Reviewed by Gary E. Wilson, President & Designated Broker · Managing Greater Seattle rentals since 1982
Emergencies at a marina share three characteristics that make them different from emergencies at any other property type. They arrive at night and in bad weather. They involve property that can sink, drift or burn. And most of the owners of that property are not there.
Every part of a marina emergency plan follows from those three facts. The plan has to be executable by whoever is actually present, at the worst hour, without waiting for instructions from people who cannot be reached.
Wilson Management manages emergency preparedness for marina facilities in the Puget Sound region. For the wider service see Marina Management.
Windstorm Preparation
Puget Sound windstorms are forecast with useful lead time, which makes preparation the highest-value activity in the whole emergency programme. Nearly all storm damage at a well-built facility is preventable in the twenty-four hours before the wind arrives.
Before the season, the work is structural: dock and pile condition assessed, cleats and bull rails checked for security under load, mooring hardware inspected, and loose items around the site identified. See Dock Maintenance.
Ahead of a forecast event, the work is specific and sequential:
- Notify tenants early, with enough lead time to attend to their vessels. Many boat owners will come down and double up lines if told; almost none will if told an hour before.
- Walk every dock checking mooring lines, chafe protection, fenders and dinghies. Absent owners' vessels are exactly the ones with the problems, because nobody has looked at them since the last visit.
- Secure loose gear. Anything on a dock that can become airborne — carts, bins, unsecured covers, hoses — becomes a projectile in 50 knots.
- Address canvas and covers. Biminis and covers left up act as sails and frequently destroy themselves and their frames.
- Check floating and boarding gates, ladders and ramps.
- Confirm pump and power readiness, and that emergency equipment is accessible rather than behind stacked gear.
Tenant notification is worth doing well rather than perfunctorily. Contact details need to be current, the message needs to say what specifically to attend to, and it needs to arrive with time to act.
Vessels Taking On Water
A sinking vessel at a dock is the most common serious marina emergency, and the response window is short.
What matters is that whoever finds it can act immediately: locate the pumps, know how to deploy them, know where absorbent boom is kept for the fuel and oil that come up with the water, and know who to call. A vessel that sinks at a slip is no longer a boat problem — it is a pollution incident, a navigation hazard, a salvage operation and a slip out of service, in that order.
Prevention is largely a matter of noticing. Vessels rarely sink without warning; they sit lower, list slightly, or run their bilge pump more often over days. Regular dock walks catch that, and liveaboards catch it too — a resident population is a genuine early-warning system. See Liveaboard Policy.
Fire
Fire on the water is qualitatively worse than fire ashore. Vessels are fibreglass and fuel, they are close together, they float and can drift while burning, and shore access for firefighting equipment is limited to whatever the docks allow.
Preparedness means extinguishers positioned and serviced along the docks, staff who know where they are, clear access routes for emergency services, a means of releasing a burning vessel from its slip and moving it if that can be done safely, and a relationship with the local fire service that predates the incident — including their knowledge of the site layout and access points.
Shore power condition is a fire prevention issue as much as a safety one, since faulty connections and overloaded circuits are a recurring ignition source at marinas.
Power Failure
An extended power outage at a marina is not merely an inconvenience. Bilge pumps on vessels drawing shore power stop, which puts boats at risk if they are taking on any water. Gates and access control fail. Lighting fails, at a site where people walk on wet surfaces beside deep water. Refrigeration on liveaboard vessels fails.
The plan needs a documented position on each: which systems have backup, how gates are managed when access control is down without simply leaving the site open, and how tenants with vessels dependent on shore power are notified.
The Plan Has to Work at 3am
The recurring failure of emergency planning is a document that exists and cannot be executed.
The tests worth applying are unglamorous. Can the person on site tonight find the plan? Are the phone numbers in it current — including the owner's, the insurer's, the salvage contractor's and the environmental response contractor's? Is the emergency equipment where the plan says it is, and can somebody reach it without a key nobody has? Does anyone know which tenants are aboard, and how to contact those who are not?
Contact currency is the item that decays fastest and matters most. A tenant list assembled at move-in and never updated is a list of old phone numbers, and it will be discovered to be one at exactly the wrong moment.
After the Event
The hours after an incident determine what it costs.
Document everything immediately: photographs of damage before anything is moved, written notes of what happened and when, and the sequence of the response. Notify insurers promptly, and the relevant agencies where an incident involves a discharge to the water. Assess structural damage before returning docks to service, because a dock that looks intact after a storm may have suffered pile or connection damage that is not visible from the surface.
Then review the response honestly. Nearly every marina emergency exposes something — a piece of equipment in the wrong place, a number that had changed, an assumption that did not hold. Capturing that while it is fresh is what makes the next event less expensive.
Insurance and Salvage Relationships
Two relationships are worth establishing before they are needed, because both are difficult to arrange during an incident.
Salvage and environmental response contractors are in demand simultaneously across the whole region during a major weather event. A facility with an existing relationship gets a response; one calling for the first time joins a queue. Numbers should be in the plan and confirmed current annually.
Insurance requires knowing in advance what the facility's own policy covers, what tenants are required to carry, and how evidence of tenant coverage is kept current. The moment after an incident is a poor time to discover that a tenant's policy lapsed six months ago, since the practical consequence frequently lands on the facility.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much storm damage is actually preventable?
Most of it, at a well-built facility. Puget Sound windstorms come with useful forecast lead time, and the twenty-four hours before the wind arrives is where the value is.
What is the single most useful pre-storm action?
Notifying tenants early enough that they can attend to their own vessels, then walking every dock yourself to check the ones whose owners did not come.
Why do canvas and covers matter?
Left up, biminis and covers act as sails. They routinely destroy themselves and their frames, and the debris becomes a hazard to neighbouring vessels.
What do we do about a vessel taking on water?
Act immediately — pumps deployed, absorbent boom for the fuel and oil that surface with the water, and the required notifications. A vessel that sinks in a slip becomes a pollution incident, a hazard, a salvage job and a lost slip simultaneously.
Can sinkings be anticipated?
Usually. Vessels sit lower, list, or run their bilge pumps more often for days beforehand. Regular dock walks catch it, and liveaboards frequently catch it first.
Why is a power outage serious?
Because bilge pumps drawing shore power stop, gates and lighting fail, and vessels already taking on water lose their defence. Each needs a documented position in the plan.
What is the most common weakness in marina emergency plans?
Out-of-date contact numbers. A tenant list built at move-in and never refreshed is discovered to be obsolete at precisely the wrong moment.
Get Started
Marina emergencies arrive at night, in weather, with most owners elsewhere — so the plan has to be executable by whoever is on site. Wilson Management, Inc. builds and maintains them to that standard.
Request a free analysis or contact us. You can also reach our Bellevue office at (425) 453-0089, 1380 112th Ave NE #203, Bellevue, WA 98004.