DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997              TAG: 9704120286

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   87 lines

CITY AGAIN WARNS BOATERS: AVOID RUDEE INLET

For the second time in five months, mariners are being warned to avoid Rudee Inlet because of severe shoaling just beyond the jetties that form the entrance to the popular waterway.

Stopping short of saying the inlet is closed, the city's chief coastal engineer said Friday that commercial and pleasure boaters should not use the inlet until a large sand bar is cleared.

In December, severe shoaling promoted a similar notice to mariners but it was rescinded after the sand bar was reduced in size.

``The bar has now re-formed, so we're back with the same problem,'' said Phill J. Roehrs, the city's coastal engineer. ``The inlet is severely shoaled and navigation interests should not transit the inlet until further notice.''

The shoal is located within the initial 200 feet of an area beyond the jetties and in some places has reduced the mean water level to about 4 feet at low tide.

The city is under a long-standing agreement to keep the inlet dredged to a depth of 10 feet, but weather conditions and the limited capabilities of the city's dredge, which generally cannot operate in open seas, have made the task difficult to sustain.

Depending on the boat and weather conditions, the larger boats that use the inlet need just a little more than 4 feet to proceed, and some have tried to get through in recent days. But at least 10 boats reported hitting the bar Thursday and Friday and some have reportedly sustained damage to their propellers.

Anxious to resolve the problem, the city manager's office agreed Friday to let Roehrs' office begin seeking bids for a private dredging company to clear the sand bar.

``Depending on the price we're quoted, we would like to get the contract completed early on the week of the 21st of April for immediate mobilization after that,'' Roehrs said.

The notice to mariners, officially posted Thursday by the Coast Guard, was another blow to the small fleet of commercial fishermen who use the inlet as a passage to the sea and to companies that run sight-seeing tours for the Virginia Marine Science Museum.

Commercial fishing trips were canceled Friday, while some boat owners moved their craft to other marinas. Companies that contract with the museum to take people on tours of the water wildlife just off shore also reported cancellations.

``At low tide boats cannot get out at all,'' said John Crowling, manager of the Virginia Beach Fishing Center. ``You can get out during high tide, but anyone who enters the inlet or leaves at any other time is doing it at their own risk. The head-boat business for the weekend is out of business until it's cleared.''

Head boats take customers to sea for fishing and other recreational business. The term derives from the number of people, or heads, a boat can legally carry.

``We have 16 commercial fishing boats in this marina,'' Crowling said. ``Three of them left today. About 10 of them have reported scraping the bottom, so they left and will try to find a marina someplace else.

``When they leave, we lose their dockage fees, their fuel sales and whatever else they may want to buy - T-shirts, ice and the like,'' he said.

Fred H. Feller, who runs four head boats for the museum and has one of the oldest such companies at the marina, said business is dropping off.

``Now that word is out, not a lot of people are calling,'' Feller said. ``It's really hurt us. We canceled our trips for Sunday because we don't know what kind of schedule to run.''

Feller said his company, which operates four head boats, lost a week's worth of business because of shoaling problems.

``We turned away 400 people for whale watching tours,'' he said. ``If they can't run this weekend, we may lose 60 to 100 customers.''

Keeping Rudee Inlet open has been a headache since 1927 when it was expanded from a shallow drainage ditch to a channel for fishing boats. In recent months the problem has worsened as boats, including a brand new yacht said to be valued at $1.5 million, went hard aground on its shoaling banks. Courts have ruled that since the city has agreed to maintain the inlet, it owes a duty to the boating public to keep the channel navigable.

Yet the work force needed to dredge Rudee Inlet has been sharply cut back - from 23 employees in 1988 to nine today. And the dredgers and the equipment are stretched almost to the breaking point during bad weather.

The Public Works Department has asked City Council to come up with more money to hire up to 10 additional employees, and to consider buying a new, larger dredge for about $1.3 million. ILLUSTRATION: D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Commercial and pleasure boaters are being warned to avoid Rudee

Inlet, shown above on March 13. A previously dredged sandbar is

growing again. The shoal is within 200 feet of an area beyond the

jetties, and in some places has cut the mean water level to 4 feet

at low tide.

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