Marina Dock Age, March/April 1999

Can Marinas be Designed Without Slips?
by Ronald E. Stroud, Sr., CMM

Early in 1998 1 did a market feasibility study along the West Coast of Florida for a potential new marina. One of the places that I visited was a yacht club that had torn out its old docks and was putting in new ones with more beam in the slips. Its members kept buying larger boats until they were forced to make a change. This reminded me of a time in 1983 when we at Pier 66, another Fort Lauderdale marina, were forced to make the same change. Being in season, most of the other facilities that I visited were reasonably full, but I would always see a group of slips that were empty. Upon inquiring why, I was told, “We don’t have any boats coming in that will fit in those slips.”

Undoubtedly we have many marinas that are going to need retrofitting. You can move finger piers and put more beam in the slips, but you can not necessarily adjust for longer boats. This is restricted by the size of your turning basin. So you can see, to retrofit a marina for larger boats could involve tearing out main piers and going to considerable expense. Consultants can do a feasibility study by visiting existing marinas and determine, to a degree, what their market is going to be, but there is no exact science to determine how many slips to build at which sizes. Marina operators end up tailoring their markets to the slip sizes they have available.

It was a long, lonely drive back to the southeast coast of Florida from the northwest coast. I kept thinking there had to be a better way. Again my experiences at Pier 66 came to mind. There, the most sought-after dockage was on the out-side of Dock A, on the face piers and along the bulkhead. Why? Some felt that it was easier to dock. Others liked the fact that they could clean and do maintenance along the whole side of the boat. Many thought it was more private not having boats so close to either side. Like most other marinas, we charged more for these side-tie locations. During the winter season when we had large boats, we would layout a relatively small number of berths; but during the summer when the boats were smaller; we could lay out a bunch of berths. What flexibility!   Continue »