Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Why is the pontoon entrance at newer Marinas gated

Raffles Marina put in place a friendly well balanced Marina culture when she was 
established 22yrs ago. Boaters respected the sea and each other. If you went through a 
storm at sea and lived to tell the tale, you became friends for life. Boaters are a friendlier 
lot. That's one of the reasons I love boating.


I've observed that the newer Marinas namely 1Deg15 and Marina at Keppel Bay have gated 
entries to the wet berths. So you can't just walk down to the berths unlike at Raffles Marina, 
RSYC and Marina Country Club. At Keppel you'll need a boat owner with a dongle or a pass 
to open the gates going in and leaving the pontoons. I was told the MPA may have influenced 
such measures for fear that illegal immigrants would slip into Singapore through a Marina. 
That caused boat owners and their guests much inconvenience and distress when accessing 
their boats. One solution is to have gates but not lock them. Think about this before you rub 
it off as ineffective.

I intend to dwell deeper into this subject and recommend smarter measures as I wish to 
promote the friendly well balanced Marina culture that Raffles Marina began 22 yrs ago. 
We shouldn't allow fear to influence our better judgement and common sense.  


Raffles Marina, the first Marina to be established in Singapore






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