Weathering the Winter: Life At Brooklyn Bridge Park Marina

January 11, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The sun set beyond the marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo: Will Hasty/Brooklyn Eagle

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Except for dealing with rare accidents, like the tragic and fatal fire on Saturday morning, that originated in the vessel of a lone boater, the marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park does the day-to-day maritime work one would expect from a modern, urban marina.

Harbormaster Sam Barrett-Cotter knows boats. As the key Brooklyn employee for international firm One-degree 15, owners and operators of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Marina, he deals with everything that floats.

From small sailboats and 200- foot yachts to heavy construction service vessels, Sam has managed their visits to Brooklyn Bridge Park. “We are a state-of-the-art marina,” he says, citing the “huge
investment” in wave attenuators, adding “ We are 100 percent floating docks.”

Upbeat media attention came recently to One-degree 15 Brooklyn when the famous Ocean Xplorer docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park enroute to the Carribbean. A bit naively, the Eagle asked “Did you have enough fuel to fill their tanks?”

“We don’t keep tanks here for re-fueling,” said Barrett-Cotter. “That was not an option when Brooklyn Bridge Park development company approached us … the nearest spot is Jersey City, just a fifteen minute trip across the Harbor.”

But restocking a vessel’s fresh water supply or electric power is state-of-the-art at One Degree 15.
“We supply full spectrum of a vessel’s power needs, “ said Barrett-Cotter, “up to 200 amps, if needed.”

Additional, vital service: pumping out a vessel’s waste tanks. “Our cleaning system is so modern and
powerful,” said Barrett-Cotter, “that vessels who are not docked here come by for the service .”

For the smaller vessels that do not have their own bathrooms or showers, One Degree 15 provides bathrooms and showers on the ferryboat Fort Hamilton, which is docked nearby as a service vessel.
One additional asset—and treat—for the boaters who use One-degree 15 marina: the company owns and operates Estuary, the popular dockside restaurant located in the corner of One Brooklyn Bridge Park. Perhaps more popular is the bakery, whose warm muffins, says Barrett-Cotter,” have persuaded many a wandering sailor to linger in Brooklyn.”