User Consultation
For enquiries on User Consultation, please contact the Navigation Directorate.Email: navigation.directorate@thls.org
Telephone: 020 7481 6900
User Consultations
April 2008
Buoys marking the remains of the Prince Ivanhoe Wreck in Port Eynon Bay, South Wales
The findings of recent surveys have caused Trinity House to consider the continuing navigational requirement for the Prince Ivanhoe buoys in Port Eynon bay, off the Gower coast, South Wales. The two unlighted red can port hand buoys mark the remains of the Prince Ivanhoe and are established in the following positions:
The Prince Ivanhoe was a small commercial passenger vessel that was wrecked in the bay during the early 1980’s. A dispersal operation carried out during 1985/86 failed to obtain the two metres LAT clearance that was required at that time. It was considered after consulting with the local RNLI representative that the wreckage presented a danger to the operation of lifeboats, and the site should be permanently marked by means of two red can unlighted buoys, in the positions detailed above, until the required clearance was obtained.
Trinity House has continued to mark the site in this way, carrying out intermittent surveys in the intervening years to check the clearance. The most recent survey, carried out in February 2008, found a clearance depth of 2.4 metres LAT in general depths of 2.8 metres. This confirmed the findings of the previous survey carried out in November 2006. These findings have been advised to the RNLI, and their local representatives at Horton and Port Eynon have confirmed that the wreck is not posing any hazard now and the buoys could be removed, although they comment that the buoys do provide a useful manoeuvring target.
Trinity House has considered both the survey findings and the RNLI's comments very carefully and has decided to discontinue these buoys during Autumn 2008, the work being provisionally programmed for mid–October, subject to operational exigencies.
A Trinity House Notice to Mariners will be issued giving four weeks preliminary notice of the date on which it is intended to remove the buoys.