PROPOSED BOAT HARBOUR

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25364, 11 December 1947, Page 5

PROPOSED BOAT HARBOUR

ENGINEER’S REPORT

TO BOARD MAGAZINE BAY SCHEME On the motion of Mr R. E. Cairns, the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday referred to the harbour improvements committee a report by the engineer (Mr A. J. Charman) on a proposed new boat harbour, with the recommendation that the Canterbury Yacht and Motor-boat Club should be asked for its views.

Mr Charman’s report said that Magazine Bay appeared to be the most suitable harbour site on the north shore. At Magazine Bay, a suitable still water area could be formed by constructing a rubble bank from the Naval point reclamation wall; this would run for 1875 feet in a west-north-west direction. Another rubble wall would be built from the headland between Magazine and Corsair Bays, and would run in a southerly direction for 635 feet, leaving an entrance facing west and 100 feet wide. The water area so contained would be 18| acres. A very great depth of soft mud existed in this part of Lyttelton Harbour, and a great deal of rubble would be needed to make good the sinkage which would occur. The estimated cost of the rubble walls would be £186,500. With the addition of navigation lights, slipway and moorings, the total cost was unlikely to be less than £ IPO,OOO. The alternative to this scheme, said Mr Charman, was to give some measure of protection by constructing a piled and sheathed structure in timber. Tests had been carried out, but the engineer recommended that no action on the alternative scheme should be taken without first building and testing a full-scale trial section of the wall. The estimated cost of timber walls was £76,000; with pile moorings, entrance lighting and a slipway, the total cost would be £86,000. Mr Charman referred to Diamond Harbour and Purau as alternative sites for a boat harbour, but commented that neither would be satisfactory without an adequate launch service. No protective works would be required at Purau, and the only exgense would be for pile moorings, ome other amenities would be necessary, but their cost would be insignificant compared with protective works elsewhere. Adequate transport did not seem to be an insurmountable difficulty. To provide an adequate boat harbour at Sumner would involve the construction of rubble breakwaters at an estimated cost of £211,000, said Mr Charman.