When Mark Sanders told the Army Corps of Engineers he planned to build a new marina in South San Francisco Bay, they had one question: “Are you crazy?” Waterfront development in the Bay is cited as second only to the nuclear power industry in terms of legislative difficulty. Many counselled him to save his money.
Sanders began researching the idea of a marina in Redwood City in 1988. “I felt sure a marina at this location would be successful,” Sanders said. “I’ve been a resident and boater in the area for decades, and was distressed to see South Bay boatyards and marinas closing one-by-one. Recreational boating was fading due to the high value of land (in the middle of Silicon Valley), difficulty of maintenance dredging, and lack of suitable sites. The South Bay once boasted a dozen boatyards but none remain. Moreover, as a director for Marine Science Institute (a non-profit organization that teaches marine science to school kids), I was on a mission to find a permanent home for the Institute and stem the decline of boating at the same time.”
Sanders attended the well-known Marina Development course at the University of Wisconsin and quickly learned that his notion of three years and 10 million dollars to build Westpoint Harbor was way off. “All developers are optimistic,” Sanders said, but he never imagined it would take 25 years to complete just the marina part of the project.
In 1990 Sanders was able to purchase part of a pond from Leslie Salt (now Cargill). The site was used to store chemicals that remain after harvesting table salt (Halite) from sea water, which is called bittern. Once the bittern was removed the more difficult problem remained. The site was 35 to 40 feet of saturated Bay mud right down to hardpan, surrounded by an earthen levee. Geotechnical analysis predicted 35 years for the site to fully dry and settle, and worse, the site was on a channel choked with abandoned and sunken vessels, including a 120 foot tug!
Another layer of difficulty was the dozen federal, state and local agencies with jurisdiction over the Bay, each with its own requirements which often conflict with each other. The challenge was getting them all to say yes at the same time (one agency actually regards marinas and boats as undesirable fill which must be mitigated!) Despite these obstacles and with the support of a wide variety of maritime and environmental organizations, Sanders was able to get the project permitted in 2003.
Market Analysis
“San Francisco Bay is the largest land-locked harbor in the world,” Sanders said. “It has nearly 60 marinas, mostly old with a slip mixes heavily weighted toward small boats (at least small by today’s standards, not so in the 50’s). Municipal marinas are often prohibited from displacing smaller slips with larger berths, and many marinas loathe to face the legislative challenges and expense to rebuild and update facilities.” Westpoint Harbor is the first new private marina in the Bay in decades, and targeted larger berths from 36 to 120 feet. Cynics noted there are few large recreational vessels in the Bay, but Sanders correctly reckoned this was partly because there are so few places to berth them.
Sanders cultivated allies who stood with him at the interminable permitting meetings, including individuals from Stanford University and the Audubon Society and environmentalists such as former Manhattan Project physicist Dr. Ralph Nobles. There was no public opposition to his project, nonetheless the permitting process took fourteen years.
Sanders retired from a long career in technology (he had been an executive at Ampex Corporation) and as it became clear this project was not going to happen quickly, he was recruited out of retirement and joined Pinnacle Systems as CEO. Over the next decade the company grew from 21 to over 1,000 people, went public and became a powerhouse in special effects and graphics for the television industry with revenues of $500 million. He retired again when the last permit was in hand. This happy circumstance allowed Sanders to set his sights higher. He resolved not just to build a marina, but a great marina.
His research showed the best marinas are equal parts water and land, with shore-side amenities necessary for a full-service marina. This was consistent with his target market of larger boats and with the demographics of Silicon Valley. “Larger vessels change the dynamics of boating and affect the makeup and quality of the marina, as well as amenities and needed to serve them,” Sanders said. “Westpoint Harbor’s exceptional climate makes boating a year-round activity, and boaters spend a great deal of time aboard, even in their slip. And larger vessels often can reach cruising destinations faster by water than car!”
