NATCHEZ ON THE WATERFRONT 17 Continued from page 15
as more and more catamarans and trimarans seem to be appearing in manufacturers’ new power and sail lines. These, of course, become more of a challenge for existing pontoon layouts to accommodate and their numbers probably would be even greater if would-be owners felt there were more places to easily berth their boats. On this front, we are seeing more marinas looking to find room for these boats and once they do, if they haven’t already, they often start reconsidering how they charge for berth space. Lineal foot pricing just keeps making less and less sense, as does unmetered electricity as more boats are looking to plug-in, with much greater needs than in the past. Similar issues involve unmetered water. As for marinas, there will be a continuing trend toward consolidation based upon size and market conditions. At the same time, independent facilities have a role to play and will continue to have a market. In developed countries, the industry continues to wrestle with significant deferred maintenance and, with the demand for waterfront residential and mixed used developments, many of these facilities will disappear or be reincarnated into reimagined and often quite different types of facilities. The regulatory process will also
continue to become more and more convoluted, rigorous, time- consuming and expensive. This is partly why deferred maintenance is so high in developed countries. Nevertheless, renovating and reconfiguring existing facilities will continue to be the norm since new marinas in developed countries will be few and far between. Similar to deferred maintenance, another unfortunate trend we have seen is more marinas taking shortcuts in building, retrofitting and enhancing their facilities. Many do it due to budgetary considerations and while I can relate to that, it will typically result in substantially more costly repairs at a later date. For example, a facility that suffered hurricane damage to the top half of its seawall opted to simply rebuild the top of the wall.
However, the real cause of the
failure was that the seawall did not have a proper footing, so the wall had been shifting and bulging and the hurricane accelerated the failure. By failing to address the real cause of the problem, it will likely recur within a few years and the overall cost will be substantially higher.
Pricing policies There is an expression, “Either do it right or don’t do it at all”. A trend I would love to see is for more of the industry to rethink its pricing policies and charge what is needed to do it right and provide the facility that is desired. We find that customers are willing to pay what is needed to support a facility if the customers perceive that they are getting value for their money. Marinas are capital-intensive, but do not communicate well what is being undertaken to improve the facility for their customers. Hopefully, this trend will change to charge what is needed to continue to improve the facilities and provide the desired level of service to the market they wish to serve. There is a trend towards more specialty facilities – such as for deep sea fishing boats, racing sailboats, megayachts – all sized for the market in their respective areas. Marinas will also be using newer technology and materials, as well as more sophisticated software management systems. Dry stack storage will continue to
increase, particularly where the in- water area is limited or upland too expensive not to maximise its use. Racking continues to be developed for handling larger and heavier boats, as well as serving greater numbers of the smaller, low profile fishing, runabout and ski boats.
*Dan Natchez is President of Daniel S. Natchez and Associates Inc, a leading international environmental waterfront design consulting company specialising in the design of marinas and marina resorts throughout the world. Your comments and enquiries are invited on Tel: +1 914 698 5678, by Fax: +1 914 698 7321, by E-mail: dan.n@
dsnainc.com or on his Website:
www.dsnainc.com
DANIEL S. NATCHEZ and ASSOCIATES, Inc.
Environmental Waterfront Design and Consulting Company
An International
DESIGN
WATERFRONT
YOUR ONE STOP SHOP WHERE THE WORLD COMES TOGETHER!
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING
Master Planning - In-Water and Upland Integration Comprehensive Marina and Marina Resort Design Proficient Project Management
Functional Marine Services and Launching Facilities International in Scope
Site Evaluation and Economic Analysis Cost Effective Solutions Three Decades of Experience
DANIEL S. NATCHEZ and ASSOCIATES, Inc.
916 East Boston Post Road Mamaroneck, NY 10543 (tel) 1.914.698.5678
(email)
dan.n@dsnainc.com
www.dsnainc.com
MARINA INDUSTRY • FEBRUARY 2021
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