Want to scrub your bottom?

Forget expensive crane-outs!

We have a concrete GRID on the Avon at Pill.

(The drying grid is immediately in front of the Clubhouse, in front of the stone wall. Note the two rope covered steel dolphins).

The tide lifts your boat onto it and leaves you high and dry for a day, a week, or more, to work on your boat's bottom.

Charges: £7 per day £30 per week* Advance booking is essential (priority will be given to club members).

Contact the Grid Officer (Jerry Dillon): or phone the club any Wednesday evening on 01275 373988 and ask to speak to a committee member. There is a grid diary in the club to enable the grids to be pre-booked. Please note that priority will be given to emegencies (grid officer's discretion).

Disclaimer:- the owner of any vessel uses these grids entirely at their own risk. Neither the PCC nor any of its officers or members accept responsibility for the accuracy of any information either contained here or given to the owner at any time. The responsibility for the vessel and the safety of anyone using the club's facilities is solely that of the skipper.

* Boat draught and Tidal height may constrict time on grid.

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Notes; The club has two grids, the one shown above which can accommodate a single vessel, the second grid at the back of Crockerne Pill can take two vessels. The grid outside the clubhouse becomes awash when the height of the water reaches 11.6 Metres at Avonmouth.

• Single Keel Boat Drying Out on a Concrete Grid. The two big dangers with tying a boat up on a concrete grid are a) the boat is heeling outwards and falls away from the wall and b) the boat is heeling into the wall and the keel slips outwards on the concrete. Each skipper must assess and decide for him/herself, but one option is to tie the boat hard into the wall so that it stands upright. Use adequate strength ropes to do this. A mast head line gives good leverage to hold the boat in, but the rigging must be sound. Do not use pneumatic fenders as these will compress and cause additional heel. A length of scaffold plank with rubber or rope packing is better. N.B. A boat on one of the clubs grids must be attended over every high water where there is likelyhood of it floating, note that the tide can make considerably more than that predicted (3 metres over has been recorded..).

• Using a masthead line ashore. A masthead line is often used to prevent a single keel boat from falling over when taking the ground. However the lead angles are poor for the block at the top of the mast and this will cause chafing on the halliard, and there will be noticable friction when you adjust the halliard. To prevent this attach a block to the halliard and rove the 'masthead shoreline' through it. Hoist the block before putting tension onto the shoreline. Feed the shoreline through a block at the base of the mast and back to a winch.

• The mast head line should not be slack, otherwise the line will snatch (producing high stress on the mast), and it should not be tightened excessively (with the considerable leverage it will encourage the keel to slip outwards).