Construction
Construction began in 2003, and the first task was to tackle the 35-40-feet of supersaturated mud. A frequent traveler to Europe, he often visited Holland. There he met with experts on how to rapidly “dewater” deep mud. He finally employed a Dutch process called “wicking,” essentially driving thousands of flattened tubes (called wicks) straight down to hardpan with an associated drain and pump system. Dirt is piled on top (called a surcharge) to press trapped water to the surface. In all, 50,000 wicks 40 feet long were installed. The site was 90% dewatered in less than a year and fully settled in 36 months. This allowed heavy construction equipment necessary to excavate the 26-acre marina basin to operate. The wicking process eliminated long-term settlement issues which often plague shore-side developments. The excavated mud (600,000 cubic yards) was dried and compacted and used to form the 24 acres of uplands for the shoreline developments.
Wicking “socks” are pushed into the mud down to hard pan, then cut. 50,000 socks were spaced 6 ft. apart. Since the mud was free, it was an easy choice to add a few extra feet of elevation to bring the final surface well above projected sea-level rise height, more than 10 feet above mean sea level. When the excavation was complete in 2006 and the channel was breached to fill the basin, Sanders had created 26 new acres of San Francisco Bay.
The marina is protected from wind and waves by Greco Island, a wildlife refuge surrounding the windward side of the harbor. “This permits a 300-foot wide entrance to the marina,” Sanders said, “and allows a complete exchange of water each tidal cycle. And the shape and depth of the harbor reduces choppiness by cancelling reflected waves. Together with a universal pump-out system we have an exceptionally clean marina—so much so that Stanford University hosts its national triathlon in Westpoint Harbor each year.”
Docks
Sanders was determined to build a marina designed from the boater’s perspective. As an active sailor he visited marinas around the world and knew what worked and what didn’t. After talking with dozens of manufacturers he chose concrete docks from Bellingham Marine. “I had ideas that others had not tried before,” Sanders said, “and went in thinking concrete docks are ‘old tech.’ But Bellingham Marine had answers to every question and said ‘Let’s go to work and figure out how to do it.’”
Dock trim and joinery are consistent with a premium marina.
Rounded pilings are internally mounted. An HDPE ring acts mounted under the dock acts as a bearing and scrapes the pile clean of shell life.
Rounding the end of the dock fingers was high on Sander’s list of boater-centric innovations. “Removing those hard corners takes the terror out of docking,” he said, “often the scariest part of boating. Instead of avoiding the sharp corners which can be so damaging, boats can lay against the rounded end and slide right into the slip!”
Single-piece finger piers with rounded ends. Westpoint Harbor’s harbor office building is in the background.
Bellingham Marine also built single-piece fingers up to 55 feet long to avoid twisting, sagging or hogging. Docks have internal round piles with circular pile guides under the deck for a clean look. Sanders wanted to eliminate external pile guides which can damage hulls, injure bare feet and snag sails and lines. Bellingham Marine designed HPDE ring guides which have the added benefit of silently keeping the piles free of mussels and shells. Finally, Bellingham installed special wood-stained glu-lam walers eliminating the characteristic hatch marks and copper-green color of pressure-treated wood.
The marina was partially completed and opened in 2008. Construction continued and the marina is now in its final configuration with 416 slips from 36 to 120 feet, a 1,000 foot guest dock, and a dozen catamaran berths. Phase II, now in progress, is adding a fuel dock and a full-service boatyard. Phase III will provide a retail area with a 1,000-foot boardwalk, restaurants, yacht club, marine store, rowing center, and other marine-oriented businesses. Sanders was not interested in simply building docks out into the Bay with a parking lot. “Even though that could be the most profitable path,” he said, “our vision for Westpoint Harbor is a maritime resort for boaters, with extensive facilities to support recreational boating from standup paddleboards, kayaks and kiteboards to superyachts. And, of course, we expect to see future boaters and others who just want to look at boats.”
Accents and Amenities
Some innovations Sanders wanted, such as rounded fingers, are now more commonplace in the marina industry. In his “a marina from the boater’s perspective” logic, little things are important: hardwood accents help create a premium-marina impression, dock boxes are on the upwind side so boats are unlikely to damage them, and the facility has a sophisticated Wi-Fi system.
