Jim Wetteroth and the Downtown Boathouse got a bit of money from the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Port Authority and a big chunk from the Friends of Lower Manhattan to build a dock on Governors Island for use by human-powered boaters. It’s a massive thing, about 20 by 40--what you see in the photos below is just the first half of it. As far as I can tell, Jim pretty much conceived and built it himself, though a few volunteers did show up to pound nails and the like. (More volunteers needed to help with part two, by the way). He also launched it singlehandedly, using a single hand winch and some nifty UHMF polyethylene skid pads to edge it off the concrete dock into a full-moon high tide in Buttermilk Channel. The whole thing went off without a hitch--a tour-de-force of human-powered engineering that I feel privileged to have witnessed.
The inauguration of the dock will take place on Sunday, June 3 around 10 am, assuming Jim can get the dock to its intended mooring place on Pier 101, just south of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel Ventilation Tower (right now there’s a contractor’s barge blocking most of the entrance to the little cove). The Downtown Boathouse is organizing an outing (see their website for more details) and a couple of Floating the Apple gigs should be there, too.
Can anyone just show up and use the dock? Here’s what DTBH’s Tim Gamble has to say on the sujbect:
Unfortunately GIPEC, the agency who administers the island, will only
allow scheduled organized trips this summer. If you have a group or
company that wants to do trip please contact me directly, back-channel and
I will go over the details and help you fill out the application. There is
a $25 per year fee, and GIPEC requires that your organization or company
carry liability insurance. We hope to have these rules changed in 2008
such that anybody can stop by when the island is open.
ahab's dock
ebb tide at the rip north of governors island
heading down buttermilk channel
cheaper than a dock
it’s big...
...really big,,,
,,,huge
about 20 by 20 with 4-by-16 timbers
tweaking
cantilevering
in the ‘no wake’ zone
off to margaritaville
looking southwest towards bayonne bridge
seawall at south tip
park here is already nice--why spend $40 mil?
almost surfable
a different angle on brooklyn
one man..
,,,one hand winch
,,,one spectator
the last little nudge
yeah, i know, i blew the money shot
she floats!
heading up buttermilk channel on the flood
s.i. ferry at close quarters
crossing to the hudson
moon over tribeca
