The real story of the FONATUR Marina

[mmmbelows]

Very likely. I do not know how the design should be but ideally trucks should have easy access to many docking locations. Perhaps you cannot do it for all slips (such as internal slips) but in that case you have adequate locations where boats can load and unload tanks. Whether that is viable is something that needed to be worked with the dive shop owners before a design is even put on paper.

Time will tell.

Is the marina purposefully built only to service dive boats? If it was then I'd agree with you that if you're building a marina to serve only a niche then it would be smart to build it to serve that niche.

If this is just a generic marina, which will serve dive boats, catamarans, fishing boats, pleasure boats, sail boats.... then you build it like a typical marina and loading and unloading tanks from trucks to dive boats wouldn't effect the design. I've never seen the place so I don't know what it was built for, but if it's built for all types of boats the owners needed to design it generic enough that different types of boats can use different slips, that way you can rent out all of the docks instead of having some empty because they are purposefully built for a specific use and there are no takers.

 

[Ron Lee]

Is the marina purposefully built only to service dive boats? If it was then I'd agree with you that if you're building a marina to serve only a niche then it would be smart to build it to serve that niche.

If this is just a generic marina, which will serve dive boats, catamarans, fishing boats, pleasure boats, sail boats.... then you build it like a typical marina and loading and unloading tanks from trucks to dive boats wouldn't effect the design. I've never seen the place so I don't know what it was built for, but if it's built for all types of boats the owners needed to design it generic enough that different types of boats can use different slips, that way you can rent out all of the docks instead of having some empty because they are purposefully built for a specific use and there are no takers.

You assume that there is only one solution. We do know that there will be plenty of dive boats using the facility. I do not know how many boats are at the Caleta but I have seen what looks like a cramped situation there. If those boats are moving to the new marina, it is probably safe to say that dive boats will be the majority of the boats there at least initially.

Given that positin, what can be done to make it easy for them to operate out of the marina? My guess is that having a truck or similar being able to drive adjacent to the boat to load and unload tanks and other equipment (like dive bags) would be a given.

One technical solution to that objective is a one way road along where the boats are docked with enough room to have a parked truck and one way traffic lane open.

That is one solution that in no way makes it hard to rent to other non-dive boats. In fact it would be desirable for some non-dive boats as well.

This solution also does not rule out other slips that do not have adjacent vehicle access for people who do not need it. It also does not rule out people being able to load tanks onto a wheeled cart and moving that cart by hand 100, 200 or 300 yards or more if a dive op prefers a labor intensive option.

 

[mmmbelows]

I agree with you. But like I said I've never seen the place, just saying I've used dozens and dozens of marinas and yet to see any marina purposefully built just to accommodate one specific user. The spur type marina, loading and unloading from your slip by cart is pretty universal design. Cozumel has a lot of dive boats so it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there will be a lot of them using the new marina, so adding access like you're describing if it doesn't negatively effect your slip capacity would make a lot of sense.

I guess the good news is that you and I will never have to worry about it, well at least I won't for sure, as I've no plans to get a job on a Cozumel dive boat.

 

[Skittl1321]

I guess the good news is that you and I will never have to worry about it, well at least I won't for sure, as I've no plans to get a job on a Cozumel dive boat.

As a consumer, you do have to worry about it.
If loading/unloading is a massive undertaking, ops will have to raise prices to pay their staff fairly for the work they do.

 

[Ron Lee]

As a consumer, you do have to worry about it.
If loading/unloading is a massive undertaking, ops will have to raise prices to pay their staff fairly for the work they do.

Exactly. Work smarter...not needlessly harder.

 

[cvchief]

I will repeat that I am not a boat person or a dive op person but my view is that they did not design the place to be easy to load and unload tanks efficiently.

With the tanks again.....

In Caleta, many boats did not even have a pier. The Maximus, like many others parked in the middle and then move to someone's spot to load. Enen some of the spots in caleta the touch land, don't even have truck access. How big would the place need to be to have a truck road to every boat? Two lanes I guess or both tank companies and owners?

