Constructed from the ground up on Baltimore’s Chesapeake Bay, Port Covington Maritime Center is home to Maryland’s newest and most modern yacht service center. Owner Bob Brandon purchased the property in 2005 with the intention of building an environmentally friendly boatyard. Although, Brandon had a clear idea as to what the ideal service center would include, he called on the expertise of Bellingham Marine to help design and install the 28 slip marina, which would serve the center’s waterside needs. “Bellingham’s Unifloat® concrete floating docks were the perfect choice and fit the bill considering our challenging site conditions,” said Brandon. “If I’d installed a floating wood system, I doubt I’d have my rental business, and I’m certain we’d already be undergoing repairs and maintenance.”
Waterside facilities include 28 wet slips protected by a 12’ wide by 180’ long floating wave attenuator, which covers the entrance. Slips at the maritime center are primarily dedicated for use by vessels being serviced; however, the facility provides transient moorage and rents out vacant slips when available. Slips range in length from 40’ to 60’ and there’s ample room for side ties up to 250’ as there’s 30’ of water depth.
The docking system and pilings were designed to meet the needs of the basin utilizing 21” steel piles to account for loading demands. The marina also features a massive 20’ wide mainwalk out to A-Dock. The 20’ wide dock is designed to accommodate full service fuel facilities, which are planned to be installed in the near future.
Along with the architecturally pleasing 6,000 square foot office building, landside facilities include a 9,000 square foot repair building with 30 foot high doors accommodating vessels up to 55 feet in length. Also included is a paved and lighted outdoor boat storage area with year round water and electric. The haulouts will be handled with 35 ton, 75 ton and 150 ton travelifts installed on concrete runways. The facility also has a 20 ton forklift used for outdoor rack storage for boats up to 40 feet.
All construction of the 8 acre site and future operations at the facility were geared to be “green”. Sustainable construction, living roofs, functional landscaping and a water collection system were incorporated into the design of the facility. Waste water will be collected in sediment pits and pumped to an engineered wetland where the water will be treated naturally before being discharged. Brandon hopes this waste water collection system will soon be adopted by other marinas around the country.
Brandon’s facility was selected as the official service facility for the Volvo Ocean Race. This created a challenging building schedule for both the General Contractor (Corman Imbach) and Bellingham Marine as there was no flexibility in date of completion. “I was very satisfied with the coordination and efficiency both my selected contractors demonstrated in getting the job done right and on time,” said Brandon. The Baltimore stop over was a huge success bringing an estimated 40,000 people to the area to see the boats.
As the world’s leading marina design/build construction company, Bellingham Marine produces Unifloat saltwater systems, Unideck freshwater systems and Unistack dry storage systems for marinas worldwide.
Bellingham Marine, P.O. Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227; ph. 360-676-2800, fax. 360-734-2417, email. bmi@bellingham-marine.com
Unifloat, Unideck and Unistack are registered trademarks of Bellingham Marine.