Westpoint Harbor is a certified “Clean Marina” and the only harbor in Northern California to offer a pump out at every slip. “It’s so easy, everyone uses the system,” Sanders said. “Routine water tests show the marina is cleaner than background levels for the Bay. Noticeably absent in the marina are neglected or derelict vessels. Westpoint harbormasters inspect all vessels prior to arrival in the harbor, catering only to active boaters with well-maintained vessels.
In addition to free Wi-Fi and a dedicated phone/DSL line to every slip, Westpoint Harbor offers a premium Gigabit-capable Wi-Fi system. “Wi-Fi is essential,” Sanders said, “and is often a source of complaints for marinas. We designed our system such that there are no blind spots and no bandwidth limit. The system has a range of up to a mile and not susceptible to the normal ‘slump’ in the evening when web activity is at its peak.”
Microclimate
Why Redwood City? It’s the climate. “We have classic Mediterranean weather; rain in winter, dry in summer.” Sanders said, “We average 66 degrees in winter and 77 degrees in summer. “Often, when San Francisco is a chilly 60 degrees and drizzly, Westpoint enjoys short sleeves weather just 20 miles south.”
New machines at work removing trash from the Oceanside Harbor
A pair of new skimmers are making it easier to keep the water clean in Oceanside’s municipal harbor, alleviating one of the most frequent complaints from visitors and boat owners: trash and muck in the water.
The machines — installed about two months ago on the south side of the harbor, near popular eateries such as Joe’s Crab Shack — can each remove up to 500 pounds of trash from the water a month, city maintenance workers say. Trash and oils that would collect in the area, after being pushed there by the tides and currents, are trapped by the skimmers, which operate 24 hours a day.
“This area used to be bad,” said Jon Perkins, a maintenance worker scooping trash out of one of machines Friday morning. “We would try and do what we could, but I can’t believe how good it looks now.”
The Marina Trash Skimmer, built by Marina Accessories a Bellingham, Wa.-based company, the machines look like trash containers — about six feet wide by four feet deep — that float on the water. An electric motor sucks in about 300 gallons of water a minute into the device and filters the water trapping debris, such as paper cups, plastic containers and dead marine plants.
Maintenance workers remove the trash daily because the skimmers will automatically shut down if they overfill or clog.
The machines are fastened to a commercial dock on the eastern end of the south harbor. One is on the northern end of the dock and one at the southern end, near the Helgren’s Sportfishing building.
Opened in 1963, the Cape Cod-style harbor village is one of the city’s most beloved attractions. Popular restaurants, hotels and boat rental shops line the water. The Oceanside Yacht Club sits on the northern edge near a fence that separates the city from Camp Pendleton.
The harbor has about 1,000 boat slips and is home to several whale watching, commercial and sport fishing operations.
Keeping the area clean has been a constant challenge.
The city purchased the skimmers at a cost of $10,000 each, said Oceanside Harbor Manager Paul Lawrence. He said the pair are doing such a good job that the city may soon buy two more.
“We are looking at other natural collection points for marina debris in the harbor, where the skimmers could do the most good,” Lawrence said. “I would expect one or two more skimmers in the next few months.”
The skimmers are also beneficial to sea life, he said, because by churning the water they add oxygen attracting marine animals to the area.
Maintenance workers said that, previously, keeping the harbor waters clean and clear of trash was an impossible and time consuming task. In addition to city crews, Oceanside contracted with H2O Trash Patrol, a nonprofit organization that uses paddle boards to collect trash from the water.
Perkins said the skimmers filter trash that is too difficult for human eyes to see, such as small pieces of clear plastic. It also collects oils and scum. Absorbent pads are placed inside the skimmers that soak up oil and oil-based fluids.
Lawrence said he was familiar with the benefits of the devices because the Dana Point Harbor, where he worked as operations manager before he was hired in Oceanside, installed several skimmers in 2011 to clean the water.
The Port of San Diego also installed Marina Trash Skimmers at four marinas in San Diego Bay in 2009. The agency conducted a study of the devices over an eight month period and concluded that the “program was deemed a success because of the sheer volume of debris removed from the marina water, the increased observable clarity of the water and the satisfaction of the marinas and their tenants.”
At one of the marinas, the skimmer removed over 6,400 gallons of trash over the eight month period, the agency reported.
