Bill Huffman’s remarkable 37- year career as a marine structural engineer encompasses some of the best known and most elite marinas in the Northeast, Southeast, Gulf Coast and Caribbean. His years of experience in the field give him a broad perspective from which to advise marina owners about the storm worthiness of their marinas. Huffman is the president of Structural Systems Analysis (SSA) based in Savannah, Georgia.
St George Motor Boat Club uses an attenuator to protect the marina during storm events.
At the last International Marina and Boatyard Conference (IMBC), Huffman presented a talk titled “Determining Anchor Pile Type and Size for Marinas,” in which he described engineering marinas to weather severe storms. Afterward, owners and operators approached him with questions. “How do I know my marina will survive a major storm?” “What is the largest boat I should allow to tie to my docks if a storm is approaching?” To learn the answers to these and other questions, Robert Wilkes interviewed Huffman.
Robert Wilkes: For readers who missed your talk at IMBC, what was the “take away” there?
William Huffman: My talk was about how we design for storm resistance and how that has evolved over the last thirty years and how owners can understand their own vulnerabilities.
RW: You had a lot of questions from people after your talk. What happened? Continue Reading…
Brett Bolton, CEO of d’Albora Marinas, heads up the largest marina group in Australia. Speaking to Robert Wilkes from his office at a’Albora headquarters in Sydney, Bolton discusses innovation, strategy, customer service and branding.
Brett Bolton has held a number of high profile management roles in some of the largest recreation and marina companies in Australia and New Zealand. He started in the marine sector fifteen years ago in reef tourism as Operations Manager with Sun Lover Cruises in Cairns. Sun Lover takes as many as 600 tourists at a time on large, high-speed catamarans to the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling adventures.
Wyndham Harbour in Australia has mastered the art of attracting boaters.
In 2003 Bolton was named manager of the marina serving tourism in Cairns. The facility had just completed a major redevelopment. “It was like a startup,” said Bolton. “We had to hire and train the staff and plan operations and maintenance for a new, larger facility. Daily traffic included fifty tour boats and 3,000 tourist passengers. We attracted many super yachts in the 50m to 75m range, some up to 120m.”
In 2007 Bolton moved to a new post at publically-listed Ariadne Australia Ltd headquartered in Brisbane.
The City of Newport Beach had a modern problem it shares with other waterfront cities: prime waterfront serving a function well below its potential. That emphatically changed on December 5, 2015, when the Newport Beach opened Marina Park, five months ahead of schedule.
Marina Park is on what is called the peninsula, the strand that forms the land barrier protecting Newport Bay. Bisected by Balboa Boulevard, the peninsula has businesses and an ocean beach across the boulevard from the park. Park visitors can walk to the ocean beach with waves and currents typical of coastal California or take their families to the placid harbor-side beach across the bay from picturesque Lido Island.
There’s something for everyone at Marina Park. The facility is home to a year-round sailing program and a 23-slip visitor marina. Its multipurpose upland facility features a towering glass-walled lighthouse and a café. The community has embraced it as a venue for weddings. A spacious “mother’s beach” is just right for a toddler’s first time in the water. The 10.5-acre park has everything for a fun day on grass, sand or water. A 6,100-square-foot Girl Scout Leadership Center is under construction funded entirely by the Girl Scouts of Orange County.
Development History
The land for Marina Park was acquired in 1919 as a public campsite. In 1965, the city leased plots to owners of mobile homes and created a trailer park. “It was a well-kept secret,” said a city manager, “with an incredible view of Newport Bay.” While it seems odd to associate upscale Newport Beach with a campsite and a trailer park, the contrast illustrates the explosive transformation of California.
In 1985, the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission recommended the site be developed as a public park. The trailers blocked sight lines to Newport Bay and city leaders wanted to open a “window to the bay.” They decided to let the leases expire and clear the land.
