Gig Harbour marina roof failing

That certainly can be a problem with covered slips. Do they ever use the large outdoor propane heaters under the roof to melt the snow?

Kingston Marina used fire hoses in 1996 to get the snow off their roofs to save the covered slips. That year we spent Christmas in Victoria, BC and had a white Christmas. On the way back to Seattle we saw a lot of damage from heavy snow loads. Edmonds Marina was one of the worst hit and there were several other marinas that lost boats and roofs due to heavy wet snow loads. The pics from Edmonds.

Anyone know if they’re moving boats out?

Snow in Gig Harbor in any quantity would be a rare event. I am sure the marina never expected to have snow on the roofs that would have been heavier than the roof could handle.

Roofs here are designed for 90 pounds per square foot. Despite this, boat houses have flipped because the snow slid off one side but stuck to the other side. Several years ago we lost 13 boats in a town of 8,500 after 7 feet fell in two days. The marina was cut off from access (lots of trees fell on the 5Km road) and lost power for three days. The boot stripe on our boat was under water...

We plan to stay home today.
Too much smow.
TV hasn’t worked for 36hrs or so.
Concerned about Willy under covered moorage at LaConner.

Hopefully the roof load improvements they made last year to the La Conner marina anticipated this amount of snow.

here's another view of Pleasurecraft Marina.... In the picture all of the fingers are under water as is the main dock We are next door in a covered marina typically we have about 2 ft of free board on the docks it's down to about a foot....

I'm sorry, but that's just poor marina management. In NC, I've seen roofs of boathouses swept and hosed all day when it snowed. It's a known risk that the marinas are prepared to deal with. I once helped the marina owner when I was young.

I agree, it is a known problem. Kinda equal to a marina in Florida not having a hurricane plan.

Comodave said:

I agree, it is a known problem. Kinda equal to a marina in Florida not having a hurricane plan.

Click to expand...

A lot easier to deal with than a hurricane though. But then there was the Super Bowl in Dallas, showing off the new stadium. Snow was not anticipated in the planning. Nor was the way it would come sliding off the dome in sheets. NBA All Star game in Dallas also had snow but no injuries from it.

A roof also fell at West Bay Marina in Olympia, south of Gig Harbor. Several boats damaged.

https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article226150835.html

If you look at this post it started in 2013. Yet hear we are in 2019 with another snowstorm in the PNW. Snow in the PNW is NOT unusual and to build marina covers without account for snow load is just irresponsible (i.e. cheap). Our marina in Seattle (Lockhaven) appears to have quite robust roof structures and thus no issues in any of these years.

Slowmo said:

If you look at this post it started in 2013. Yet hear we are in 2019 with another snowstorm in the PNW. Snow in the PNW is NOT unusual and to build marina covers without account for snow load is just irresponsible (i.e. cheap). Our marina in Seattle (Lockhaven) appears to have quite robust roof structures and thus no issues in any of these years.

Click to expand...

I don't think I understand, This thread was started in February of this year. It was not so much a roof failing because it didn't. This was about flotation of the marina and the increased weight of the snow actually caused the entire marina to partially go underwater. This marina was built in the 60's I would guess I would say it has weathered the storm pretty well

It was something I never thought of before on how our covered docks are designed. In talking with our harbor master she explained to me that they actually look at the added buoyancy of the boats to keep the docks from submerging when there is additional load on the roofs. Their main interest is in making sure the roof structure is solid.

NWSeadog said:

It was something I never thought of before on how our covered docks are designed. In talking with our harbor master she explained to me that they actually look at the added buoyancy of the boats to keep the docks from submerging when there is additional load on the roofs. Their main interest is in making sure the roof structure is solid.

Click to expand...

Their snow load plan is to have the structure settle down onto the boats crushing radar, antennas, tv domes and biminis, but supporting the floating dock? How crazy is that! I hope they put that in the lease.......

Woodland Hills said:

Their snow load plan is to have the structure settle down onto the boats crushing radar, antennas, tv domes and biminis, but supporting the floating dock? .......

Click to expand...

Likely not the roof of the structure to press down on the upper parts of the vessels.

More like the vessels are secured to the dock. If the roof presses down because of loading. The roof presses down onto the dock. The dock would settle down into the water. And may take some support from the boat(s) secured to the dock via the lines from the vessels to the dock.

Just a guess on my part.

Once the roof contacts a vessel, a liability claim has started.

The problem in the PNW is on how we calculate snow load. You see we base it off a chart that says 36” is more snow than we will see in a 1000 years. 36” of snow is equal to x pounds per square foot of roof surface. Problem is, right after it snows in the PNW it rains. No one ever calculates the weight of 24” of snow and how much water it can accumulate after 24 hours of rain fall.

Unless all the boats are moored using very short lines with no catenary curve the dock would have to sink a very long way before the lines tightened up enough to give support. It’s hard to see how the roof wouldn’t contact the tops of at least some of the boats in that case. And if instead it did happen as they plan, what if you are only side tied? Do you capsize or drag one side down to the water level and thus sink? Or what if you backed in and have short stern lines and long bow lines, will the transom be pulled below the water? Or if you have the shortest lines on the dock and your boat ends up trying to support the entire roof, do you then sink first?

This sounds like such a bad idea in so many ways.