A growing number of marina developers are looking to take an ecocentric (or environmentally conscious) approach to the design, construction and operation of their boat facility. This article reveals the environmental issues that are the biggest concern on a global scale and offers 6 guidelines for marina owners and operators to use in making purchase and operational decisions.
According to John Englander in his book High Tide on Main Street, marinas should be thinking about conservation of “energy” rather than conservation of “things”.
Marinas operate in some of the world’s most sensitive habitats.
As environmental concerns grow, more people are wanting to take an active role in being a part of the solution.
Put these two together, and marina owners and developers are smack-dap in the middle of the world’s environmental efforts.
Population growth aside, the single biggest environmental concern is climate change. Biodiversity, water and pollution are the next big 3.
For marinas, concerns about preservation of biodiversity, water quality and pollution are real and easy to understand. Marinas encounter and deal with these environmental concerns daily.
Not all composite products are created equal, and not all FRP rods are suitable for use in the construction of pontoons.
FRP thru-rods for pontoons are a highly specialized product.
The performance properties of Pultron’s FRP pontoon approved thru-rods are attributed to the composite mix, thread design, use of a specialized nut, and a thorough quality control process.
The FRP pontoon approved Thru-Rod from Pultron Composites is a highly specialized product. It was developed by Pultron in partnership with world marina builder Bellingham Marine exclusively for use in floating dock systems.
Pultron’s one-of-a-kind FRP thru-rod will not fatigue or deform under long term stress. It has tremendous tensile, shear, and thread strength. It is specially designed to withstand the dynamic forces and corrosive nature of the marine environment. The rod’s specialized performance properties are directly related to the composite mix, a unique thread design, and use of a specialized nut.
There is great variation between products within the composite industry. By definition, a composite is made up of various parts. While products from different manufacturers may look similar their physical, chemical and performance properties most likely differ.
Therefore, it is important to know the difference between an FRP rod that has been designed and approved for use in a pontoon system versus one that has not been approved.
The owners of a marina in Richmond, California were challenged by an outdated, underutilized dock. They found themselves frequently turning away big boats. Their solution, reconfigure the dock they had to maximize slip revenue and create new revenue streams.
The marina’s reconfigured dock is shown on the far left during the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show. The reconfiguration allowed the marina to bring in bigger boats.
Bellingham Marine recently completed a renovation project for Marina Bay Yacht Harbor, in northern California. Although the marina’s challenges are not uncommon, their approach for overcoming them is somewhat unique.
G-dock at Marina Bay had a number of problems. But the most frustrating for the marina was the high vacancy rates of the dock’s small slips. At the same time, the marina was turning away larger boats looking for moorage.
For any marina suffering from an outdated, underutilized dock, weak revenue streams, and /or are in a market where there is a shortage of slips for large yachts, Marina Bay offers a good example of a non-traditional solution.
Like most marinas, Marina Bay’s budget could not handle a major improvement project. But they did have some funds available that could be used for a small renovation.
A case study in technical design and constructability of floating structures: Northeastern University boathouse ramp and crew dock
An oversized aluminum gangway leads down to the University’s low freeboard rowing dock.
The most fascinating part about this small rowing pontoon and gangway built for Northeastern University in Boston, MA, are the challenges associated with the constructability of the design and how they were overcome.
At 100 feet wide by 17 feet long the gangway at Henderson Boathouse is truly one of a kind. To a layman, these dimensions might not seem extreme. But to a marina builder, to build an oversized gangway like the one envisioned for Henderson and have it land on an 8-foot-wide by 120-foot-long floating dock that has a six-inch freeboard is no small feat.
Northeastern’s vision for their new boathouse and rowing dock was perfect on paper. The poster child for functional luxury – elegant in design and calculated in its function.
For the residents of Townsville, the process of taking their boat out for a day on the water was riddled with frustration. Long waits and lack of parking combined with the stress often associated with launching and retrieving a boat (especially by individuals newer to trailered boating). Creating frequent outbreaks of ramp rage at the city’s boat launch parks.
Three new boat ramps with concrete pontoons and two new fishing jetties provide much needed access to the waters around Townsville, Australia.
The small town of Townsville, located in North Queensland adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, is heavily steeped in a culture of boating. The town has a population of 171,000 residents and nearly 26,000 of them have a boat under eight meters long. With only eleven existing boat ramps to service all the city’s boaters, the city was simply unable to handle the number of boats wanting to get on the water each day.
A vacant industrial property on Ross River provided the perfect location for a new park with ample room for parking and enough waterfront for the construction of four boat ramps, each with four lanes, and two public fishing pontoons.
Although the site was a perfect location, heavy public use, concerns of flooding and cyclone conditions, and the desire to make the park easily accessible during daylight as well as non-daylight hours required a number of unique design considerations in the construction of the ramps and pontoons.