Island Lhnng t Queensway Quay

In the biggest privately-funded reclamation operation ever mounted in Gibraltar tens of thousands of cubic metres of rock quarried in Spain are being dropped onto the sea-bed off Queensway Quay. The steady shuttle of ship-loads, which began last month and are expected to continue until October, will form the foundations and outer "wall" of a manmade island on which a £30-million development of 19 luxury homes will be built.

"The Island", which is the brain child of local yachting enthusiast and businessman Paul Butler, far outstrips the mass of "new" land which Greg Butcher's team has dumped off the waterfront of the old Sheppards' Marina to create a berm(or temporary dam)for work on the luxury Ocean Village (and which was reported in a recent is sue of the Gibraltar magazine). What's more,the Butcher berm will eventually be dredged away,while Butler's project is — like the dia monds of the De Beers advert forever.

"The Island" is unique in that its development has not been planned as a money-making exercise,but as a way to control or prevent the wave surge in the marina caused by westerly winds. It will be in fact a gigantic break-water which will not only completely solve the infamous surge,but — according to extensive wave study work which Butler has had carried out — will also create 18,000 square metres of deep water berthing in part of the marina that currently cannot be used.

"This new area will provide much needed berthing for visiting yachtsmen — enhancing the Gi braltar tourist experience," David Evans tells me.

Though the Camber, as it was originally known had always pro vided uncomfortable berthing for yachts, the actual marina followed the development of the quayside apartments by Taylor Woodrow in conjunction with dne Gibraltar Gov ernment.

"The marina at Queensway Quay, previously known as the camber, has been a berthing facil ity in one guise or another for as long as one can remember and changed little until Taylor Woodrow developed the quay side into apartments,that we now know as the Ragged Staff Wharf," Evans explains. "The camber was subse quently converted into a yacht berthing facility and Queensway Quay Marina was born... The surge caused the marina operators to re arrange the pontoonslayout design from a north-south lie to an eastwest one to try and compensate,but

David Evans with plans for the Island although this helped considerably the problem of surge still remained.

"The surge in the marina is am plified by the dogleg camber to the west and the fact that the seabed rises from 3 metres to 10 metres. When the west wind blows the sur face water is funnelled by the dog leg and as the seabed rises, the ef fect is like a micro tsunami."

When Butler bought the marina from Taylor Woodrow in 2003, he was determined to stop the surge and to create a marina which would become "a pearl within the Medi terranean and a safe marina to berth your vessel". Two large 100ton, 50-metre long floating pon toons where moored to try to re duce the surface swell and though these pontoons reduced some of the surge it was not enough to meet Butler's ideal ofa top-notch marina. Various schemes were evaluated and rejected as the research proved them not to do the job satisfactorily.

"Eventually, the only solution that could be found to solve the problem was to completely change the existing marina layout includ ing its entrance," Evans explains.

"This involved the demolition of the entire western part of the sea wall and its replacement with a new breakwater and a new marina entrance to the north. The new breakwater would run at right an gles from Ordinance Wharf up to the northern end of the northern marina seawall".

So the"island" project came into being. It will be built of rock on the seaward sides and compacted sand on the inside, in a very similar method to that used to reclaim the land during the Westside project. All told more than 270,000 cubic metres of material will be used with the rock coming from Spain and the sand being taken from the Eastside "burrow pit."

Initially, Butler and Dutch dredg ing company Van Oord considered using rock from Scotland — a bulk carrier made a regular run between Scotland and the Mediterranean and carried out the southbound leg empty. However, it became clear that a steady, and more frequent supply of rock would be needed.

The developers have worked closely with expert Eric Shaw to try and maintain the marine environ ment within the marina and also to help re-instate the areas that were damaged by the collapse of the main sewer system and the subse quent ensuing overflow into the harbour area.

"On the landmass nineteen houses will be located aesthetically finishing the marina and creating a valuable additional windbreak. Each of these houses will be in keeping with the prevailing archi tecture and on their marina aspect there will be located additional berths," says Evans.

So far, 14 of the £1.85-million homes have already been sold mainly to British and German HNWls,1 understand.They will be ready for occupation late next year or early in 2007. The landmass of the 13,000-square-metre island the size of two polo pitches which is being "constructed" by Van Oord, is expected to be com pleted by early October.(Van Oord is the company responsible for the creation of the spectacular Dubai developments — Palm Island and the World.)

Each home will have a basement garage large enough for four cars, a 20-metre private berth at the bot tom of its garden,servants quarters, and a private lift serving all four floors. The finished project will double the size of the present ma rina and will add at least a hundred berths.