Background

Fingal by the Royal Yacht Britannia is one of the UK’s leading luxury floating  hotels which is berthed on Edinburgh’s vibrant waterfront. Fingal, which started life as a lighthouse tender, helping maintain lighthouses and transporting their keepers, equipment and supplies to some of the most treacherous locations in Scotland.

Now, Fingal has been transformed into an exquisite 23 cabin boutique hotel and exclusive use venue by the award winning team at The Royal Yacht Britannia.

The struggle against dock debris

The luxury accommodation docked in Leith is the paragon of prestige and as such needs to be presented in equally beautiful location. Due to its location and the connection to the Firth of Forth, it was collecting a lot of debris in the dock, a recurring nuisance for the management to maintain the prestige presentation such a fine vessel deserves.

The modular design of Emtez's containment booms

Maintenance Team Manager at The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, Tony Smith required a solution and after researching solutions, he came across Emtez and their range of containment booms. In Tony’s previous 16 years working for the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, he had experience using booms before and had bought from other providers but had experienced mixed results.

After speaking with a number of solution providers, Tony opted for Emtez and their Permanent Boom (PB450) which is suitable for long term deployment because they are robust and hard wearing. Due to the requirements of dock, the boom had to be altered to a bespoke 10m version with a 300mm draft (that’s how deep the Skirt goes under the water) and a Freeboard (how high it sticks out above water level) of 150mm.

An additional benefit of this customisation is that as the that this 30m boom was made in 10m lengths, it can be easily lengthened/shortened if desired just by adding/removing 10m lengths with a conjoiner called a Standard ASTM or optional Norway connector.

The height of the freeboard stops any general flotsam and litter floating up the river, blowing over the boom and into the ships’ docking area. The geographic location of the ship and the waterway, means the amount of litter was proving a to be a problem.

Since deploying the Permanent Boom, Fingal has been clear and free of surrounding debris in the dock. Find out more about how we can help protect your business by contacting us.