Marina Dock Age

Maine will have 10 more pumpout stations along the coast this summer where they can dispose of onboard waste, according to a May 8 Kennebec Journal report.

Rep. Chellie Pingree said Maine is one of 25 states receiving federal Clean Vessel Act grants this year.

Maine’s share of $352,000 will be used to install 10 new stations and to continue the operation and maintenance of the dozens of other existing pumpout stations along the coast.

The new stations will be in Bangor, Bar Harbor, Bath, Bucksport, Rockland, Bucks Harbor, Boothbay harbor and Pulpit Harbor.

Tim Figgins, owner and CEO of Boat Boys, LLC opened a new branch marina on Buckeye Lake in Ohio, according to a April 2 report in The Buckeye Lake Beacon.

Figgins, whose Boat Boys business is headquartered in Newark and nowhere near water, said former Sayre Brother Marina owner Zenna Sayre reached out to him to open a branch business at the Buckeye Lake site. The new marina is on the North Bank near the Buckeye Lake Yacht Club. The official title is Boat Boys at Sayre Brothers Marina. “After 105 years, it deserves to keep the Sayre Brothers name,” Figgins said.

In addition to replacing the old, damaged docks with 34 new slips, Figgins removed roughly 7,000 pounds of scrap material from the marina’s basement that had accumulated over a century. He and his crew have also sanded the marina’s floors down to their natural wood. Figgins hopes to preserve some of the old marina’s ambiance. “We want to keep the nostalgia, just breath new life into it,” he said. “We’ve made it a labor of love.

The store features a showroom, clothing, parts and service, although major boat repairs may be completed at the larger Newark location.

After five years of planning, Fort Pierce Marina in Fort Pierce, Fla., will finally begin an 18-month project to rebuild the marina and develop tiny man-made islands in September. Hurricanes in 2004 left the marina in tatters, and the city could not get money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for repairs until it created a way to protect the docks from future storms, according to April 11 TCPalm.com report.

To help prevent massive waves from crashing into the docks, city engineers came up with a plan for buffer islands. To help ease environmental concerns, the city set aside underwater land near the proposed islands for environmental protection. The city also tested models of the islands for the 21.75-acre site to see how the islands would affect the surroundings.

“The city feels it has developed an innovative concept for shoreline protection outside the normal methods for this type of protection,” said City Engineering Project Coordinator Ed Seissiger, in an e-mail to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. “The goal was to develop shoreline protection that would be a benefit to its residents and to the environment.”

After years of tweaking designs to answer environmental impact questions, the city received a key permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in December, after getting a separate permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2009.

The marina remained open throughout but lost more than 100 slips. When finished, the new dock will have 287 slips, up from 135 now and 280 prior to the hurricanes.

“Rather than just build rock jetties, which have virtually no habitat, they’re trying to build habitat islands and not just spoil piles,” said Paul Gray, science coordinator for Audubon of Florida Okeechobee. “A lot of times, they’ll just pile up the spoil in the waterway and leave it as a big nuisance site and it gets covered with exotic plants and really doesn’t provide habitat.”

Exacts costs for the Fort Pierce Marina project could be done by early June. The city is now updating its 2005 cost projections, which at the time came in at about $9.63 million for the islands, to be paid by FEMA, and $10.5 million for the docks, from FEMA and insurance funds. If Fort Pierce officials decide on upgrades, there could be costs to the city.

The Mobile County River Delta Marina and campground in Mobile County, Ala., will get a $1.4 million federal grant through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, according to a Mar. 28 WALA-TV FOX 10 report.

The River Delta Marina, located in the town of Creola, is one of the few public access points to the unique and beautiful ecosystem of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. The grant is compensation for oil and gas drilling in Alabama’s off-shore waters and is directed strictly for conservation, protection and preservation of coastal areas.

The new funds will be used to replace boat stalls and shore up the bulk head and an attached walkway. Also planned are a larger dock, landscaping, and a new pavilion featuring educational kiosks for visitors. A pond of the premises will be provided a water fountain to enhance aeration.

Located at the end of Dead Lake Road off exit 22 of I-65, the River Delta Marina features a campground with full hook-up RV sites and cabins. A new swimming pool opened last year. It also provides a playground and a lake stocked with bluegill and bass that is available for campers only. An on-premises laundry and bathhouse are provided.
Free use of the boat launch is included for registered campers.

