Method in our madness?
Our task is to try to dig out the harbour basin as deeply as possible whilst also trying to maintain a decent depth of water in the channel.
Our means of doing this are by using a digger mounted barge which digs the basin and moves the spoil to an area where our tracked digger can reach, this then redigs the spoil and loads it into our two trucks which then take it away to be dumped.
This sounds fairly straight forward but there are one or two complications.
Firstly, for obvious reasons we can only work when the tide is out.
Secondly, although the spoil has been tested and has been given the all clear  and we have a beach replenishment licence, a large part of the spoil being clay is not suitable for dumping on the beach. We are therefore having to keep this within the harbour area.
Thirdly due to lack of funds the machines we have are well past their sell by date and need continual expensive maintenance and repair.

Funding.
Our funding for this work comes from three main sources.
Firstly, Berthing Fees; second, Fundraising activities (mainly Harbour Gala) and thirdly Grants from suitable bodies.
In addition we have in the past received two substantial donations from private indivuals which has allowed us to keep the work going.
This year we are installing second hand pontoons which will allow us to increase the income from berthing fees.
In addition other improvements have been happening, for example the provision of a limited number of metered power outlets have been installed.
All this digging and machine maintenance work is done totally by volunteers who give up their free time to work in sometimes  the most inclement of weather and conditions.