Our extremely versatile ‘multi-category’ vessel Stour is currently on site at West Quay in Newhaven installing a new jetty for marine contractors Herbosch-Kiere. The project involves demolishing the old timber jetty, which has fallen into quite a bad state of repair, before constructing a new modern steel platform with an access walkway, a floating pontoon, and two unloading cranes to help local fishermen work more efficiently.

Stour will be on site to support the main operations, moving and delivering marine equipment and materials as necessary to facilitate the construction. This includes assisting a materials transfer pontoon responsible for supplying the jackup barge “Octopus” and its large crawler crane, which are carrying out piling operations for the new structure.

Stour has excellent manoeuvrability and power with her twin azimuth thrusters, meaning she can move in any direction, even coupled to another pontoon or barge. She has been used regularly to move the materials barge and the jackup barge around on site as required.

Stour is a very versatile and useful vessel – ideally suited for supporting harbour construction works such as these and benefits from two self elevating spud legs, which are controlled from the helm position, enabling rapid deployment and accurate positioning of the vessel. There is also a 68Tm deck crane, very useful for loading and unloading items to and from her ample 100m² timber clad deck area.

A spokesperson for Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Councils said:

“Three specialist vessels — Octopus, Stour, and Valk — will work together to bring this upgrade to life. Once complete, the facility will provide a safer, more efficient, and more accessible working environment for decades to come.“

The project is expected to take around 6 months and is being carried out almost exclusively from the water to reduce disruption, minimise the impact on surrounding structures, and eliminate unnecessary interaction with public areas. This approach is safer, more efficient, and ideally suited to the constraints of this unique working environment.

You can find out more about the New Haven Jetty projectfrom the following sources:

• Marine Construction Magazine https://digitaledition.marineconstructionmagazine.com/articles/case-study-historic-port-of-newhaven-u-k-rebuild?article_id=5023854&i=850838
• Herbosche-Kiere News: https://herbosch-kiere.be/en/new-contract-for-herbosch-kiere-marine-contractors-ltd-newhaven-stage-21-project/ 

• Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Councils: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lewes-eastbourne-councils_marineconstruction-infrastructure-fishingindustry-activity-7360612586700062721-NlBQ/

If you have a requirement for specialist marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.

Jenkins Marine were on firmer ground than normal this week and proud to return again as sponsors and team entrants in the annual Macmillan Dorset Bike Ride. The event was made up of three different races including distances of 38 miles, 48 miles and 58 miles. Hundreds of cyclists took part, travelling through Wimborne and returning via Lytchett Matravers.

Jenkins Marine Founder, Rod Jenkins, Celebrated a ‘significant’ Birthday Milestone at the event by starting proceedings off with the cutting of the starting tape. He had been vigorously training for the ride, and sadly suffered a cycling injury which prevented him for taking part on the day.  But that didn’t stop him joining in and showing his support!

The Macmillan Dorset Bike Ride was founded in 1989 by Peter Smith-Nicholls. The event is Peter’s way of continuing the fundraising started by his cycle from John O’Groats to Lands End. The ride takes place annually on the first Sunday in July. 

The event was another great success, and organisers hope to continue to raise much needed funds to support this Charity and their valued work! Jenkins Marine would like to offer our thanks to all involved.

A word from Macmillan:

“The number of people diagnosed with cancer is growing, we’re doing whatever it takes to help more people with cancer get the best care the UK has to offer, whoever and wherever they are. To donate, volunteer, raise money or campaign with us, call 0300 1000 200 or visit macmillan.org.uk”

You can donate to Macmillan here: https://www.justgiving.com/macmillan 

We have a wide range of flat top pontoon barges available for charter, and they are looking their best and are ready for work having just finished their intermediate dry docking and class surveys.

Our 50m x 14m pontoons are BV classed with a full international loadline for use world wide, they have an impressive deck cargo capacity of 1300t, and an ultra shallow light draft of only 0.5m.

These pontoons can be provided with 610mm diameter spud legs, up to 18m long. Typical uses include material storage and transport, such as storage of long steel piles for marine civil engineering projects. They can also be used as a crane barge for crawler cranes up to 150t.

Our 30m x 11m pontoons have a equally ultra shallow light draft of only 0.4m! These have a 500t deck cargo capacity as well as the option of spud legs making them an extremely versatile choice for general operations, and they can easily accommodate up to a 70t crawler crane. With full BV class and international loadline, this is a very versatile option.

