3 Dubai Marina 4/5 Festival Marina, Dubai
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SIZE MATTERS
The increasing opulence of the big yachts, beyond the already impressive 60 to 80 metre-long model, is also impacting trends – and marina builds – as Horrigan explains: “The 100-metre plus vessels are still coming online, albeit less of them, but there are still some amazing boats coming out. “Because of our focus on mega yachts we’re not so much of a small to mid-sized marina operator and developer. Our efforts for the mega yacht category has led us to put a lot of understanding into what that market demographic needs. Some of the most sophisticated and beautiful boats are berthed in commercial facilities, beside a container ship for example, because that’s the only place available. And when you think of the levels of ownership – government officials, dignitaries, royal families – these are people who arrive with 20 cars and basically have floating hotels.” This engenders a different set of criteria for development, with security and environmental concerns headlining the list. “For example, the marinas can’t be off-the-shelf pontoon units, they’re civil constructions, industrial piers,” he says. The upland facilities, utilities provision, pier size, number of operations personnel and security services all need
to be adjusted to fit super and mega yacht requirements. Matthew Bate, director of operations for Mourjan Marinas IGY compares this to a scaled down version of a five-star
hotel operation, as he explains: “In a hotel you have a beautiful front entrance and separate back-of-house, supply trucks and staff. In a mega yacht marina you only have a very confined area, so the way we design it is meticulous. “Where we load the boat with fruit and vegetables is exactly the same place where the owner is going to
arrive, so to make it aesthetically pleasing is a massive challenge.” Horrigan, who originally trained as an architect, says: “One of our business differentiators is that we have
architects and urban planners on the team and the upland of these large facilities is totally different. With dedicated mega yacht facilities in this region and a lot of home porting you’ll have things like permanent majlis’ located adjacent to each owner’s boat. Adds Bate: “You’ve got to look at the difference in business activities. These are huge assets valued at potentially hundreds of millions, so there is a whole business behind the boat itself.”
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jun-sep 2010
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