a boat house

Donna

New Member
hi this is my first post on this forum.
My name is Danial. I sail a 470 Laser.

I would like to build a boat house in my University for sailing and rowing boats.
it would double as the sailing club house, i plan to create a boat house that will be accessible to students from other institutes later on. so what are the requirements? my uni is at a mouth of a river at which goes to open sea Melaka Straits. Its a marine Uni so any point in time this boat house must be planned out. there is a plot of land that is reserved for the boat house.

so what must a boat house have?
how many boats should it be able to keep?
equipment, etc2. please help me out. i just know how to sail a laser.
but i wish to learn what must be available for a boat house.
 
hi this is my first post on this forum.
My name is Danial. I sail a 470 Laser.

I would like to build a boat house in my University for sailing and rowing boats.
it would double as the sailing club house, i plan to create a boat house that will be accessible to students from other institutes later on. so what are the requirements? my uni is at a mouth of a river at which goes to open sea Melaka Straits. Its a marine Uni so any point in time this boat house must be planned out. there is a plot of land that is reserved for the boat house.

so what must a boat house have?
how many boats should it be able to keep?
equipment, etc2. please help me out. i just know how to sail a laser.
but i wish to learn what must be available for a boat house.

How large is your club (how many members/boats does it have and is this a low point for membership or a record high) ? What sort of boats because some have more equipment than others. Is your club associated with another club (i.e. you join their races, have rescue cover provided by others, etc. or do you have your own committee boats, rescue boats, etc.

To build a boat house probably the most important thing is to have money (and lots of it). It is not just a shed you buy at the local DIY store and put up over the weekend. You would need architects, structural engineers (as you don't want it falling down with people inside), professional builders, plumbers, carpenters, heating engineers, etc.. Maybe think about what your members could provide (e.g. do the decorating/painting).

Maybe just think about where you sail your 470 - what facilities does your club have and what is missing ? That will give you your answer. for example, if you all have to slip-off into the nearby forrest to get changed (boys to the left, girls to the right) and people find this less than ideal then maybe include some changing rooms. If you like living pampered lives and reside in the Arctic circle then maybe ask for some heating, maybe even hot showers in the changing rooms !!.

Ian
 
about the equipment. how much would the cradle of laser size dinghies cost?
any other equipment? overhead pulleys etc2?
frames to keep the boats. a place to keep a motorboat as a safety nets for when noobs start sailing.

i plan to make the boat house be usable to at least 200 ppl later on(rowing club, dragonboat club, sailing, kayaking etc2). for it to be a hub for all water sports activities.
in the college.

but to start with. will it better to construct for the future or for the current usage only.

money is secondary as i need to make a proposal for the boat house
so money is not of concern yet.....yet. :D

floor plan shall be designed according to what will be advisable to be added. and only frequent sailors with PFD tan lines should know better :p

i have yet to achieve such tan lines.:p

please please please assist me.
 
The budget is also important, will the university be willing to build a top of the line facility with the works, or will it just be a small building for spars, sails, oars, ect.

most clubs around here don't have indoor boat storage, if the boats are kept indoors on racks it takes a long long time to get on the water, what you will probably want is a paved ramp and possibly paved lot/dry-stall to store the boats on dollies/trailers, pavement can get very hot so concrete/cement might be a better option. You could also build an open wall structure to keep the boats under.

Things that are usually in a boathouse are racks, lockers, workbench. Things that would be nice are bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers. Indoor boat storage could be nice if the budget allows.
 
marginal conditions how to design a watersports area

Hi,
here are some thoughts of me.

You say you design a building-complex for several disciplines of water sport. Be strategic.

I would advise to separate the building into sections, perhaps separate houses:

One central/main house with several levels (don’t take a basement callar as you are at the waterside and a cellar perhaps will be filled up with water by accident of a weather disaster as we here had, a couple of years ago):
Design a public area that members of all sports may use (such as main entrance room, big meeting room with separate small restaurant area, m/f-dressing room, m/f-locker rooms m/f- bathrooms), WC, room for seminars, weight room, gymnastic room, each section of water sport needs a separate room for their own committee, technical rooms for the building, kitchen room and storage room for the kitchen, room for the service personal of the house, balcony terrace, youth room, room for archive. Perhaps you have guests (athletes from elsewhere that join your racing events): think about a room for overnight.

Separate technical house for each discipline of water sport. The different water sport disciplines have different desires. Think about the chaotic situation if f.e. Sundays all athletes at the same time want to use the same “1” area: the boathouse where the sailing stuff / the rowing stuff / the kayaking stuff / etc is stored…
So each sport: 1 own house. Arrange the different houses around or beside the main water sports building but definitely nearby the harbour and the slipway. As for sailing: you need a room for storage sails and reserve sailing equipment, a room for repair (with repair machineries) with storage for tools, one storage room for Racing Committee equipment. You need lockers for each dinghy (sail, tiller, lines, perhaps: small centreboard, rudder), you need space for storage rigs and boats (that have to get maintenance). You need space to store small outboard engine (for small rescue boats), you need space for cleaning stuff for sailboarts.

You need a rigging range for the sailing dinghies, a separate peer for the long rowing boats / long dragon boats, a range for parking cars, a range for storing road trailers and big boats.


Did I forgot something? Feel free to add it here…

LooserLu
Laserite (and civil engineer)
 
marginal conditions how to design a watersports area II

In addition to my reply above, I found some photos at my PC. The photos of storage system for Laser and Optimist dinghies I have taken from the former Homepage (now offline, I guess) of Seitech Inc. This US-company is now part of Laser Performance Ltd./USA.
The other photos I have personally taken of the basement at my sailingclub (~400 members). We have a seperate building for to storage sails (and dry sails) and lockers for each boat. The clubhouse was designed and constructed in the end of the 70ties "DIY" by club members only.
 