For more restricted operations and locations our 18m x 6m pontoon JML60 offers a high performance, compact solution. With self-elevating 12m long spud legs on deck winches and a deck capacity of 50t, previous uses have included site welfare platform, material storage, and an excavator platform for dredging and piling operations in shallow areas. With a light draft of only 0.3m and a scow end for increased speed through the water, this versatile pontoon is fully certificated to operate around the UK coast up to 20NM from a safe haven.

Our fleet of tugs and workboats is available to mobilise our pontoons wherever you need them. They can remain on site to move them around on your project together with any other work platforms you have on charter.

Other pontoon options include four point mooring systems and deck protection, which we can arrange for you.

Whatever your operations, make Jenkins Marine your first port of call!

JML5014 Transporting a Giant Whale Sculpture to Dundee.

^{(Footage courtesy of the whale’s sculptor  Lee Simmons)}

If you have a requirement for marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help. Alternatively, you can find out more about our specific vessels here: Our Vessels

Our powerful Damen Multicat Wind Lass is currently in Antwerp assisting dredging giants Jan De Nul (JDN) as they dredge a trench across the River Scheldt for a groundbreaking new road tunnel construction project.

Windlass is working 24hrs a day / 7 days a week currently providing vital support to JDN‘s giant cutter suction dredger Fernao De Magalhaes, as it dredges a deep path across the river bed. When ready huge pre-assembled road tunnel sections will be floated 100km from Zeebrugge down the North Sea and then into the Scheldt. The sections will eventually arrive at the newly dredged trench to be precisely positioned and fixed in a unique feat of engineering joining two sides of Antwerp together under the river.

The work is very challenging and demanding with the river flowing 4 knots or more in what is also a very busy and active waterway.  Wind Lass is in constant demand with requirements to attend and assist the cutter dredger and other support ships. Lifting and shifting general stores and cargo, anchor and replacement cutter handling, water, waste and personnel transfers and many other essential tasks are all on Wind Lass’s job list, vital to keep the project moving forward.

“The jewel in the crown of this crucial infrastructure project, the Scheldt tunnel will be the most important connecting element in the Oosterweel link and closes the Antwerp Ring Road on the north side. The tunnel has a total length of 1,800 m and will be built according to the ‘immersed tube’ method.”

Despite the challenging work, Wind Lass is in its element. Capable of a powerful 37.2 tonne bollard pull from 3x Cat C32 TTA engines and equipped with two powerful 230tm deck cranes, tow and anchor handling winches and with substantial deck space, few jobs are beyond its capabilities. Its shallow draft makes it perfect for movement around the variable depths of the site. And with ample fresh water capacity and air-conditioned accommodation for up to 6 people, Wind Lass is ready to go around the clock.

Footage of the cutter suction dredger Fernao de Magalhae at work at the construction site, taken from our Damen multicat Wind Lass

The 1.8 km long tunnel will have three lanes in both directions with an escape tube and a separate six-metre-wide bicycle tube in between and is planned to be open by 2030. This is a genuinely epic project that we are excited to be working on and you can find more specific details of the whole project at:

https://www.jandenul.com/projects/scheldt-tunnel-belgium

And here is an article on an historically significant find in the dredging spoil from the project here:

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2024/11/19/napoleonic-cannon-retrieved-from-the-slurry-of-the-river-schelde/

If you have a requirement for specialist marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.

We were thrilled to have been involved in the Solent Seascape Project in 2023. This multi-million pound, five-year partnership, funded by the Endangered Landscapes Project, aims to restore a wealth of diverse marine species and habitats back to the Solent, in this instance Oysters to the River Hamble. And following the success of the original phase of this project we are back helping with the next.

After careful planning and discussion, and working closely again with the River Hamble Harbour Authority and ocean conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation, our team laid another thin veneer of shingle mixed with cockleshells, known as ‘cultch,’ covering 2,500 metres square onto the riverbed, just as with the original phase of the project .

Our 300m³ capacity, self-propelled and highly manoeuvrable hopper barge Needles was on hand for transportation of the shingle mix to site, while our self-propelled spud-leg, utility vessel Doreen Dorward, with its large open deck, well & moon pool, provided a platform for our excavator to precisely deploy the “cultch” at an even thickness of 150mm. Our Prolec precision digital dredging system (shown right) has proved invaluable during all phases of this delicate operation.

Matt Uttley, Restoration Project Manager, Blue Marine Foundation said:

“I just wanted to say a huge thank you on behalf of the Blue Marine team for all of your help and work this week getting the new oyster reef built. It has felt like a smooth and straightforward process and I am very much looking forward to working with you all again for our future reef building!”

