Lake Powell Marina Upgrades

With New Mooring Buoys

With its high cliffs and panoramic views, Lake Powell, the 140-mile-long reservoir behind Glen Canyon Dam, is a boater's paradise.  However, the lake's extreme 250-foot depth and 100-foot seasonal variations in water level made the mooring of 25-ton, 75-foot houseboats unreliable. 

Thanks to a unique buoy-anchoring field and new mooring buoys from Premier Materials, the anchorage problems were solved.

Arizona's Wahweap Marina and the Hall's Crossing and Bullfrog marinas in Utah are part of Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas, an authorized concessionaire of the National Park Service.  Managed by ARAMARK, the marinas are home to hundreds of houseboats—many up to the lake's maximum permissible size of 75 feet.

In addition to the variations in water level and the lake's depth, the marinas' old moorings and steel buoys constantly needed maintenance. Now, each marina contains a new grid-based mooring field using Premier Materials' mooring buoys. 

In total, nearly 630 new buoys were installed — 250 buoys for boats 55 feet or less and the remaining 380 buoys for boats up to 75 feet.

The Premier buoys are one-piece roto-molded spheres filled with void-free EPS foam. The watertight, heavy LLPDE outer shell is virtually impervious to oil, gas, animal damage and impacts, and provides a product life in excess of 20 years. 

Available in diameters of 32, 38, and 42 inches, the buoys deliver buoyancy ratings from 581 to 1,321 pounds.

A 12-gauge, molded-in steel tube runs through the center of each buoy to accommodate anchoring and tie-down hardware. All buoys are white with a 2-inch reflective, blue vinyl stripe for added visibility.

ARAMARK's Dean Crane said, "We selected Premier mooring buoys for several reasons.  They require absolutely zero maintenance, and they have a lot more buoyancy than the old steel units.  Plus, in case of accidental contact with the boat, the hull won't be damaged or even marked." 

More information on ARAMARK's Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas operations can be seen at www.aramarkparks.com .