The fact that there are no facilities or parking or shade seems more important.

That seems bigger...

 

[mstevens]

Is the marina purposefully built only to service dive boats? If it was then I'd agree with you that if you're building a marina to serve only a niche then it would be smart to build it to serve that niche.

I personally suspect that if it was built to any specific purpose, it was with the unrealistic hope that it would mostly fill up with the yachts of the wealthy who would leave sacks of money on the dock. In reality, it might well just have been an excuse to develop.

If this is just a generic marina, which will serve dive boats, catamarans, fishing boats, pleasure boats, sail boats.... then you build it like a typical marina and loading and unloading tanks from trucks to dive boats wouldn't effect the design.

Except that this is not necessarily a generic marina and certainly not a private one, as you can tell from the post that started this thread. This is Cozumel, so it's a realistic given that a large proportion of the boats will be dive boats. It's also predictable that a large proportion of the remainder will be fishing, parasailing, or other boats that require loading and unloading of significant amounts of material on a daily basis. Private pleasure boats do stay in Cozumel, but I seriously doubt it's a big enough market to justify even a fraction of the new marina. Any reasonable person would at a minimum have presumed that most of the boats currently using the old Caleta would end up using the new FONATUR marina, and it wouldn't've been at all difficult simply to have counted the types of boats that have been using the Caleta up to now.

Not taking those realities into account is poor planning, which appears to have characterized much of this project. Why not design it with a dive boat area (with room to stage tanks and vendor space for sellers of masks and fins), a sailboat area (with hookups for liveaboards), a big ol' catamaran area (with handicapped embarkation facilities), a fishing boat area (with fish-preparation facilities and ice vendor), and other "specialty" areas as well as general-purpose areas? An opportunity to do something that could work much better for the users was missed.

I've never seen the place so I don't know what it was built for, but if it's built for all types of boats the owners needed to design it generic enough that different types of boats can use different slips, that way you can rent out all of the docks instead of having some empty because they are purposefully built for a specific use and there are no takers.

The owner is the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (FONATUR) and as such they're not just a marina owner hoping to fill slips. They're responsible to the people of Mexico, the people of Cozumel, and those who would be making their living running tourism-related activities from the new marina. It ought to present sufficiently significant advantages to those constituents to justify the monetary and environmental costs.

 

[cvchief]

would mostly fill up with the yachts of the wealthy who would leave sacks of money on the dock.

If I had a yacht and sacks of money, I would consider doing that to help out.

 

[ggunn]

If I had a yacht and sacks of money, I would consider doing that to help out.

That's OK. Sacks of money alone will do just fine.

 

[mmmbelows]

As a consumer, you do have to worry about it.
If loading/unloading is a massive undertaking, ops will have to raise prices to pay their staff fairly for the work they do.

or not?

I think there are 2 dive shop owners in this thread from what I've read so far, neither has said anything about the new marina causing them to increase labor costs yet, I think I read that eventually their slip costs are going up after a contract expires. Maybe they did say the new marina is a horrible design for them, and will cause prices to rise due to labor costs but I missed it. I just looked at the pictures posted of it at the beginning of this thread and this one I found on the internet, looks pretty nice for a marina from what I saw, looks like a typical marina you'd see anywhere, it's smaller of course, but so is Cozumel, looks better than what was there before.

How did the old marina work, was it much more efficient than the new one? Never seen either of them in person. Everyone has always picked my lazy butt up at a nice comfy resort dock.

---------- Post added June 23rd, 2015 at 07:09 PM ----------

The owner is the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (FONATUR) and as such they're not just a marina owner hoping to fill slips. They're responsible to the people of Mexico, the people of Cozumel, and those who would be making their living running tourism-related activities from the new marina. It ought to present sufficiently significant advantages to those constituents to justify the monetary and environmental costs.

I guess from all the bitching so far it's not looking like that is going to happen. Maybe changes will be made, I think one of the dive shop owners was saying they are in the process of some sort of negotiation over the amenities.