“Not only do they improve the aesthetics of their marina but the skimmers are easy to use, silent, and save the marina time and money by reducing the marina staff’s workload,” according to the report.
The Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron (RMYS) is one of the mainstays of Melbourne boating with a vibrant 140-year history. History has a way of repeating itself. Case in point: in 1879 the St Kilda Sailing Club (as it was then called) had a few dozen members and a bank balance of £17 (the currency of the time). The club submitted plans to the town council to build a club shed. St Kilda residents opposed the project and quashed the application, but club leaders persisted and were rewarded in 1885 when the Lands Minister provided a ‘free grant site’ for the shed. It was built at a cost of £120. The project took nine years.
Fast forward 125 years to 2nd February 2014. On a hot summer day in Melbourne, RMYS welcomed the public to its all-new 250-pen marina. The festive occasion attracted more than 300 celebrants, many of whom plunged into the water in the 40°C heat. The new marina features floating concrete pontoons by Bellingham Marine Australia and accommodates boats from 10m to 23m. New gangway, utilities, fire protection and pump-outs were included. The harbour’s wave protection was enhanced by extensive improvements to the breakwater and the addition of a new wave attenuator, also from Bellingham Marine Australia. Service pedestals and Keco pump-outs were provided by M-Tech. Just as happened more than a century earlier, the project took nine years.
RMYS is a familiar landmark on Port Phillip, a large protected body of water on a scale with San Francisco Bay. Convenient to the city’s CBD, RMYS was the venue for the 1956 Olympic sailing competition and is known for its busy race programme.
Time for an upgrade
RMYS leaders recognised in the late 1990s that the existing marina with its fixed timber docks and swing moorings was outmoded and becoming a liability. Melbourne has several yacht clubs that compete for members and the marina was inadequate by comparison. Seeing that a new marina was essential to the club’s financial viability, the members formed a new entity called St Kilda Safe Harbour Ltd in 2003 to prepare the way for a new facility. The work was funded by $5,000 pledges from 140 members. The first applications for permits and approvals were filed in 2005. As the applications worked their way through the approval process, Parks Victoria launched the St Kilda Safe Harbour Concept Plan to redevelop the harbour and breakwater. The RMYS application was subsumed into that process and RMYS and Parks Victoria worked together on researching, planning and eventually phasing the construction.
Planning Challenges
The complexity of the planning and approval process had exploded since the club built its first shed. “No one can appreciate how long and complicated the process of building a structure on water can be until they’ve done it,” said RMYS general manager, Rod Austin. “This is a politically sensitive area and we had to satisfy 11 separate community interest groups, meet with them and resolve their concerns. It took a long time. We depended on our volunteers to attend the meetings and win over the public, and they did a magnificent job. Once the work began, there were no problems, only compliments. Because of our people’s community relations skills, our project is done. There are several other projects on Port Phillip, some of which started before ours did, that are still waiting for approval.”
Pontoons and breakwater
RMYS hired the engineering firm GHD to be lead engineer and lead contractor for the project. The club reviewed tenders from several pontoon manufacturers with differing pontoon systems and eventually opted for a floating concrete system from Bellingham Marine Australia. The 140m wave attenuator was also sourced from Bellingham Marine Australia due to its proven performance and durability. Fitzgerald Constructions was the contractor for the improvements to the breakwater. The project included an extension to the south end of the breakwater and a new spur, or groyne, at the north end. Construction presented unique challenges. Because the breakwater is far from the shoreline, the massive rocks had to be accumulated on the beach then loaded onto ‘Moxy’ trucks. The trucks were then loaded onto barges and moved across the harbour to the breakwater. The rocks were placed in exact locations determined by GPS coordinates,after which the trucks had to motor backwards to the barge and return to shore for another load. The operation took nine months and 2,000 truckloads of rock.
