Svanesund Marina

Located in an exposed area, this Swedish installation puts Seaflex to the test with great results.

We recently revisited this now 5-year-old installation to catch up with Mats Skoogberg at the Svanesund Boat Club about his experience working with Seaflex and seeing it in action throughout the years since installing them.

“Before the installation of Seaflex we used railway rails at the bottom as anchors. We have quite a bit of current here and trying to moor a boat to pontoons was a nightmare with all the buoys and lines in the water! Now it’s only the current you have to consider when mooring at our marina, superb! In addition, the water level variation is 1 meter. The Seaflex moorings ensures that the pontoons travel within the water level variation and this also makes the mooring of the boats easier. The last few days we’ve had a storm with winds in the 20 m/s range and high tide and it’s a true pleasure to come down to the marina. The boats and pontoons is exactly where they are supposed to be”.

We also discuss the environmental impact of marinas and how Swedish legislation is changing and more consideration about the impact on the marina environment is taken before granting permits to build new marinas.In Mats experience, the legislation around marinas and their environmental impact has been more extensive and demands on “environmental installations” has been an issue when applying for building permits.

“ Already in 2005, when we applied for building permit, there where an investigation into the environmental impact of the marina. Although, the “scarring effect” of chains on the bottom was not mentioned by the authorities. This was pointed out to us from our installer of the marina. The “scarring effect” has great impact on eelgrass meadows and creates large areas of dead sea bottom. This problem is avoided with the use of Seaflex. The systems only point of contact with the sea bottom is the dead weight anchor which does not move. The rest of the system is pre tensioned and never comes in contact with the bottom”.

Mats recommends Seaflex mooring system for other marinas when the system does not impact the environment in a negative way. Another great benefit of using Seaflex is that the boat club members do not have to use their valuable free time to maintain moorings. “Now they have more time to spend in the boat! Also, in our case, moorings of pontoons can be done efficiently on uneven seabeds. Our outer pontoons is moored at a depth of 20-25 meters on the outside but only 7-10 meters on the inside. Seaflex is Efficient, Environmental friendly and Maintenance free”, says Mats.