Part of greater Massachusetts Bay, Quincy Bay is just seven miles south of Boston and home to Safe Harbor Marina Bay. The full-service marina offers a vibrant waterfront, access to world-class boating and, with its new state-of-the-art SF Marina floating concrete breakwater system, safe and peaceful dockage.
Marina Bay’s west basin had a long history of recurring damage from the local storm conditions. The SF Marina floating concrete breakwater array installed is engineered to overcome extreme weather events. It not only protects Marina Bay’s floating timber docks and fingers from the area’s numerous seasonal storms, but also reduces costly repairs.
Steel-reinforced and virtually unsinkable, each of the 14 Type-400 SF Marina pontoons used in the project has a buoyancy rating of approximately 102.4 psf, yet with their exceptional mass, the structures are exceptionally stable. An exclusive coupling system absorbs and distributes stress loads. They are anchored on 30-inch steel piles.
The Marina Bay project consists of an L-shaped 722-feet-long by 13-feet-wide SF Marina breakwater on the west basin. Doubling as docking space for transient megayachts, it has electric and water supplies routed through integrated utility ducts. A second smaller section extends from the marina’s rubble mound breakwater to overlap the larger portion and protect the harbor mouth. Each of the 14 pontoons is secured with a pair of 30-inch steel piles.
Safe Harbor Marina Bay an accommodate vessels with drafts up to 12 feet and up to 150 feet long, without beam restrictions. The marina hosts four restaurants, from casual eateries to fine dining. A short stroll along the Nantucket-style boardwalk provides access to an extensive range of shoreside amenities and community-centric activities. Its website is www.shmarinas.com/locations/ safe-harbor-marina-bay.
Gothenburg, Sweden-based SF Marina engineers, builds and ships floating breakwaters and concrete dock pontoons and related marine structures. With an international network of offices and manufacturing sites, it can transport its products anywhere in the world and has completed numerous recreational and commercial vessel projects around the globe. For more information, visit www.sfmarinausa.com.
Reprinted from Marine Construction Magazine, Issue I, 2024.
