beach and lose us our tourists

I can't believe either groynes or squirting shingle up on the beach has anything to do with sand being transported as it does not behave in the same way and goes into a suspension quite easily
(but perhaps groynes still have some purpose in sandy beach areas of the country ?)

So, the shingle dampens the waves and tames their boisterous energy