The Tribune

• Port chief: Progress can involve ‘degree of pain’

• Dredger to re-open mega yacht access by end-June

• Acknowledges ‘may not be fast enough’ for Bay Street

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau Cruise Port’s top executive has promised that “relief is coming” for marinas seeking to regain super yacht access, acknowledging that progress “can come with a degree of pain”.

Michael Maura, responding to concerns voiced by the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president that the expansion of the cruise port’s northernmost berth has cut-off mega vessel access to his and other nearby marinas, told Tribune Business yesterday that the vessel hired to dredge the channel to the required depth will arrive by the last week of June.

Acknowledging the complaints, Mr Maura said: “This construction with that pier extension does impact Peter [Maury’s] operation, and I am sorry for that. Unfortunately, when you are trying to advance in certain areas, and this is definitely one that has a material benefit for a lot of Bahamians, it does come with a degree of pain for a small amount of time.”

He added that, on the day Mr Maury raised his issues, he was meeting with senior Port Department officials and leading executives from the Nassau Cruise Port’s main contractor, Enka, to discuss the dredging plan around the berth involved because the vessel that will perform the work is now “en route to Nassau”.

The Nassau Cruise Port chief said: “There’s 10-14 days of dredging that will happen on the north side of the pier extension, and then the dredging will move around to the south side of the pier extension. I shared with Peter and others our intent is to complete some dredging on the south side and south-east side of the new pier to allow vessels to move around the pier and use that navigation channel.

“Relief is coming, but I appreciate it may not be coming fast enough for the marina owners on Bay Street. There are plans to provide dredging around the pier extension. We’re going to get it done. We just have to wait for the dredger to get here.”

Mr Maury, who operates Bay Street Marina, previously told Tribune Business the extension of the cruise port’s northern-most pier to provide for two Oasis-class cruise ship berths has cut-off access to his property for mega yachts until dredging takes place to provide deep-water access yet again.

Arguing that this had placed him at a competitive disadvantage, he said then: “I have a 550 foot dock with a 20 foot draft, but I can’t get a 20-foot draft boats in. I already have a mega yacht/super yacht marina.... I often times get boats that come in here that are 350 feet. I just want my deep water access back. All they have to do is re-dredge the channel. They have made the approach impossible.

“I’ve already lost business because of it, because in this weather like this with the shallow channel, a lot of boats are just not making the approach. I had a boat cancel yesterday because of it. They said it was too windy and with the chains, it is too risky, so they didn’t want to chance it.”

Mr Maury said six marinas and properties were being impacted by the situation, and added: “They don’t just have to re-dredge the harbour. There’s a channel in the harbour already, and to the east of the Prince George Wharf they’re building..... you will see they’ve extended a new pier out there.

“If they extended that pier and put new pilings in, that’s where the channel across the deep water access along the southern-bound property of the harbour is. Right within the harbour is the northern bounds of the harbour, which is for Paradise Island, and the southern bound is Nassau.

“There are six properties on the southern bound of the harbour entrance, with two of them having a 20-foot draft. That needs to be reinstated or re-installed. They have 100 metres of dredging, but right now it’s down to about a ten-foot draft. I need 18 feet, which is what we had before.”

Mr Maura yesterday said Enka had completed “some of the works” for the piping that will transport the fill dredged from the bottom of Nassau harbour to the other side of Prince George Wharf, where it will be deposited and used to reclaim the seabed as the site upon which the facility’s planned amphitheatre, retail, restaurant and other attractions will eventually be constructed.

He added that the cruise port was “99 percent done” on the work required to accommodate Royal Caribbean and Crystal Cruises’ home porting, with the remainder set to be wrapped up by Tuesday ahead of the former’s June 12 start date - which is Saturday.

“It’s all coming together,” Mr Maura said. “If you came to the port today [yesterday], you would see fencing going up, painting happening. We did a dry run with the luggage scanners yesterday, where the team brought two to three suitcases through. We had 50 suitcases running through the system. Tuesday coming [tomorrow] we will have security and other service agents doing a rehearsal, a dry run.”

Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas, which will be the vessel used for the cruise line’s Bahamas home porting, is scheduled to arrive in Nassau on Wednesday as Nassau Cruise Port seeks to manage its needs alongside ongoing construction work on its own $250m redevelopment.

Mr Maura said the former two-storey Port Department building is already “more than half-way” demolished, and added: “The two-storey portion of the building is the first part to be demolished, and we have additional folks coming in from the US with specialist equipment to work with local contractors to bring down the tower.”