Pontoon ‘legs’ ensure access for fishing boats at Padstow

Walcon Marine has installed its System 21 pontoon with ‘legs’ to ensure access for Padstow Harbour’s fishermen, at all states of the tide.

Above the waterline, this new installation in the Fishermen’s Docks in the Outer Harbour, shows as a 120-metre line of System 21 pontoons alongside the harbour wall. It is only at low tide that pairs of reinforced 1.4-metre steel legs with hinged foot plates are revealed. The legs extend out below the pontoons at regular intervals and are designed to bear the weight of the pontoons, together with foot traffic, when the harbour dries out. The harbour floor beneath the pontoons has been levelled to ensure a flat surface and packing placed below each foot plate to ensure continuity.

This design ensures that the crews of the fishing boats can access their boats safely and conveniently when alongside, whatever the state of the tide. All of the workboat-grade pontoons are decked using commercial-grade GRP mesh grating and include an all-round timber skirt to protect the floats.

Pontoons with stilts are unusual, but similar projects have been undertaken by Walcon, including for pleasure boat berthing on tidal sections of the Thames.