Thorness Bay
A new licence has been issued to Garry McGinty and Gary Paddock to dive the site and also, on the 18th January a proposal was submitted to Historic England by MSDS Marine, myself and Gary p on behalf of Wight dolphins to secure £45,000 of funding to develop the Thorness bay site, so it would be more accessible to the general public.We have been successful and the funding will be used for putting a diver trail in place and conducting a 3D multi beam side scan of the site. Wight Dolphins members will be the first group of divers to try out the trail as part of the clubs input into the project. The project is to start in the spring and the trail to be ready for August/September this year.
As a bonus we will be diving from a hard boat with diver lift and tea and coffee .
We hope that Wight Dolphins will become the resident licensees of the wreck. Also the trail will be accredited to the club along with MSDS so might get a mention in BSAC magazine.
Club Rib
The clubs rib is now 20 years old and the tubes were starting to show signs of wear and tear. So it was decided to have the tubes replaced at a cost of around £6500 so it can give us even more exciting diving around the Isle of Wight. Many thanks to Nathan for the organizing I know it was a bit of a headache but well done. Also thanks to Andrew and Dave for taking it over to the RibShop . The process is now complete. The engine has been serviced and will be ready to go back into service . Wight Dolphin is a getting a bit like Triggers broom. It’s had new tubes and engine fuel tanks and electrics but it’s the same boat we need it to be reliable and safe for us to use. The rib is our greatest asset and tool also is the greatest cost with its storage and running costs. To give you an idea it can burn up to 55 litres or 12 Gallons of fuel in a hour but it does move up to 10 divers and all their kit at a speed of around 30 Knots.
