(Chuck*Gould)wrote
Bad news for a lot of the beautiful old wooden boats that have been so
carefully preserved in covered moorage up here in the Pacific NW. The
City of Seattle has ordered covered moorage facilities to remove their
roofs or spend $$$$$$$$$$ installing fire prevention equipment and
sprinkler systems. That's not surprising, as we have had a number of
catastrophic fires in covered moorages these past few years. I know of
two marinas that are planning to uncover before the first of the year,
as meeting the fire codes and installing sprinklers is considered
prohibitive.
The worst thing you can do to a wooden boat is expose it to fresh water,
and with our relentless winter rainstorms it won't take long before a
lot of rot gets a foothold in decks and superstructures. Too bad, it
will be the death of a lot of woodies and hasten the end of an era.



First I heard. Seattle is pretty much considered the wooden boat capital
of the US. Its also gonna **** off alot of liveaboards.
I think the old code was a firemain down each dock, and with covered
moorage you had to have a fire break every 6 or 8 slips to prevent a
total loss. It worked fairly well too, Except some owner/managers saw it
as an extra slip to rent. Thus eliminating the fire break. I guess
sometimes being too greedy cost more in the end. UD