The real story of the FONATUR Marina

[Ron Lee]

You keep grinding that axe and I will try to let a couple go without comment.

However, I did just take a tour of Google images and looked at various marinas that I figure dive boats operate out of and ALOT of them look the same with relatively narrow piers, i.e. no truck access to the boat.

I was going to post a few, but you are tiring me out Ron...

---------- Post added June 24th, 2015 at 10:06 PM ----------

Explain how most people load and unload tanks at the Caleta.

Explain how most people get on and off boats there. I know that I have had to "leap" from the bow to land and vice versa. Is that a safe way to get people on and off boats? Shouldn't that be improved at the new marina.

To say that other marinas with a few dive boats is justification for doing it that way in Cozumel where they may have a hundred or more dive boats in one complex is not good engineering.

 

[Brules]

 

[mmmbelows]

I love it when Ron Burgundy comes for a visit

 

[ggunn]

Personally, I think it's a little silly to argue over how things should or should not be in a marina in another country where we have no influence whatsoever. I believe that we can all agree that the engineering at the site has some deficiencies (understatement alert), but the folks who live there will deal with it and adapt the best they can. Life will go on and diving will continue.

And a note from an engineer, if I can be so bold: The other side of the coin is that it is far easier to snipe at engineering after a project is built and the things that should have been taken into account but weren't are glaringly obvious than it is to see those things in the planning stages. And yes, I have been doing just that. But what happened, IMO, is that whoever was in charge of the engineering took on a project that was too much of a stretch for their experience, and factors of which they were ignorant rose up and bit them. As an engineer this is my biggest nightmare - an "oops" that cannot be easily and/or cheaply fixed in the latter stages of a project. That's what Errors and Omissions Insurance is all about; I hope whoever was the Engineer Of Record on this project had plenty of it.

 

[cvchief]

Well, Gun, on the behalf the engineers, their plan has surely not been fully executed. For instance their are plans for parking lots according to the original site master plan.

No one should judge until it is finished. If any of us are alive then.....

That being said, the fountain in the plaza redo is working and is apparently quite a hit! Go enjoy it while it is still working!

 

[ggunn]

Well, Gun, on the behalf the engineers, their plan has surely not been fully executed. For instance their are plans for parking lots according to the original site master plan.

No one should judge until it is finished. If any of us are alive then.....

That being said, the fountain in the plaza redo is working and is apparently quite a hit! Go enjoy it while it is still working!

The Master Plan was probably ginned up by Sales.

 

[Ron Lee]

Personally, I think it's a little silly to argue over how things should or should not be in a marina in another country where we have no influence whatsoever. I believe that we can all agree that the engineering at the site has some deficiencies (understatement alert), but the folks who live there will deal with it and adapt the best they can. Life will go on and diving will continue.

And a note from an engineer, if I can be so bold: The other side of the coin is that it is far easier to snipe at engineering after a project is built and the things that should have been taken into account but weren't are glaringly obvious than it is to see those things in the planning stages. And yes, I have been doing just that. But what happened, IMO, is that whoever was in charge of the engineering took on a project that was too much of a stretch for their experience, and factors of which they were ignorant rose up and bit them. As an engineer this is my biggest nightmare - an "oops" that cannot be easily and/or cheaply fixed in the latter stages of a project. That's what Errors and Omissions Insurance is all about; I hope whoever was the Engineer Of Record on this project had plenty of it.

I believe that I mentioned that aspect earlier. I assume that it was obvious that dive ops would be a major tenant group. Meet with them and get their input. Get input from other user group. Marinas are not a new concept. There are likely plenty of "lessons learned" that you can use an adapt to make it a great facility. Get the user input before the design is cast in concrete. Ideally it would be at the point that all there is for viewing is an artists concept like posted earlier.

 

[cvchief]

Explain how most people load and unload tanks at the Caleta.

Well in old Caleta, the trucks come in and drops tanks. Some get dropped in the parking lot, sometime the truck backs off the cliff and drops close to the water on the right. or the op pick them up themselves and delivers them, there or in town. Then the boat moves from wherever it has its crappy parking space to a 'loading zone' which happens to be actually someone else's paid spot that they aren't using. Then they load the stuff on the boat.

Explain how most people get on and off boats there. I know that I have had to "leap" from the bow to land and vice versa. Is that a safe way to get people on and off boats? Shouldn't that be improved at the new marina.

Heck no, which is why they don't do it that way. Most boats back into a "loading zone" (see above, not really a loading zone) and people get on the back in some fashion. Some also pull parallel and get people in. The gunwales and sterns on boats tend to vary in height. Jumping from the front always sucks. I skinned my knee and left a blood trail last year jumping from the front of the Kay Kib to the ferry pier. Thankfully the girls didn't mind....

To say that other marinas with a few dive boats is justification for doing it that way in Cozumel where they may have a hundred or more dive boats in one complex is not good engineering.

Think of Lowes. They don't place all the parking spaces at the door. You buy your crap and drive to a "shared loading zone". Doesn't make sense, fiscally, to build "roads" to the back of every parking space in the marina. The boats MOVE! Or carry the 16 tanks. Even if they back up to the boat, you still have to pick them up and CARRY them onto the boat, two at a time. And once you make all these really wide piers capable of vehicle traffic, the boats will be spread out even more, so crews will have to WALK further from the parking lots (which don't exist, as mentioned) to get to the boats, so if you are going to make these big vehicle piers so ops can drive right up to the mooring spots, why not just create parking there for maybe two cars or a car and a moto? And if you are going to do that, why not a storage shed at every spot for stuff, like boat parts, oil, etc? That would be nice too. Oh I can design a marina even you would like! Car ports too. All the better places have shades over the vehicles so they don't get so hot in the sun. People in Caleta now put card board over their moto seat so they don't burn their a-double scribble leaving work in the afternoon.

And I could even device a system whereby you don't even have to carry the tanks onto the boat involving electric winches. In fairness, I was inspired by "Operation Pacific" (1951) and loading torpedoes. I got thing for Patricia Neal....

 

[cvchief]

....dive ops would be a major tenant group. Meet with them and get their input. Get input from other user group. ....

Yea, they met with them, signed a contract, then dissolved the company to get out of it.

 

[mmmbelows]

Marinas aren't ship yards, container ship yards or have anything to do with commercial shipping, loading and unloading, forklift access isn't even ever planned or any of that jazz. Maximum amount of boats they can squeeze in to rent spaces is their main design consideration.

This is Mexico, which has crap loads of cheap labor, nobody is interested in efficiency. Ever walk by a construction site where they are demolishing a building? It's 2015 and they have 20 guys manually taking a building apart sharing 2 shovels, 4 hammers, one wheel barrow missing it's tire and a broom with the handle taped together, they will employ 20 guys over 3 weeks, where a loader, dump truck and an excavator with a thumb would have it done in one day. Wouldn't surprise me if the union down there was involved pressing for a design that would employee more people instead of focusing on efficiency.