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2020 September October Marina World

  • Text
  • Concrete
  • Bellingham
  • Boating
  • Completed
  • Vessels
  • Marine
  • Drystack
  • Marinas
  • Boats
  • Berths
The magazine for the marina industry

NEW Dura Deck ® Flip

NEW Dura Deck ® Flip for Marinas Weathered Cedar / Pebble Grey Mahogany / IPE This stunning product takes the colours from our Resist range and combines them into one single decking board profile so you can experiment with two colours in one design, or ‘flip’ your deck at a later date for a whole new look. Tel: +44 (0)1255 440297 Email: info@duracomposites.com www.duracomposites.com 2 COLOURS ON 1 BOARD Larch / Red Cedar Key Features Cfl-s1 Resists Fire Resists Load Resists Fade Resists Stains Resists Expansion Resists Slips INSPIRING BUSINESS SUCCESS “Information, Education, Inspiration” International Conference & Trade Exhibition The Marinas21 International Conference and Trade Exhibition will be held on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th May at the Marriott Resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The conference will bring together 300 – 400 participants comprising the region’s leading marina and club operators, owners and vendors along with related government agency representatives. www.marinas21.com 24-25 May, 2021 Marriott Resort, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

DRYSTACK STORAGE Left: The Gulf Star building has been designed as an architectural asset to the waterfront. Below: The ASAR system – streamlined, automated and making maximum use of interior space. Gulf Star heralds new generation drystack Gulf Star Marina, the new flagship drystack facility for ASAR/GCM Contracting in Fort Myers Beach, Florida opened for business by owner/operator Carroll Properties as scheduled in May. Due to COVID-19, it cannot as yet operate in full automated mode but, with all hands at work and over 60% occupancy, there’s a strong sense of the brisk efficiency to come. “We’ve been operating in manual mode since May as the Austrian technicians from LTW who built our specialist ASAR stacking crane are currently restrained by a COVID travel ban. They need to set the crane up in full auto mode and give staff some final training,” explains GCM Contracting president Robert Brown. “But we’re over half full and the system has had minimal downtime. It’s frustrating for us but also makes us very proud that despite the inconveniences we’ve suffered we’ve still delivered a functioning system on time. Just imagine what we can do when all is back to normal,” he adds. Automation for drystack isn’t new. Drystacks with semi-automatic cranes have been around for over 50 years and in use year round in San Fernando, Buenos Aires where the size and technology of drystack is second only to Florida. Fully automated drystacks made their debut around 2005 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – in concrete buildings which offered 100% safety in Category 5 hurricanes. There have been different methods of lifting and launching by automated cranes. Very early models, still in use, have cable-driven cradles hanging from an overhead unit. These systems can only, however, handle one boat per slot so that each rack can only contain a single row of boats. ASAR is very different. Instead of having an independent cart that lifts and moves the boats from the crane platform to the slots, up to three boats can be fitted in a single slot thus increasing the boat capacity of a standard concrete drystack building by more than 30%. Another great feature is the ability to transport boats to and from the water at any of the drystack levels, enabling them to be stored across an existing shoreside road. The crane technology is special and new to drystack, but not new to industry. LTW has built over 2,300 logistics stacking cranes and over 800 cranes similar to that installed at Gulf Star Marina. Here’s how it works. The crane is a four-legged tower on rails with a platform that can lift 50ft (15m) boats. It moves through the drystack bay powered by an electric motor (with a full back-up unit). The platform moves up and down, driven by dented belts (with a 15 year guarantee). The belts are not affected by humidity, temperature or light exposure and are driven by dedicated electric motors, also with full back-up units in place. It can operate at underground levels. The cart is totally autonomous and driven by the latest technology 400V batteries and DC motors for displacement and lifting/lowering of the cradles, and communication is by WiFi. The batteries are charged when the cart is in the platform. The silence is awesome. In association with Fort Myers’ Fire Marshal, GCM Contracting has also developed a fast full-volume foam system to ensure that, in the unlikely case of a fire breaking out on a boat, the fire cannot spread and damage nearby vessels. This unique feature gives boat owners and marina operators peace of mind and helps negotiate reduced cost boat insurance policies. While holding its own admirably for the summer months, Gulf Star Marina will reach the height of its powers when the Austrian team can fly out to the USA and sign off on the automation process. Hopefully, there’s not too long to wait. www.marinaworld.com – September/October 2020 39

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