Designing mooring systems for tourist pontoons in coral reef environments

Abstract

Boating pontoon facilities on the Great Barrier Reef-typically moored in pristine, hand-picked locations-offer tourists a unique opportunity to experience the beauty and diversity of coral reef habitats in relatively safe and comfortable conditions. Designing mooring systems for these installations poses major engineering challenges. Existing mooring design codes do not accommodate the conditions and vessel characteristics involved, and the complex numerical models readily used in other industries are unaffordable and technically ill-suited. This paper presents a modified quasi-static mooring design procedure, which has been purposely developed for floating pontoons in a tropical reef environment. The method described offers a simple, practical and systematic design strategy to a complex problem and serves as a platfonn fur the evolution of more reliable and less conservative solutions.