Apollo Ensures Safe Harbour at Portland Marina
A new marina on the South coast of England, which will be one of
the venues for sailing events during the 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games, has been equipped with an Apollo-based fire
detection system. Owners Dean & Reddyhoff Marinas awarded the
contract to supply the fire protection to H W Smith & Son
(Contracting) Ltd.
Portland Marina is situated at Weymouth, Dorset, and has been
designed to be a world-class sailing destination. It offers
berthing for vessels up to 44 metres in length and a full boatyard
service, including lift-out and storage ashore. The berths are
fully serviced, with water and electricity laid on, and there are
also extensive shoreside facilities such as a washroom, a laundry
and showers, as well as a free internet café, bar and
restaurant.
A fire detection system was required to provide constant
protection to the marina facilities building, restaurant building,
13 business units and four boat workshops.
David Smith, managing director of H W Smith & Son, explains:
"As the site is manned 24/7 and the business and workshop units are
let to tenants, we agreed on a solution based on Apollo's
conventional technology. This offers a number of benefits to the
client, including reduced costs, simplified future maintenance and
greater adaptability to changes of use. We recommended Apollo fire
detection products because they have proved very reliable in the
past."
The distributed fire detection system comprises 19 Channel Fire
control panels in total, varying from six-zone models in the main
buildings to single zone models in the individual business units.
There are 40 manual call points installed around the complex and a
combination of Apollo Series 65 optical smoke detectors and fixed
and rate-of-rise heat detectors has been used to meet the local
environmental conditions. In addition to internal audio visual
devices, the fire system includes 18 IP65-rated sounder beacons,
which are installed externally to communicate an alarm anywhere in
the boatyard.
Russ Levett, manager of Portland Marina, says: "Our fire system
offers the simplicity of the 'break glass' option for customers in
an emergency while working with other essential equipment to
provide comprehensive fire protection. For example, the system
interfaces with the fire resistant shuttering in the main
offices.
"Portland Marina opened in April 2009 and we haven't required
any technical or customer service support since then, other than
routine maintenance. The system is very easy to use and we are very
happy with its performance to date."
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