Opening of the new Marina at Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City
Kuwait real estate developer La’ala Al Kuwait have their first marina at the massive 4,700 Hectare, Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City project in the south of Kuwait. The 408 berth marina has been 18 months in construction and is the first of 4 marinas, either under construction or at advanced planning stage, offering new berths to the Kuwait market. The marina is the largest in Kuwait and will receive craft from 10m to 40m length. With Kuwait being the largest boating market of the GCC countries, Sea City marinas will provide a much needed facility and assist in stimulating the boat sales market in a country where the registered boat numbers exceed the berth availability by a factor of 10. Sea City’s 5 star marina is constructed totally from concrete pontoons; attenuators, walkway units and all fingers, providing amazing stability and facilitating access to all berths via golf buggies. Recognising the challenges of constructing an all concrete marina in the desert, La’ala Al Kuwait collaborated with Ingemar of Italy in the design and construction of this 225,000 m2 marina (17,000 m2 floating units). Linking Ingemar design and validation to the construction know how of La’ala Al Kuwait has delivered a facility that produces up to 28 concrete pontoons per week, 800m2. An amazing feat for a company with no history of marina construction. Furthermore, with difficulty of procuring satisfactory marine piling companies, La’ala Al Kuwait converted one of their barges to receive a crane, bought the appropriate piling equipment and installed an average of 8 piles per day to incredible levels of position and vertical accuracy!
The level of service provided to the boat owners is of the highest level, includes:
- Power to every berth, from 32 amp single phase up to 250 amp three phase
- Water to each berth,
- At berth sanitary pumpout to 30% berths
- 7 fuel dispensers, including very high speed diesel supply
- RFID actuated security gates and pedestals
All of the electrical, water, sanitary and emergency installation has been designed and supplied by Rollins Marine from the UK. The hugely attended opening ceremony consisted of traditional Kuwait dancing, children’s entertainment and an exhibition area outlining the history and construction of the project and its marinas, topped off with an impressive flurry of fireworks. The ceremonial knocking of the traditional Kuwaiti Bab (gate) was carried out by the Minister of State for Housing Affairs,Yasser Hassan Abul. La’ala al Kuwait has been inundated by boat owners interested in acquiring berths in this marina which is located close the favourite fishing grounds and coral islands of the south of Kuwait.
