DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710260051

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  166 lines

INLET FACES UNKNOWN SOUNDINGSSINCE 1927, RUDEE INLET HAS BEEN A HEADACHE FOR THE BEACH. NOW, A COURT RULING MAY PROMPT THE CITY TO STOP DISTRIBUTING MAPS, HIRE MORE WORKERS AND MODIFY ITS DREDGE.

Like a winter storm sweeping the Oceanfront, a judge's ruling against the city promises to blow big changes into Rudee Inlet.

Ten days ago, a federal judge ruled that Virginia Beach is partly responsible for a $1.5 million yacht that ran aground in Rudee Inlet last year and was wrecked by waves.

The ruling probably will cost the city $500,000 to $600,000 in damages - about what Virginia Beach spends every year dredging the sandy inlet.

Beyond that, the ruling will force city officials to re-examine what to do with this narrow water link between Owl Creek, Lake Rudee and Lake Wesley, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Every year, thousands of boaters sail through Rudee Inlet to waterfront houses and marinas in those areas. It's a magnet for boaters up and down the East Coast: vacationers stopping for a night, locals prowling for deep-sea fishing, charter boats for hire. Boating in and out of Rudee inlet is a $5-million-a-year industry.

But since December 1995, when a rash of boats ran aground in the sand-clogged channel, city leaders have wondered: What can be done to keep the channel open year-round?

Now, partly as a result of the court's costly ruling, the city probably will:

Hire more dredge workers to keep Rudee Inlet unclogged.

Train those workers so they can dig better.

Modify the dredge so it can dig more.

The city has nine dredge workers who work four days a week. A consultant recommends hiring six more, and the city staff probably will push for 10, to ensure the dredge can be used seven days a week.

``Certainly the city doesn't want any more litigation regarding Rudee Inlet,'' said Councilman Linwood Branch, who represents the resort area. ``But it's a lot bigger than that. We believe Rudee Inlet is a treasure of big importance to the city. Rudee Inlet is an asset that any city would love to have.''

Branch and Vice Mayor William D. Sessoms say the City Council probably will approve more dredge workers soon. The trial's outcome will be one factor, they say.

``It's certainly publicity that we don't want to have happen again,'' Branch said.

Also as a result of the trial, the city will stop distributing Rudee Inlet water-depth maps to the nearby Virginia Beach Fishing Center.

For the past four years, the center has used those maps to help boaters navigate the tricky channel. The maps, made every two weeks, showed where the inlet was shallow and where it was clear.

But city officials didn't like it. They warned boaters for years not to rely on the surveys because conditions in Rudee change quickly. They said the surveys were just snapshots - helpful to dredge crews, but obsolete for boaters virtually overnight.

The new policy will make it harder for boaters to weave through the inlet, but it probably will protect Virginia Beach from liability the next time a boat runs aground.

In the yacht case, U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar ruled that the city was partly responsible for the accident because it had provided water-depth surveys to the fishing center, but not new warnings when conditions changed.

Now the city will stop supplying the surveys.

``We did know they (fishing center employees) were giving some advice based on these charts, but we told them they should not be. They disregarded our advice,'' said Phillip Roehrs, a coastal engineer for the city. ``Therefore, we are not going to provide it in the future.''

Boaters feared this would happen after the trial.

``The city wants to shift the burden of responsibility to anyone else but them,'' said John Crowling, the fishing center manager.

They bear names that only a sea captain could love.

Gravy. Chaos. Therapy. High Hopes. Miss Behaven. Rainbow. Miss Virginia Beach.

Even now, as the autumn chill sets in, a dozen charter boats line the piers inside Rudee Inlet, waiting for customers. ``We have some of the finest ocean fishing on the entire East Coast right on our doorstep,'' says Jim Wright, long-bearded owner of Therapy. ``But we must be able to get to it.''

These are anxious days at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center. The summer tourist flood is over. The long, cold winter lies ahead.

Normally, the captains would be pulling in day trips and half-day parties. But when Rudee Inlet clogs and is closed to boaters, as it was for a long stretch last winter, business suffers. There's no other way for boats at the fishing center to get to the ocean.

Worse, national publicity over the 1996 yacht accident has made East Coast boaters leery of Rudee Inlet.

