The Environment Agency has given Rye Harbour a floating pontoon, a new ramp and upgraded moorings. Ordinary boat access has instantly become a waterfront strategy with its own launch canapé.
Rye Harbour floats an ambitious noun
The improvements at Strand Quay include water and electric points for 33 vessels. Boaters can now arrive safely and enjoy the rare maritime luxury of a socket that has not developed its own weather.
Commodore Barnaby Bollard, Director of Quayside Momentum, said: “A pontoon is never merely a pontoon. Add a ribbon and two councillors in deck shoes, and it becomes resilient coastal infrastructure.”
Engineers replaced the old ladders, fenders and mooring rings. This disappointed one barnacle, which had served as Acting Harbour Master since 1998 and expected at least a consultation.
Meanwhile, the local tourism office encourages visitors to explore Rye’s cobbled streets, pubs and historic buildings. The Department of Picturesque Loitering requires tourists to photograph the same crooked house from seven nearly identical angles.
Boaters may stay from one day to three weeks. After that, they risk becoming part of the local economy and must open either an antiques shop or a café selling cake on a piece of reclaimed slate.
Officials will formally unveil the pontoon before the season. It is already floating, but protocol requires infrastructure to pretend it has not begun until somebody important pulls a small curtain.
Read the real story: the Environment Agency’s Strand Quay update.
The Agency says the improvements will help local businesses. Rye has welcomed the news, having long suspected that sailors would spend more money ashore if they could first get ashore without performing an unscripted demonstration of lower body strength.
