Bellingham Marine is pleased to announce that Bahia Mar Yachting Center, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and home of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show has been awarded the 2010 PIANC Marina Excellence Design Jack Nichol Award.

The selection committee determined the Bahia Mar Yachting Center best represents the award’s evaluation criteria, which focuses on function, aesthetics, and environmental stewardship. “It’s an honor for Bellingham Marine and everyone that worked on the project to have received this esteemed award,” said Everett Babbitt, President of Bellingham Marine.

The purpose of the Jack Nichol Award is to recognize excellence in the design of modern recreational boating facilities around the world.

“A tremendous amount of effort went into designing the Bahia Mar marina to function successfully as a dual purpose facility,” said Steve Ryder, Manager of Project Development for Bellingham Marine. “From a design standpoint, the marina had to operate as a world class yacht center eleven months out of the year and as the home of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show during October of each year.”

The marina’s principle features include large full-service slips with corresponding clear water widths, Unifloat® concrete floating docks with extra wide walkways and high dock freeboard, a functional slip layout that meets the needs of the marina as well as the boat show, and a site electrical transformer and distribution system that provides ample power to account for the high utility demands imposed by the boats on a daily basis as well as the massive utility demands of the boat show. In addition, the marina includes a number of innovative design features that enables the facility to make an easy transition from marina to boat show venue.

Since its inception in 2003, the Jack Nichol Award has existed as the trademark for outstanding marina design and is considered by many to be the most prestigious award in the world in this area. The award will be presented to Bellingham Marine and Bahia Mar at the Annual General Assembly of PIANC in May 2010.

As the world’s leading marina design-build construction company, Bellingham Marine produces Unifloat® concrete floating dock systems, Unideck® metal frame floating dock systems and Unistack® dry stack systems for marinas worldwide.

Contact Bellingham Marine, P.O. Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227; www.bellingham-marine.com.

Unifloat, Unideck and Unistack are registered trademarks of Bellingham Marine.