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In the days when cars used to rust and it was a problem, the best place to leave your car was under what in the UK was called a "carport" (basically a roof with no side walls - just a roof on stilts). The reason it was best was that it kept rain off but allowed air movement and thus the car to dry off. Cars will often arrive home wet so put them in a closed garage and in an enclosed space they stay wet and start to deteriorate.

Ian
 
hey thanks a lot u guys and looserlu ur advice was gold man. gold!
i'll be meeting with my mates and i'll keep u guys updated.

still should i design the building for a full boat house or build small keep space for later. small space for expansion or big like total 100 years design in mind?

what would be the bare essentials.

the boat house i go to uses the roof no wall building concept, but they have top of the line security. my college on the other hand has a slipway and the dragonboat club experienced theft before via the unguarded waterways.

so an enclosed but well aired space is important. so i plan to have an building with a warehouse up-down sliding door thing( i have no idea what it is called) either man(chains) or hydraulic powered.

lockers for boats, rigging and blades, how would that look like?
 
marginal conditions how to design a watersports area III

Hi again

still should i design the building for a full boat house or build small keep space for later. small space for expansion or big like total 100 years design in mind?

Like I told above: 1 Central section for all public uses. Then you add sections (as the need is for) for each water sport discipline. Perhaps you initially combine water sports sections as it is possible ( f.e.: Kayaking and Rowing / Sailing and Windsurfing etc). This central section (house) you may design in that way to be “growable” (that it is possible to add rooms later, f.e. rooms for gymnastic, weight lifting, seminar room etc.).

For the central section you plan a usage of about 100 years? Okay, this requires a very solid building. Wood architecture needs much care/maintenance aft some decades. Steel construction method is expensive but solid. At GER we found out, brick buildings or buildings in “precast reinforced concrete construction“ method are optimal in construction costs and maintenance costs.

what would be the bare essentials.
For the central section:
Entrance, big meeting room (as you have about 200 members: big enough to have seats for in minimum 80-100 members, ~ 200 m²) with a small kitchen. At the big meeting room you install mobile walls to be able to divide it into 2 rooms. M/f-dressing rooms m/f-bathrooms, m/f-WC’s, 2-3 small rooms for committees of the watersport dicipines, technical room for the building, 1 storage room, a room for boat repair.

As for the water sport disciplines think about to initially take small separate cottage-“buildings”, that you may later replace with solid houses. Such small buildings could be made like “Deimos told “carport”-cottage or cheap prefab carhouses with “roll up”-door. Later, as the need is for you replace them by solid building (perhaps semi-detached to the central building). For rowing boats you need longer cottages, don’t forget this aspect at the design.



lockers for boats, rigging and blades, how would that look like
“lockers for boats” misunderstanding: I did mean small cabinets for boat parts (view photos below: No. 5 at the main room of the sailing cottage: the red cabinets at the wall). BTW under the roof of the sailing cottage, we dry our sails and/or store long masts (photo No. 4,below: there is a small door in the fromt of the roof of the sailing cottage to put the mast into the cottage). As for laser I already did add a photo above: “new boxes for club-Laser parts” (it is the second last photo above) and at the new photos below: photo No. 6 “6 basement of the clubhouse” in the rear left at the wall (also at that wall: storage-rack for masts, booms, ladders). Also at photo 6 at the very rear wall: Optinist dinghy storage room (you seen some small red Optimist dinghi paddles at the wall).


Ciao
LooserLu
 

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Danial,

You have some special climate considerations in your location. You can get away with covered, but open (not enclosed) storage and you need to put a special emphasis on making sure you have NO standing water and that you get ventilation through your boats.

You should have no shortage of fresh water, so plan for wash-down areas - but also plan for drainage (that standing water issue again).

If you can, try to make a trip down to the Singapore National Sailing Centre and check out their facilities. Failing that, consider visiting Royal Port Dickson and looking at their dinghy facilities.

Also consider your launching requirements. Will you be launching off a beach (similar to Singapore's east coast) or will you be need a dock (see Royal Port Dickson)? Will you need a concrete ramp to launch a powerboat?

In your location I doubt that commercial boat racks will be the most cost-effective choice. A custom-build using local trades people may well be cheaper and better for the community.

Depending on exactly where you will put this facility you also need to be aware of how quickly the foliage grows and encroaches on the facility. This means planning for frequent maintenance. Foliage can bring wildlife with it. I once pulled the cover back on a laser I had when I lived in your region to discover a snake resting quite happily underneath.

Also consider security requirements.
 
thx muzza and looserlu.
great input. royal PD yacht club apparently has great heritage.

i found out about royal Selangor yacht club and Perak yacht club.
do u think if i approach them and ask about how to initiate a proper boat house would u think they would help, or even show concern?
firstly, more on the idea wise (and if i'm fortunate enough monetary support :p)
should i pop by or should i make an appointment? if i should make an appointment. who should i meet? or would they know better?

i want to expand the sailing culture to varsities in my country, but i'll need a proper foundation first (like a place to train other Uni students) and a proper team.
i am so pumped up now. thanks you guys. thanks a lot. seriously i can't thank u guys enough.

snakes.....maybe the eagles ate them. been here 2 years already. never seen one of 'em anywhere. i'll will continue with more questions later when there has been progress.
 

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