The Winter of 2025 - 2026
The winter of 2025 - 2026 saw the Club undertake the biggest project that it had undertaken in probably 25 years, when the Weevil Lake moorings we know today, were created. The issue was Weevil Lake marina area was silted up and some of the pontoons were at the end of their life.
The planning took many months before any work commenced with the need to gain the necessary permissions and licences. The dredging licence application was submitted in January 2023 but the Club did not receive the final approval until March 2025. Only once the necessary finance had been identified and permissions granted could contracts be placed with the 2 major contractors - dredging company Jenkins Marine and pontoon supplier Walcon.
In the period between March and work actually commencing in October 2025 there were months of planning and final negotiations by the three co project managers: The Treasurer, Facilities Manager and Moorings Officer.
The Treasurer had the task of ensuring that the massive project budget of £875k was carefully managed and not exceeded.
Before any contractors arrived on site all the facilities needed to be stripped from the pontoons and every berth needed to be empty.
The Facilities Manager galvanised members into action to strip out the services (electricity, water and WiFi), safety equipment (life rings, safety ladders and fire extinguishers) and anything else that meant the pontoons were totally clear of everything. All this kit was saved in case it had utility in the reinstated marina.
The winter lift of 2025 saw extra boats lifted ashore by the Lift Managers - 65 rather than the normal 50. Many members made their own arrangements for the winter to help the Club out but the Moorings Officer still had the problem of about 90 boats to find an alternative location for the duration of the works. The remaining boats were relocated to a variety of locations: other POG moorings, fellow Clubs such as Gosport Cruising Club and the RNSA, and a commercial contract with a neighbouring marina.
At about 1800hrs on 26th October 2025 the last boat was lifted and the marina was completely clear of boats. The POG yard could not take another single boat with much of the car park being used. The cooperation of members to achieve this was magnificent. Over the coming months a dedicated team went out on a regular basis checking all was ok with members relocated boats, braving the winter wind and rain.
At 0700hrs on 27th October Walcon were on site to start the dismantling process with their barge turning up ready to take away the old pontoons that were being replaced. Over the next 2 weeks Walcon systematically removed all the pontoons, relocating and stacking together those that needed to be saved. This period saw some November storms but Walcon's work was on schedule despite the inclement weather.
Then it was a wait for the dredging company, Jenkins. The autumn storms of 2025 meant that instead of the hoped for being on site a week early, they were delayed finishing their previous job, and did not arrive to POG until late on Monday 24th November.
Over the next 4 weeks the weather made the dredging challenging. Many times the hopper barges had to undertake the long slow trip to the Hurst Narrows spoil ground instead of the shorter trip to the Nab spoil ground. Many a time the dredging company were working after dark during the short November and December winter days.
The dredging company finally left POG late on 23rd December having removed 35+ barge loads of silt, along with rope, car keys, mobile phones and dropped tools to name a few.
In parallel with the final couple of weeks of dredging, Walcon returned to POG to reinstate the pontoons that had been saved on G row and before Christmas 25 E/F fingers were also connected allowing the first boats to return to POG, albeit with no services.
January saw Walcon return to POG to install the new pontoons bought to replace the old ones that had been scrapped and by 29 January all pontoons were in place allowing berth holders to return to Weevil and winter berthing to commence.
The replacement of pontoon services was entirely performed by members and work parties started to ramp up. As part of the project new water pipe and hoses were fitted across the marina and new fire boxes were installed. The other major exercise was installing 1.1km of new armoured cable to supply the bollards in the marina. Creating the new electrical connections was a skilled job and a smaller team put in about 200hrs of effort to enable the electricity to go live in early March.
During early January the marina filled up with the displaced boats afloat returning to POG, enabling on 22nd February a celebration evening to be held in the Clubhouse for all that the collective efforts of the Club had achieved. By March all services were fully reinstated ready for the upcoming new season.
The Treasurer did a fantastic job managing the finances with total cost of the project coming in approximately £100k under budget. The Facilities Manager put many many hours in and, not least, organised the work parties and harnessed the Club ethos of self help and cooperation of the membership. The Moorings Officer gained many grey hairs and vowed never to be in post if dredging took place again.
Member comments reflected their pleasure in what had been achieved with comments such as:
- "Congratulations and well done to all involved. We appreciate your huge efforts. Thanks".
- "Fantastic, that's a massive achievement and much appreciated."
- "Congrats to a very professional and helpful operation. The dedication of the Club team has been surpassed ."
Last updated 11:15 on 1 July 2026