Tuck's Point Dock Access

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This weekend Manchester Harbormaster Bion Pike sent out an interim communication, a mini “Waterline” if you will, that tips off a brewing issue for mooring holders accessing their boats at Tuck’s Point.  This season’s new “haul-out solution” to address the condemned ramp that accesses the dinghy dock off the rotunda is seen by many to be not enough. 

The ramps fell into disrepair last year, after a combination of design, a spate of high winds and higher-than-normal tides led to the demise of the deck.  Town engineers reviewed the structure and determined it was no longer viable, and it was condemned.  The possibility of an emergency repair was ruled out, said Pike, because the floats are not permitted by the state or US Army Corps of Engineers.  It’s a non-compliant structure, and what’s worse, the last time the town pulled a permit for docks at Tuck’s was in 1896.  This, despite the fact that the rotunda and its structures underwent full-scale renovations in both 2000, 2010, 2011 and after the famous blizzard of 1978 when it was destroyed.

So where does leave the nearly 300 mooring holders—about half of Manchester’s total—that must be accessed via Tuck’s Point?  Well, said Pike, “the goal at this point is to have a new dock access available for next season.  There is no way around the permitting process.”

Until there is a new deck and ramp in place, boaters at Tuck’s Point will have to rely on a time honored, less convenient means of getting to the dinghy dock: a single dinghy rigged to a clothesline system going back and forth from an anchor in the sand to the dinghy docks.  Boaters can then use their own dinghies to get to their moorings. 

That’s not what boaters want to hear, but it’s the way it is.  About half of Manchester’s 600 or so moorings are accessed using these docks. 

Pike acknowledges this new system isn’t ideal, and there will likely be kinks to work through, but it’s the way it is.  His office is offering to relocate dinghies with outboard motors for this season to an area of the harbor that can be accessed via a different dock, such as Reed Park. 

File this under “Developing.”

manchester harbormaster bion pike, manchester, us army corps of engineers, tuck's point, dock, repair