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Located to the south of Bowness-on-Windermere, Windermere Marina Village is the largest full-service marina, providing over 300 berths on Lake Windermere within the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. The marina has moorings for annual berth holders and visitors, along with an adjacent fuel berth, slipway and boatyard facilities for servicing vessels. The marina is complemented with high-quality facilities and amenities for customers and property owners.

Marina Projects has been commissioned for the design, specification, procurement and contact administration of the new marina installation which includes a total of 335 berths for vessels up to 15m LOA. Specialist support has been provided to address the requirements for Planning Permission and related environmental approvals. The marina layout has been conceived in accordance with the operational requirements of the existing berth holders, whilst ensuring modern design standards are introduced to achieve the optimum arrangement for Windermere Marina.

The primary strategy for the new marina involves the replacement of all existing traditional fixed timber jetty structures with modern floating pontoon equipment. Flood protection is an ever-increasing issue in the marine environment with the rising threat of global climate change and the transition to floating pontoons away from fixed jetties will help to mitigate the potential of any future flood events, following periods of sustained high rainfall. The design process required a detailed review of historic lake levels to determine appropriate finish heights for new restraining piles and access arrangements to accommodate both peak and low lake water levels.

In addition, to the main pontoon works, the marina development will include the introduction of new dedicated customer access arrangements, high-quality utilities equipment, fibre connections to the vessel and an upgraded wi-fi installation across the marina basin.

As part of the ongoing scope, Marina Projects have supported the client team through a negotiated tender which involved the preparation of a detailed package of technical documents that confirm the design requirements and design parameters for the marina equipment.

Fareham based Walcon Marine Ltd have been appointed for the demolition and installation of the marina pontoon equipment and Maricer will be supplying all utilities equipment in readiness for installation by local electrical contract UK Electrical Services (UES Ltd).

The project is being delivered across two autumn and winter phases and is scheduled for completion in Spring 2023.

The extensive demolition of the fixed timber structures is a key challenge for this project which has required careful consideration of existing berthing operations to develop a works sequence that mitigates impacts to resident berth holders. The transition from the current layout to the new reconfiguration, which also includes a campaign of dredging to introduce more water depth for marina users has been established by Marina Projects, working closely with the client team and Walcon Marine.