Brief

In March 2022, RA Marine was contracted to rejuvenate part of the jetty and landing area in Fischer’s Green sailing club. At over sixty years old, the original concrete along the foreshore of the lake had become a trip hazard and no longer fit for purpose. Over the years it had been undermined by fish and wave action, making it uneven and unstable, even collapsing in areas. We were tasked with future-proofing two sections, bringing it up to a modern standard.

Solution

The landing stage needed to have a non-slip surface and withstand flooding in high water events during the winter. We settled on an aluminium frame with GRP grid surface, finished with a composite cladding board to provide a smooth edge for the boats to moor against, protecting their gunwales from the abrasive GRP grid. Some of the sailing boats used in Fischers Green, such as Lasers, have a low profile, so we designed the structures to have a low freeboard, adding a second run of composite edging from the jetty down to water level to prevent underrunning.

Challenges

The lake edge meandered and none of us were prepared to ruin the natural flow of the land just for the sake of simplicity! Instead we decided to build the landing stage and jetty in sections and fit them like a jigsaw, keeping the angles shallow to accommodate as many vessels as possible along the lake edge. The aluminium and GRP sections are all straight, so manufacturing the angles to match the topography of the environment was a challenge. In some places, the original concrete had to be completely removed, while in others we were able to build over it, depending on the needs of the different sections.

Once it was all completed, however, the jetty and landing stage were a perfect fit, not only physically but aesthetically. We hope that they serve the sailors of Fischer’s Green for decades more to come.