Croton Yacht Club 

 

 

History:  In the early days, our basin was protected by a few large oil barges anchored where the current breakwater wall is.  In 1986, the club decided to build a new breakwater and Joe Pettit lead this effort.  This old barges were sold to Westerly Marine in Ossining and are still in use by them  today.  In 1986, White Kirk and White were hired to drive a series of "H" beams into the riverbed.  WK&W first drove the beams perpendicular to the riverbed, then they drove panels at an angle to support the force of the river.  Next they lowered the lumber panels into position leaving approximately 2' clearance on the bottom.  Apparently the DEC requires at least two feet of clearance between the lower panel and the riverbed to allow sea creatures to migrate.    Once the panels were in place, two 1" bolts were driven through the "H" beam to suspend the panels in place.  

The lumber panels were built by the club using wood ordered by a member Bill Schwarz who owns a firm specializing in parks construction.  The four vertical members which serve as a guide against the H-beams are rough cut 3x12.  The horizontal members are rough cut 4x12.  There are 15 horizontal members on each panel.  Each panel was custom built for the appropriate section since they were approximately 10' wide, give or take a few inches.

The bolts which suspend the panels are threaded.  Wave action causes the panels to rock back and forth.  Over the years, the threads acted as a rasp and created oblong holes allowing the panel to droop.  Also, some of the bolts holding the cross members to the vertical lumber came loose and fell out. 

In 2001, six panels were replaced.  The same method of construction and installation was used on these panels.  The panels were built by the club and installed by WKW.  This time, four steel wedges were driven and welded between the panels and the H-beams.  These keep the panels firmly in place and avoid the "rasp" action mentioned earlier.  As of 2004, this method had proven to work.

In 2004, we added and welded wedges to the OUTSIDE of eight panels which were deemed to be in fairly good shape but had no wedges.  This time, the wedges were driven from the outside to allow maximum surface area between the wood and the H-beam for absorbing the shock of the waves.  We also tightened the bolts for these panels.  Unfortunately, we could only go down to the sixth board from the top; the water level at low tide.

 

What's Next

Best Case Scenario:  IMHO, the best situation would be to have a shoe-plate or a brace at the bottom of the panel between the H-beams to support the panels.  This would drastically reduce the dependency on bolts!  Once we migrate from the dependency on bolts, as panels erode, we either remove and replace a board at a time or simply tamp them down with the pile driver and fill in the gap.  The challenge here is to devise a plan to retrofit this into our design.  Here are some ideas:

  1. Build say a ~10' long "U" out of 1/4" steel and slip it inside the H-Beam channel when the panel is removed and weld it at the top. 
  2. Or, maybe we could fabricate long braces which sit at an angle with a foot under the wood.  These could be installed without removing the panels. 
  3. If possible, we could hire an under-water welder to install a proper shoe in the channel of the H-Beam 15' from the top. (NICE!!!)   

Raising and Bolting:  A few panels which are still held together but sagging can be raised and re-bolted in place.  Since the wood where the 1" bolts now has an oblong hole, we need a plan on replacing the 1" bolts.  First, we are going to drill through the H-beam approximately 2 feet below the existing 1" bolts.  Clearance between the H-beam driven at an angle and the perpendicular H-beam is a concern as is the ability to drill through the metal. 

If we can't drill, we will use tabs from the original 1" bolt to an area of the panel where we can properly drill a new 1" hole in the wood.  This tab would either be perpendicular and welded or at an angle  We will add four tabs per panel, drill through the wood and add four corresponding tabs to the other side of the panel.  The wood will be sandwiched between these four tabs.  Some consideration is being given to adding tabs to the bottom of the good panels to relive stress from the 1" bolts through the H-beam.

Replacement:   Several panels are too damaged to raise and re-bolt so they need to be replaced completely.  Each panel will be custom built on land.  We feel the pile driver *should* be able to lower these panels into place.   Panels can be floated to one side of the wall with the Pile Driver situated on the opposite side.  In order to allow for the weight of the panels, chains will be used between the bow of the pile driver and the H-beams to keep the bow from being submerged while the panel is lifted.  In addition, we can add steel plates or flood the rear section of the pile driver to act as a ballast. 

Alternatively, if the pile driver is not up to the task, White Kirk and White must be hired to lower the panels into place similarly to the 2001 repair. 

Status:  Below is a table outlining the current state of the wall.  Sections have been numbered with "1" being closest to the clubhouse (north) and "38" being closer to Senasqua Park (south).  The table shows when/if wedges were added, how much the panel has sagged (left/right) in feet and the size of the washers used (2 or 3 inches).

Summary: As of 11/05:

Sec Wdg? Sag(L-R) Wshr Comments
01 2004 0-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
02 2004 0-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
03 2004 0-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
04 2001 0-0 3 New Panel 2001
05 TAB 0.75-1.00 3 Snug and brace
06 TAB 1.00-1.00 3 Snug and brace
07 2004 0-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
08 TAB 0.50-0.50 2 Snug and brace
09 TAB 0.25-0.25 3 Snug and brace, gaps at 3rd board down...REPLACE?
10 2004 0-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
11 REP 1-1 3 Replace, Boards in very bad shape
12 TAB .25-0 3 Snug and brace
13 REP .75-.75 2 Replace, big gap at 1st board
14 TAB .5-.5 3 Snug and brace, broken cross member (the "x")
15 TAB .5-.5 3 Snug and brace, bolts hanging, maybe REPLACE???
16 TAB .25-.25 3 Snug and brace, hanging bolts, fairly bad shape, REPLACE???
17 TAB 1.0-0.5 2 Snug and brace, gap at 1st board
18 TAB .75-.5 3 Snug and brace, a few gaps between boards
19 TAB 0-.25 3 Snug and brace
20 TAB .25-0 3 Snug and brace
21 TAB .25-.25 2 Snug and brace
22 2004 .25-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
23 2004 .25-0 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
24 2004 .25-.25 3 Wedges added, bolts tightened 2004
25 REP .5-1.0 2 Bad shape, replace
26 REP .75-.5 3 Bad shape, replace
27 2001 0-0 3 New Panel 2001
28 REP .5-.5 2 Missing boards, big gap, replace panel
29 TAB .25-.25 2 Snug, brace, tack bolts
30 TAB .5-.25 2 Snug, brace, tack bolts
31 2001 0-0 3 New Panel 2001
32 2001 0-0 3 New Panel 2001
33 2001 0-0 3 New Panel 2001
34 REP .5-.25 2 Replace
35 REP 1-.5 2 Replace, missing boards
36 TAB .5-.75 2  
37 2001 0-0 3 New Panel 2001
38 REP .5-.75 2 Replace, missing boards