An Exclusion Zone continues to be in operation around the breakwater construction area and all mariners are advised to check Cowes Local Notice to Mariners No 09(T) of 2015 Breakwater Works for the latest up-to-date information.

At the end of May, Boskalis will mobilise again to start the final phase of this 18-month project. The slopes of the gravel core will be brought into profile and then in mid to late June, the placement of the rock armour protection will commence, which should take approximately three months.

Further updates and more detail on the 2015 breakwater construction programme will be published over the coming months in our E-newsletters and on the CHC website, as well as in the 2015 Cowes Port Handbook.

The Commissioner selection committee of three is led by CHC's Chairman Roger Mathias, but also has a harbour stakeholder representative and an independent member, thereby ensuring that the balance of the selection panel is independent of the Commission. Richard Thornton, CEO of UKSA and Steve Hopper, the Queen's Harbour Master of Portsmouth, have kindly agreed to sit on our selection committee this year as stakeholder representative and independent member respectively.

Marine Conservation Zones were introduced by the UK government as the result of the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive, designed to protect more effectively the marine environment across Europe. Each Member State is required to develop and implement a marine strategy for their waters in order to protect and conserve the marine environment, prevent its deterioration, and, where practicable, restore marine ecosystems in areas where they have been adversely affected.

The Needles MCZ is the only candidate site on the Isle of Wight coast being proposed for designation in the second tranche of public consultation after stakeholders raised concerns that recreational boating, and local ports and harbours in the Solent would be adversely affected by MCZs at the other sites around the Island, namely Yarmouth to Cowes, Norris to Ryde, and Bembridge.

Of particular interest to Cowes Harbour Commission is the Yarmouth to Cowes candidate Marine Conservation Zones, an inshore site measuring 17 km². This site runs along the Island's northwest coast, from Sconce Point on the west of Yarmouth to the West Cowes headlands and includes Newtown Harbour and the important Salt Mead anchorage in Thorness Bay.

On 25th July 1892 Admiral de Horsey retired from the Royal Navy and lived at Melcombe House in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. On 20th February 1893, he wrote a letter to the Local Board of Cowes campaigning for a harbour breakwater. De Horsey proposed a pile breakwater 1,850ft (563.88m) long with a gap near the shore. The breakwater "would be beneficial to Cowes" by "improving the whole shore property between RYS Castle and the ferry; deepening the channel; and affording a sheltered harbour, which would attract a large number of small yachts and other vessels to this port".

De Horsey wrote that the object of the proposed breakwater was "that of making a secure harbour" since "Cowes is no harbour during north-easterly gales". He estimated that an outlay of £5,000 would suffice for materials, plant and labour, and the annual expense of a boatman to light and extinguish a light on the outer end of the breakwater would cost around £20.00, "the distance to row being only about 200 yards of water"!

For those of you who have ever wondered what happens to the race marks during the winter, they are all stored at CHC's Kingston Marine Services site in East Cowes before being re-painted for the new year. Over the coming days you may well spot CHC's Multi-Cat Seaclear laying the marks out in the Solent for the season ahead.