Pilot Boat Moorings at Gosport

Intermarine have launched a new heavy duty steel pontoon system for Associated British Ports (ABP) at Gosport. The new Seawork Coastal System can either be supplied as a modular assembly for units between 3m and 6m wide and as more traditional pontoons for 2m and 2.5m wide. The seawork coastal system is part of Intermarine’s expansion into the heavy duty commercial marine market and is a development on their tried and tested Seawork System. These pontoons are suitable for boats of up to 100 tons in sheltered locations and 50 tons at more exposed sites, with significant wave heights of up to 1m. The Gosport installation was required to replace an aging steel float pontoon that was becoming a maintenance liability for ABP. The installation comprised of a 15m long by 5m wide modular unit and 2#10m long by 2.5m wide single units. The floats supporting the steel frame are are modified version of our standard concrete floats used on marina pontoons. In addittion to the usual stainless steel reinforcement these floats incorperate stainless steel fibers to provide improved cracking and abrasion resistance. The side walls were thickened and locating ‘sockets’ are incorperated into the pontoon frames to reduce the loads on the connection bolts. The benifits of using concrete floats over steel tank floats is lower maintenance  requirements, reduced cost, ease of replacement if damaged and floatation redundancy due to the air spaces being filled with polystyrene.