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What can compare to making port amongst the beau monde on the French Riviera? Monaco, Cannes, St Tropez…the names are legendary. But it’s virtually impossible to find berthing there in high season without a reservation made months in advance. And once you’ve squeezed your stern in and set your bow anchor, your privacy, peace and serenity may be rare and fleeting. For a different experience, cruise just 40 nautical miles east from Monaco to Loano on the sun-drenched Ligurian coast. Enter the 1,000-slip Marina di Loano and ease into an available finger-pier berth. If you arrive in a yacht up to 77m, you may be among the first to enjoy the just-commissioned section of the marina newly remodelled for superyachts.
While Loano lacks the celebrity glamour of Monaco or Cannes, this new marina has its own allure. Marina di Loano provides five-star service for guests who appreciate tranquillity and privacy. The marina is still new, having just opened in 2011, and bills itself as ‘a destination within a destination’.
Marina architecture
The facility is anchored by a spectacular three-storey yacht club centrally located in the marina. The design and architecture of the yacht club and surrounding facilities was accomplished by the renowned Florentine architect Guido Spadolini of the firm Spadolini & Architetti. Spadolini is himself an avid sailor, and it shows. For anyone building a new marina, Spadolini’s work will provide inspiration and is a hard act to follow. The large main lobby, stairwells and promenade deck of the yacht club give the illusion of being on a transatlantic ocean liner. The pool on the top deck is bracketed by dramatic fountains and surrounded by substantial cruise ship railings. A ‘control tower’ that serves as the harbourmaster office rises two storeys above the yacht club like the bridge of the ship. The theme has been tried before, but few have succeeded as magnificently as Spadolini has at Marina di Loano.
Port history
The plan for the Port of Loano was originally designed in 1938 by naval architect Filippo Bonfliglietti. Due to the war, the works he designed were not built until the 1950s. The massive rubble-mound breakwater is 60m wide, 6m high and 900m long, offering protection from a 6m (20ft), 100-year wave. A 300m long, 5m high inner pier completes the basin. The breakwater and inner pier offer excellent protection from prevailing winds and weather. A 70m wide, 5m deep entrance channel is accessed from the east.
Originally designed to support a fishing fleet of about 40 boats, the resulting basin was much larger than needed. That proved to be fortunate a half century later after the explosive growth of recreational yachting. Whether because of bravado or farsightedness, Bonfliglietti’s marvellous breakwater is sized for a modern, world-class marina. Bonfliglietti, who in the 1920s also designed an aircraft carrier for the Italian Navy (it was never built), didn’t live to see Marina di Loano nestled in the protection of his breakwater, but he would undoubtedly be delighted by the sight of 77m yachts in his harbour.
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Marina developer ‘A’ begins with a clean sheet of paper and sees the project as an opportunity to clear away the old and create something new. He gives it a brand name and a logo, but does little else to take advantage of the essential nature of the location. Developer ‘B’ recognizes the potential of what is there. He patiently encourages a process that channels the ethos and energy of the community into the project.
Matthew Strunk is the quintessential Developer ‘B.’ Stock Island Marina Village embraces Key West’s mellow lifestyle and colorful history. Rather than a marina tailored to a narrow market segment, Strunk is creating a Key West experience that appeals across a wide spectrum. “It’s eclectic,” said Strunk. “It’s a big gumbo that appeals to all kinds of people.”
Strunk and his team just completed Phase One of a two-phase development in Safe Harbor on Stock Island. The island is the penultimate link in the Florida Keys before Key West. A new Bellingham Marine-built floating concrete dock marina occupies the east half of the basin. The newly opened moorage features Unifloat docks in a 128-slip configuration with berths ranging from 12m to 21m (40 ft. to 70 ft.). Two new side-tie berths welcome super yachts up to 80m (250 ft.).
Safe Harbor is accessed from the Atlantic through a dredged entrance channel 7.6m to 10.6m (25 ft. to 35 ft.) deep. The marina basin is divided by two massive land piers cut from solid indigenous limestone and separated by 90m (300 ft.) of water. At the end of the north land pier is the ship’s store with a captain’s lounge above and an outdoor bar and grill alongside the new floats. The second land pier anchors an older live-aboard moorage with 80 slips. The facility offers a wide range of amenities, including in-slip pump outs for all slips and 480A, 3-phase electrical service for power-hungry super yachts. High-speed fueling is available on the 430-foot fuel dock, the largest in South Florida.
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