Park and Marina Design
City leaders were naturally concerned with sharing the waterfront with all segments of the community and hoped to introduce new people to boating. They succeeded. Marina Park is a model for other cities to emulate. “The project took thirty years, but we eventually opened that window to the bay,” said Laura Detweiler, recreational and senior services director for Newport Beach.
Detweiler was a member of the project team that developed Marina Park. A 25- year veteran of parks and recreation, she arrived during the conceptual design phase of the $35 million project.
“We had many meetings with the community to determine which amenities to include,” Detweiler said. “The outdoor fitness course was the first application of its kind in Newport Beach. We have a nautical-themed playground, two back-to-back basketball half-courts and a whole array of recreational classes. Families come to the park to picnic, climb the children’s lighthouse and play.”
Shannon Levin, management analyst in the Harbor Resources Division of the Public Works Department, managed the marina side of the project and now manages marina operations. “We had a working group of harbor users,” Levin said, “and we’ve been hearing for years that the harbor needed to be more visitor friendly, more welcoming.”
“We saw an opportunity to create a one-stop hub for cruisers with the possibility of reciprocal privileges,” Levin continued. “There is a lot to do here. It’s like a resort with the ocean, businesses, hotels and restaurants all in walking distance. We had moorings in the bay but they were not user friendly. So we designed Marina Park with a short-stay marina for visits of one to thirty days.”
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The world’s marina infrastructure is ageing and new sites for marinas are difficult to acquire and permit. At the same time, the market for marina slips has evolved toward larger boats, a high-quality living environment inside the marina, signature architectural style and more services and amenities. Operators of older marinas will inevitably face an inflection point, the moment when the marina is outdated or the docks are in disrepair and the potential revenue opportunity from a renovation or expansion is more compelling than staying the course.
New marinas are being built, but the trend in established markets is toward renovation and expansion of existing marinas. On behalf of Marina World, Robert Wilkes convened a virtual round table of USA-based experts to give their top-of-mind ideas to help others contemplating a renovation.
Robert Wilkes (RW): You’ve all renovated an existing marina, or provided professional services to projects. What advice do you have to those about to do the same?
Jim Bronstien, owner of consulting firm Marine Business Advisors and developer and operator of major marinas and shipyards around the world:
We’ve just taken over an operating agreement for a large marina that’s out of date. First, I’d say you have to learn the market in your area. Are you a destination and do you have special attractions? Do you have ease of access? Are you limited by bridges or depth? What are the trends in your specific area, what is the competition, what is recent demand like? If you’re thinking about attracting large yachts, do you understand the costs of building slips for them? In the end, it’s a bit of math, a bit of science and a bit of gut instinct.
RW: What advice do you have about design and engineering? Continue Reading…
China’s economic growth in the past decade has given rise to a substantial number of high-net-worth individuals, who are seeking exclusive lifestyles that offer a new dimension of luxury.
A report published by Sotheby’s International Realty reveals that the rich in China are growing at a steady rate. They have an increasing appetite for high-end, premium quality properties, with waterfront living as their top choice. Around the world, waterfront living has become the relentless pursuit of the affluent as a symbol of status and prestige.
In light of this growing trend, some of the world’s leading developers have been venturing into China to launch their waterfront and marina projects along the Chinese shorelines. One such example is Keppel Land Ltd, the property arm of the Keppel Group, one of Singapore’s largest multi-national titans with interests in property, infrastructure and marine businesses. Keppel Land China, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Land, pursues a two-pronged strategy of developing property for sale and managing property funds.
One of Asia’s premier property developers, Keppel Land is recognised for its sterling portfolio of quality award-winning residential developments and investment-grade commercial properties, as well as high standards of corporate governance and transparency.
Keppel Land China is focused on developing township, residential, waterfront, commercial and mixed-use developments in China. Over the years, the company has expanded its footprint in the nation to ten cities.
Marina lifestyle
Leveraging the success of Keppel Bay, an iconic waterfront precinct in Singapore, Keppel Land has embarked on an integrated marina lifestyle residential development, Keppel Cove, in the affluent Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in Guangdong Province. Continue Reading…