The Day Marina is a huge E-Shaped floating facility located just off Beach Hammock on Little Tybee Island, in Wassaw Sound. Click on the image at left for a larger image. Photo by Scott Bryant, courtesy Savannah News-Press.

It was built at a cost of nearly $6.5 million dollars by the Scott Bridge Co. of Mississippi. 28 river barges, provided by the MOBRO Marine Inc of Jacksonville Florida, comprise the structure. There are wind resistant tents, airconditioning, a state of the art stereo system, running water and toilet facilities, even power sources for the teams to plug in their laptops.

The "open" side of the marina faces north up the Bull River, thus the "backbone.asp" of the E faces the ocean. Races start at 1 PM each day, sailors will sail out to courses Alpha, (in Wassaw Sound), Beta, Charlie and Delta (in the ocean). See our navigational map of Wassaw Sound for location of the racing circles.

All of the boats will be housed here during the competition. They are towed to the Day Marina from the Olympic Marina on the Wilmington River. Dinghies and sailboards come aboard the day marina at the conclusion of each day's racing. The Stars and Solings remain moored between the launch ramps. They can be hoisted out onto the deck of the marina only once every two days for bottom cleaning. Swimming is prohibited -- no scrubbing of hulls underwater!

The construction and design of the day marina has been a long and not entirely pleasant journey, with plenty of wrangling between the IYRU and ACOG. In November of 1994, ACOG met with IYRU officials at their annual meeting. At that time, they promised a day marina of 225,000 sq feet. The IYRU told ACOG that they would try to see how to cut the scale of the project back, and proposed that the minimum size could be as low as 150,000 square feet. In June of 1995 ACOG and IYRU officials met in Atlanta, where ACOG informed IYRU that the day marina was being scaled back to 45,000 feet, with additional space to be used on Williamson Island, immediately to the south of Beach Hammock. This proved to be wishful thinking, as the storm surge of Hurricane Erin in 1995 demonstrated that a strong tide could, and would, submerge Williamson Island.

Click on the map at left for a series of maps showing it's location relative to Wassaw Sound.

It has been reported that ACOG's engineering department used the wrong scale on their blueprints in estimating the minimum size needed. After further heated negotiations between IYRU and ACOG, the minimum of 150,000 square feet was established; this is the size of the present day marina.

Reports from both sailors and coaches about the day marina have been universally positive -- the entire platform floats, so the angle of the access ramps remains constant. The banners, flags and poles lend a surreal atmosphere, likened by one sailor to "an aircraft carrier on acid". The sailors and coaches have nicknamed the facility "waterworld" after the recent movie of the same name. It's a self contained sailor's city, with more toys parked on it than you could ever want. The facility will be dismantled after the Games, but it will not be soon forgotten.