Last month, BOAT/U.S. magazine, official publication of the Boat Owners Association of the United States, ran a two-page spread on Rudee Inlet. The story included a big color photo of the million-dollar yacht stuck in the channel. The headline declared: ``Sand Trap Stirs Up Dredging Debate.''

It was the kind of publicity Virginia Beach didn't need.

Charter captains say it must stop. They say the inlet can be kept open without spending $2 million on a bigger dredge. It's easy, they say: Just use the dredge more often.

``Rudee Inlet can be maintained with the dredge they have,'' says Steve Richardson, owner of Chaos, ``if they put it out there and use it.''

Fred Feller, one of the senior charter boat captains at Rudee Inlet and owner of four charters, agrees. It's not the dredge, it's the staff, he says.

The city dredge, Rudee II, can dig only when the sea is calm. Waves of more than 2 1/2 feet can knock it out of business. And since the crew works only Monday through Thursday, the answer seems clear. ``They need more people and they need to be out there when it's calm,'' Feller says. ``If it's calm tonight, they need to be out there. If it's calm Sunday, they've got to be out there. . . . If they can't do it, they should turn it over to a private company.''

Even the city agrees. It's a manpower problem.

``What's going to solve the problem is the ability to be on site (in the inlet) more frequently,'' says Roehrs, the city coastal engineer. ``The way we're staffed, we just can't run it around the clock.''

What God fills in, man digs out.

That's the history of Rudee Inlet. For 70 years, it has been a pain in the neck.

Fact No. 1: Rudee Inlet is not natural. If nature had its way, the inlet wouldn't exist.

What is now Rudee Inlet began as a manmade drainage culvert. That was 1927. Six years later, in 1933, a hurricane destroyed the culvert. Then fishermen had to redig the channel every spring.

In 1968, the state created the current inlet, part of a $1 million plan to attract boaters.

Fact No. 2: Rudee clogs. Constantly.

It can't be helped. In Virginia Beach, sand flows south to north. That's nature. Every new storm pushes sand off Croatan Beach and Sandbridge to clog Rudee Inlet.

The best man can do is keep digging. Once a year, the Army Corps of Engineers digs out Rudee with a big dredge. Then it is Virginia Beach's problem for 51 weeks a year. The city digs frantically, but can't always keep up.

Until recently, the Beach had lots more diggers. Back in the '80s, there were 23 and they were on call constantly. Then the city abolished the Erosion Commission in 1989. Now, thanks to budget concerns, there are only nine dredge workers. They work just four days a week.

Fact No. 3: Rudee Inlet wasn't designed for today's boats.

The engineers of 1966 didn't plan for two-way traffic in the channel. Now it's common. They also didn't imagine as many big charter boats. Now they're there.

Should the city widen Rudee Inlet? Expand the jetties? That would cost $10 million to $30 million, Roehrs said in a sworn statement in June. The issue has never been studied.

Now it's up to the City Council.

In May 1996 - after the yacht ran aground, but before the lawsuit - the city studied Rudee Inlet. It issued a dismal report. ``In general,'' wrote Ralph Smith, the public works director, ``the inability to maintain Rudee Inlet in a safe and navigable condition 365 days a year reflects poorly on the city as a premium resort/vacation destination.''

His recommendation: Hire 10 more dredge workers and buy a bigger dredge. That would cost $2.3 million the first year, then $1 million every year after.

The City Council ordered another study.

Now that report is in. A consultant recommended in August: six more dredge workers, no new dredge. Cost: $202,000. The city staff probably will ask for more workers. The City Council probably will take up the report in November.

Vice Mayor Sessoms has no doubt what will happen.

``To me, it's real simple,'' Sessoms said. ``We need to do whatever we can to preserve Rudee Inlet and make it a great center for the Beach. It's just a major asset.''

Edward Powers, a Norfolk lawyer who represented the yacht owner in federal court, agreed.

``It's not that it can't be done,'' Powers said. ``It's just a matter of how much money they want to spend to do it.'' ILLUSTRATION: L. TODD SPENCER/file color photo

LEFT: 10 days ago, a judge ruled that Virginia Beach was partly at

fault for last year's grounding of this $1.5 million yacht. KEYWORDS: RUDEE INLET

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