As with the original reef 10,000 native oysters sourced from south Wales are being transferred to the site to seed the area close to the original reef at  Swanwick bend in the River. This has been a successful and rewarding project, which we are proud to have been a part of and we look forward to continuing our work with Blue Marine in the future.

You can find more about the ground-breaking Hamble Oyster Reef Project from the following sources:

• Blue Marine Foundation:  https://www.bluemarinefoundation.com/projects/solent-seascape-project/
• BBC NEWS (Original article):   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72dkg8engko/
• Endangered Landscapes Programme: https://www.endangeredlandscapes.org/project/solent-seascape/

If you have a requirement for specialist marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.

Our 24tBP twin screw shoalbuster tug ‘DMS Condor‘ has continued to provide towing services to the 80m long, semi-submergible, unique heavy transport barge Terra Marique around the UK and EU coast as it delivers essential cargos on behalf of Robert Wynn and Sons.

Recent journeys have covered many miles around the coast and across the channel and have included UK to Rotterdam, Hunterston, the stunning West Coast of Scotland, Liverpool, back to Hunterston, then on down south to Portland.

Although the Terra Marique has its own propulsion, the size and weight of the barge mean that additional assistance is essential, especially with the tight manoeuvres required around many busy ports and docks. DMS Condor is well suited for this role due its powerful engines and high manoeuvrability. DMS Condor is also certificated under the MCA CAT1 Workboat Code of Practice for operation up to 150 nautical miles from a safe haven for general operations.

Strong and reliable and with accommodation for up to 4 crew, DMS Condor is available for towage, mooring, anchor handling and dredging support services in the UK and Northern Europe

DMS Condor and our other larger and more powerful 37tBP multicat ‘Wind Lass’,  are capable of single and double tows.

^{Special thanks to The Port of Mostyn Limited for use of their video footage and to Dave Gothard for his images of DMS Condor in Liverpool}

Associated British Ports (APB) have asked us to help them resolve an issue with a specialist “ship lift” facility in Southampton. A “Shiplift” system is essentially a large elevator which raises and lowers vessels in and out of the water for dry-docking operations. Many years of silt accumulation mean that the lift is no longer able to lower to its maximum design depth and impacting the functionality of the lift.

ABP approached us as a specialist dredging contractor and awarded us the contract to dredge below the shiplift. This is a specialist operation and will require an innovative approach to achieve the required results as the area under the shiplift cannot be dredged conventionally due to the presence of the lifting deck and surrounding piles. Our team have designed a bespoke plough solution to drag the sediments out from directly under the lift platform, which then enables our backhoe dredger to reach the sediments and load them into a hopper barge as normal.

Our extremely versatile workboat STOUR is being used as a dredge barge, with an 18m long reach excavator on board and using her double-drum, 12t deck winch to operate the plough, whilst the deck crane has been removed to create more room on deck.

Our 150m³ capacity remote controlled, split hopper barge Hurst will be loaded with spoil and towed to the sea disposal site at NAB tower by 24tBP Tug ‘DMS Condor‘.

Works must be completed in accordance with the MMO Marine licence which permits dredging and disposal of up to 5,000m³ of material and all works must be completed before 15th March 2025 to comply with local marine environmental restrictions. This has meant careful planning and good communication with the client and relevant authorities – something Jenkins Marine prides itself on.

If you have a requirement for specialised marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, or a technical dredging project, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.

In a change to our more normal winter schedule we started the new year with a jetty demolition project at Sandbanks for the National Trust. The Jetty had been used since 1996 (roughly 30 years) as a landing stage for passenger and small cargo vessels traveling to and from  Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. The Jetty had actually been originally constructed using recycled marine hardwood timbers from local sea defence structures, and was ahead of its time in terms of sustainability.

 Unfortunately, after nearly 30 years of service, and with timber being a natural product, some parts of the structure had become significantly deteriorated in places, and to add to this issue, in November 2024 there was a sudden shock, when part of the Jetty collapsed as a large area of the sandy seabed washed away, and was no longer supporting the jetty in places.  A decision was made by the Trust to remove the Jetty, which will hopefully accelerate plans to install a new replacement Jetty with an enhanced design to align with their current and future needs.

Our extremely versatile, shallow draft workboat STOUR  was used to undertake the demolition and removal works, aided by its 14m deck crane.