The buildup of silt in the entrance channel to Titusville Municipal Marina in Tutusville, Fla., has caused the bottoms of many of the larger sailboats to touch bottom at certain points in the channel. Marina Manager Mark Leslie is moving forward with a dredging project to remove silt from the channel, according to a April 8 Florida Today report.

Leslie has received unanimous city council approval to seek a Florida Inland Navigation District grant to cover 75 percent of the $70,000 cost for the first phase of the project, which includes getting the permits and engineering work in place for the dredging.

The Brevard County Commission agreed to chip in the remaining 25 percent of that cost from the Brevard County Vessel Registration/Brevard Boating Improvement Funds derived from the fees boaters pay.

Leslie said the dredging work itself would cost an additional $300,000 to $500,000, which he hopes to fund primarily with federal and state grants, combined with funds from private businesses using the basin, including a nearby private marina and boat company.

Leslie said the marina in the past has played host to small cruise ships and megayachts, but without the dredging project, that may not be feasible.

“It’s like having a highway, and no cars can get under the bridge,” Leslie said.

Separately, the marina is moving ahead on creating a 75-spot offshore mooring field in the basin, funded by federal and state grants. The project, which has been in the works since 2005, likely will be put out for bid in June and will take about a month to complete, Leslie said. Preliminary soil-testing work began the first week of April.

The city council gave city staff the authority to start preparing an ordinance, setting forth the rules for operation of the mooring field. The ordinance will be open to public discussion and subject to a council vote.

The moorings will be attached to the sea floor, giving boaters secure spots to tie their vessels, and will be able to handle boats up to 60 feet long.

The mooring field offers boaters a lower cost alternative to tying up at the city’s municipal marina docks, which have 205 boat slips.

Leslie said the mooring field would allow a transient boater with a typical 40-foot sailboat to tie at the marina mooring field for $10 to $15 a night. That compares with a base rate of $65 a night for a 40-foot boat staying overnight at the marina docks, not including the cost of electricity.

At one time, the marina had been at full capacity with a waiting list, but it now operates at about 75 percent occupancy.

After six years of working with the state, Grassy Sound Marina in North Wildwood, N.J., received a grant and state approval to dredge and repair damage caused by the shoaling, according to an April 7 DredgeToday.com report.

The family-owned marina received a $775,000 grant from the state’s Department of Transportation office of maritime resources in 2008 but didn’t receive the final permit to dredge, replace the aging bulkhead and repair the dock and slips from the Department of Environmental Protection until February. Debbie and Jim Mooers, owners of Grassy Sound Marina, said the grant is the largest ever awarded to a private marina in the state.

The owners have been in a constant battle with the elements for the future of the marina. Sand had settled into the marina’s basin and slips where boats used to dock, essentially creating a sandbar that eliminated boat access and raised the docks feet out of the water. “We have gone through nine nor’easter storms in the last few years. Put all of that weather together with a new beach and the conditions were perfect for the sand to land here,” Debbie Mooers said.

According to research done by Mooers, the last time the marina was dredged was in the 1970s, and boats have not been able to dock in some places for 25 years.

The Mooers said they paid $125,000 for the dredging themselves and used the grant money to pay for a new bulkhead, reconstruction of the pier, a new fuel system and updated utilities. The couple also plans to increase the number of slips to 90 when all the work is completed.

Despite all the work the family has put into the marina, the sand will continue to be a problem. “We’ve just got to continue to maintain and continue to dredge,” Mooers said.

Boaters at the Eastport Yacht Club (EYC) in Annapolis, Md., have long dealt with strong waves that rocked boats at its Seven River docks, but the club wasn’t allowed to put in a wall to calm the waters. EYC finally found a solution to its problem with artificial reefs made of concrete and oysters, according to a Mar. 12 report in The Capital.

The yacht club initially wanted to install a solid breakwater when the marina was rebuilt in 2006. However, environmental regulators would only allow a partial wall to hang down from the docks.

Club members said the partial breakwater didn’t do enough to stop the waves. Some of the tall sailboats would sway from side to side on days when waves were high or when busy boat traffic sent waves slamming toward the club.

