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2021 March April Marina World

  • Text
  • Vessels
  • Boating
  • Developments
  • Berths
  • Facilities
  • Drystack
  • Boats
  • Marinas
  • Marine
  • Waterfront
The magazine for the marina industry

Composite Decking &

Composite Decking & Bumpers A marina team with over 30 YEARS of continuity and leadership in comprehensive services for international marina development. Marina Planning and Design Sustainable and Resilient Design Waterfront and Coastal Engineering Marina Market and Feasibility Studies Marina Tender and Construcon Services Photo courtesy of Christophe Harbour Via Alba-Narzole 19 - 12055 Diano d’Alba (CN) tel. +39 (0)173 500357 - fax +39(0)173 500642 ® Represented in over 40 countries www.flovac.es Taking the Green approach to the Blackwater problem Composite Decking & Bumpers Vacuum sewerage systems are ideal for use in marinas and ports of any size. The Flovac system can capture sewage and bilge water from boats and all facilities around the marina complex. High Impact Resistance Easy Maintenance In-house Tooling Made to Order No electrical power required at dockside Validates MARPOL certification No risk of water contamination Suitable for boats and docks of any size Discreet, small diameter pipework Ease of installation Weatherproof Excellent OIT* High load capacity Soprefa, S.A. Portugal Tel: +351 256 880 470 soprefa@soprefa.com No odour MORE THAN 250,000m 2 INSTALLED! *Oxidative Induction Time

Around 2007, concrete drystacks started to appear for the first time. GCM Contracting pioneered this with Hamilton Harbour in Naples, Florida as the best shelter for hurricane conditions and fire (rack cells are also separated by concrete walls). Today, the concrete construction is similar, but the technique has varied to prove tilt-up to be the best method as (1) it is cheaper (2) it is faster and (3) less surface area is required for the construction site. Concrete is favoured by fire marshals around the world (well, North America, the Mediterranean, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina where most drystacks exist). Buildings like these also have the advantage of being easy to dress up on the outside to make them look like big villas or shopping malls. Doors, balconies, small hanging gardens etc., reduce the negative visual impact to zero. Another advantage of this construction method is the ability to have extra adjacent commercial space to give room to F&B, and open terraces on the top (roof), either for mini golf, F&B, solarium or a battery of solar cells for the electrical needs of the marina. Traditionally, facilities have been protected against the spread of fire with sprinklers but this system has disadvantages: all shed sprinklers work at once – throughout the whole drystack; and boats fill with water (even if drainage plugs are out as dirt inside the boat blocks the drain holes easily). A 7m (23ft) boat can hold nearly 3,000 litres (800 gallons) of water. This means that for a three-tier drystack, racking will be loaded with at least 9,000 kg (19,850 lbs) extra on every row of boats stored; food for disaster by possible collapse of the structure. In 2010, Argentinian company Capria developed some very ingenious overhead cranes for semi-automatic operation in drystacks. The company can compete with any factory in the world in terms of design and fabrication quality (and its equipment is being copied by other manufacturers). The types of cranes existing prior to this were of home-made quality, one-off inventions to suit specific needs. With a Capria system, a column Sophisticated automated machinery at Gulf Star Marina uses artificial intelligence software to distribute boats for highest efficiency. hangs from the overhead cart, featuring two forks that can rotate 360° and displace themselves vertically. The operator sits in a cabin attached to the forks so as to have 100% control of the forks, the rotation, and the threeaxis linear movements. It is simple machinery, providing safety, good speed and silent electric operation that generates no emissions. The company also builds two-stage launchers for high tide operations in conjunction with an overhead crane or forklifts, making the system able to operate with very high tidal variations. This type of DRYSTACK SYSTEMS semi-automatic machinery for stacking is the second most popular choice for drystacks today and benefits from the low risk of operational/human error. The start of the 21 st century also heralded the first fully automated drystack marinas. At the time, Vertical Yachts built what is today The Port Marina in Ft Lauderdale, Florida - a fully automated facility with a German crane and cantilever racks that ease the load and unload manoeuvre. This facility was also one of the first dockominiums: a legal term by which a boat rack can be sold like property/ real estate. Many drystacks were bought by speculators and transformed into dockominiums. Many people had to find monthly payment racks elsewhere as the purchase price for the space of the rack had to be paid in full at acquisition. The uncontrolled development of dockominiums created a shortage of water access for boaters. Communities have recently started to vote to limit the elimination of water access. Two years ago, Safe Harbour by GCM continued its innovation by creating ASAR. One facility – Gulf Star Marina – is up and running in Ft Myers, Florida and has experienced high occupancy since the day it opened. Gulf Star features a concrete shed with space for 300 boats on a relatively small footprint. This is possible because boats can be stored three deep on each rack; and this is how the ASAR launch and retrieval system proves unique. www.marinaworld.com – March/April 2021 47

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