Director Dan Jenkins commented on the progress of the works on site:

“Some of the piles literally fell out or fell over when disconnected from the rest of the structure! A few piles remained more firmly in the bed, but using the powerful 68tm deck crane on the STOUR, and thanks to the non-cohesive sandy sediments, we were able to extract these without issue“.

Overall, the project was completed much quicker than expected, which resulted in a significant saving being passed on to the client! All of the Hardwood timbers removed are being repurposed on Brownsea Island for other projects, which meets the Trust’s sustainability goals.

The large, spacious 100m² deck area on STOUR was ideal for laying down and transporting all the timbers removed from the structure, and the vessels remotely operated, self-elevating spud legs, coupled with twin azimuth thrusters made quick work of precise, repositioning around the works site, which was especially beneficial as it can be an area of fast flowing tidal currents.

If you have a requirement for marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.

Our tugboat DMS Condor has been hard at work all over the UK and parts of Europe this year. DMS Condor is a powerful and highly manoeuvrable twin screw, Damen built tug boat that is ideally suited to provide support operations, and is now under the commercial management of Landfall Marine.

As reported in January DMS Condor assisted Robert Wynns and Sons with the UK manoeuvres of the impressive 80m long semi-submergible heavy cargo transportation barge Terra Marique. (Click to view Jan 2024 news). This was quickly followed by a trip to Amsterdam to assist with operations there as well.

Once on site in the Netherlands DMS Condor assisted with a project pontoon tow from Rotterdam to La Rochelle, and assisted  another tug to manoeuvre the pontoon into some very restricted French ports for loading and unloading.

Once back in UK waters there was a busy list of tows to complete: We towed a large 50m pontoon from Southampton to London and then on to River Clyde, returning later in the year to collect this pontoon from Clyde, going on to Rosyth and then back to Southampton. Then it was back to London to collect another 60m pontoon that needed towing to Montrose in Scotland and back.

DMS Condor even flexed her muscles to tow the former Royal Navy Experimental vessel RV Triton, originally built as a technology demonstrator ship for the Royal Navy’s Future Surface Combatant, now owned and operated by Gardline Marine Sciences.

Various tows were then completed on the South Coast including various flat deck barge loads to Southampton, Plymouth and Poole with the year finishing as it began with a tow of the Terra Marique from Portland to Pembroke, with a brief stopover in Dartmouth necessitated by the recent stormy weather.

All in all a very busy year for DMS Condor that looks set to continue into the next…

To enquire about DMS Condor and her services please contact Landfall Marine: www.landfall.nl

If you have a requirement for marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, or require marine towage services, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.

Autumn is here and, as the seasons change, we shift into top gear with our dredging fleet to get some serious amounts of mud moved!

Our larger dredge set up, including backhoe dredger ‘Doreen Dorward’, and 300m3 capacity self propelled split hopper barges ‘Nab’ and ‘Needles’, have recently completed a significant dredge for Cattewater Harbour Commissioners in Plymouth, and have now moved further East into the Solent area for a succession of projects for several of our regular clients, including marina operators, local harbour authorities and yacht clubs.

Our busy dredging program is expected to keep us working hard all winter until Easter 2025 at a variety of sites in locations including; Southampton, Cowes, Chichester Harbour, River Hamble and Poole Harbour. This dredge rig will be working a variety of shifts, including tidal shifts over 24hrs/day, 7 days per week, to get the jobs completed as efficiently as possible, to minimise the disruption to our clients.

Our large 50t long reach excavator is equipped with a 3D RTK GPS linked dredging control system which facilitates highly accurate dredging to achieve a good quality finish and minimise over dredge. We work closely with hydrographic surveyors, and we can organise interim and post dredge surveys on request, and arrange quantity calculations.

We also co-ordinate producing dredge design drawings and then get these converted into the required file types for uploading into our dredge control systems. We will also provide statutory notifications on behalf of clients to comply with Marine Management organisation marine licence conditions.

Our smaller self contained hopper dredger, ‘C H Horn’ is also busy now for the winter, currently working on a 7,000m³ dredging project in Poole harbour until Mid December 2024. Then in January 2025 she will be off to Ipswich to complete another 15,000m³ dredge project, which will keep her working hard for a few more months!

C H Horn is an extremely efficient and manoeuvrable self contained dredger, able to load her 125m³ capacity hopper well in as little as one hour with good digging, and then sail to the nominated sea disposal site to safely discharge the dredged spoil. Ideal for smaller marinas!

If you have a requirement for marine operations in shallow or near shore projects, please feel free to get in touch to see where we can help.