Video: The boating club with no water

Nestling in the Pennine hills above Marsden, near Huddersfield, sailors have for years made use of picturesque Redbrook Reservoir and enjoyed the chance to take to the waters and get away from it all.

But for several months boats haven’t been able to go anywhere after major engineering works required the reservoir to be drained.

Work has now finished and the sailors are patiently waiting for the rain to arrive to fill up the reservoir again.

In 2010, the Redbrook Sailing Club, which is based at the water’s edge, should have been celebrating its 50th anniversary but instead the club’s members were left without anywhere to sail.

Peter Baker, information officer with the club said last night: “It wasn’t a great 50th anniversary celebration.

“It has been a very difficult situation.

“The timing was not good because about three years ago a bit of new blood came into the club.”

But Mr Baker added: “It’s been a testament to the club that we’ve survived it.”

Redbrook Reservoir was built to serve the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and has been used by sailors for many years.

Repairs began on Redbrook Reservoir several months ago after concerns were raised about the safety of the banking following an inspection.

Mr Baker added: “The only way to keep within regulations then has been to lower the water level and they are lowering it by one metre which is obviously going to make the reservoir considerably smaller.”

He said club members are now just waiting for it to fill up and see how the changes have affected the available water.

“We are now waiting for the reservoir to fill up again and then we can see exactly where the water has come to and then we will have to rebuild the jetties.

“There has not been a lot of rain this Winter really, it has been frozen and then we have seen snow that hung around for ages.

“If we get a period of reasonable rain which one would expect at this time of year then it should be full in time for us to begin a normal sailing season which would be March/April.”

Yesterday British Waterways said in a statement: “Redbrook Reservoir, which is situated near to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, has recently undergone an £800,000 programme of major works to ensure the stability of the dam and reline the draw-off pipe.

“Whilst Redbrook is no longer used to directly supply the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, it does have an agreement with Yorkshire Water to maintain the reservoir.”

Mr Baker has been sailing on the waters for a number of years and says it is a beautiful spot for sailing.

“It’s a superb location, it’s almost on top of the moors.

“You nearly always get a wind there, it does get a good sailing wind.

“You just look around you and you see the moors around you and it really is beautiful.”

Redbrook is one of the smaller sailing waters in the area but it does have the advantage that members can sail on their own any time conditions and their diaries allow.

Members are now spending their spare time getting the club ready for whenever there is sufficient rainfall for them to get back out on their boats and set sail.

While the club, which has around 30 members, has been out of action some members have been able to go elsewhere - but are looking forward to taking to the waters of Redbrook again.

“I think all the members are fairly confident that the club will survive and we will be able to sail there,” Mr Baker added.

Karen Rice, project manager for British Waterways said last night: “The works began in June and had a completion date of October. However, after dewatering the reservoir we hit problems as the pipe we were relining was a different size to that of the old drawings we had, so it had to be fully redesigned.

“However, we’re pleased that the project has now finished and the reservoir is refilling with water.

“In order to keep disruption to the sailing club as low as possible, we did some additional dredging works to reprofile the reservoir in order to make the area deeper for jetties and also added a concrete landing area so access is suitable for them to sail in the future.”