When the idea of using artificial reefs was brought to the table, the club connected with David Walter of Reefmaker Artificial Reefs in Alabama, who designed a special reef for EYC. Michael Foreman of Mid-Atlantic Reefmakers, is casting the reefs. He thinks this kind of reef could catch on in the Chesapeake Bay, if they attract marine life as expected.

For now, just a handful of the reefs have been stacked in place underneath the yacht club docks, as the installers figure out the best way to install the reefs in the marina’s tight quarters, without disturbing the dozens of boats that are docked there.

Three or more square reef pieces with diagonal sections on top will be stacked together in the water, providing a block against the waves, while still allowing water, fish and other sea life to move through. Triangular inserts will be coated in oyster spate and inserted between the diagonal sections.

The permitting and approval process was long and tedious, although yacht club members said they didn’t face significant opposition or concerns from environmental agencies.

The club plans to work with the oyster hatchery at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Lab in Cambridge to buy the baby oysters. The club hopes to secure grant money to help pay for the oysters, since overall water quality in the area should benefit from the oysters. They’re also hoping to convince scientists to study the oysters, to measure how well they grow and survive on the artificial reefs.

Emeryville Marina in California, operated by Marinas International, completely rebuilt its south basin, including new docks with larger slips and upgraded utilities, according to a Mar. 2 press release from Bellingham Marine, who designed and built the floating docks.

In addition to the upgrades made to the marina’s dock system, the layout of the south basin was also significantly improved during the renovation. The fuel dock and the commercial fishing docks, which were originally located along the inner shoreline, were moved to the outer edge of the basin, which not only improved access but freed up space to allow for a greater range of slip sizes.

“The layout changes gave us a lot more flexibility and allowed us to increase the total number of slips in the south basin by 30 percent,” said Gilbert Welch, vice president of planning and operations for Marinas International. “It also enabled us to move through the reconstruction process without having to displace any of our boaters on either a temporary or permanent basis.”

The pre-existing south basin was built in 1972, comprised predominantly of an outdated wood dock system. The renovated south basin has 100 slips and caters to 40- to 80-foot boats with side-tie mooring for boats up to 120 feet.

Don Gussler, marina manager, said, “The response from our tenants has been great. Everyone is very pleased with the marina’s upgrades.”

The Port of Rochester in New York will receive $1.45 million from the U.S. Department of the Interior, as part of the Boating Infrastructure Grant program. The federal taxpayer funds will go toward building a new marina, according to a Mar. 14 Democrat and Chronicle report.

“Recreational boating on Lake Ontario means big business for Rochester and the surrounding communities,” said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. He touted the marina as a tool to boost the economy, further economic development and create jobs.

Work is expected to start in 2012. The initial phase, to be completed in spring 2013, would accommodate 75 to 80 boats.
The project will need a final boost from the state and the city to fully fund the project. Officials expect to get refined cost estimates in the next month or two, which could alter the $19 million price tag for initial construction.

A second phase of marina construction, to be privately financed, would increase capacity to 150 boats.

Some of the federal funds originally intended to pay for modifications to the entrance at Sunset Marina in Rock Island, Ill., will be used instead to dredge the marina entrance, according to a Feb. 17 Dredging Today report.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $500,000 in autumn of 2009 for an entrance modification project.

In a report to city leaders, Bob Hawes, public works director, said about $186,000 was used by the Corps to conduct a study of the entrance modification project.

The study is expected to be completed in August, but it’s already known that the estimated price tag has hit $1.7 million, rendering the project unfeasible, according to the report.

Upon conclusion of the study, about $314,000 of the $500,000 allocation will be left over and must be committed by Oct. 1 or be lost. City leaders decided to use the money to dredge the harbor entrance at Sunset Marina. It has been about three years since the entrance was dredged.

That dredging project is estimated to cost $200,000. The remaining $114,000 from the congressional allocation “will be lost to the city,” the report added.

The Corps presented only one other option for using the money — spend $220,000 to redesign the marina entrance. Those plans “would be archived until funding is available for the construction,” Mr. Hawes’ report said.

Both the Rock Island Boater’s Advisory Committee and the city council agreed on the first option — using $200,000 to dredge the marina entrance.