UglyDan®©™ wrote:
(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

I was chatting with Ray Rairdon yesterday, and he told me that the
marinas adjacent to his office are going topless almost right away. He
picked up a couple of listings from people who don't want to watch
their boats deteriorate in the weather.

I just moved back inside the locks, under cover at Salmon Bay Marina,
to better preserve the refinish work done last spring. Management there
seems inclined to do the work required (a few hundred thousand) and
adjust slip rents accordingly.

The loss of much of the covered moorage will be a shame- but from a
strictly business perspective it isn't difficult to empathize with the
property owners. They will have no trouble renting the open slips-
probably for as much as they have been getting for covered, and won't
have to spend the BIGBUCKS to come up to fire code.

The latest fire codes not only require fire breaks, but sprinklers,
vents, and "fire curtains" as well.