The Irondequoit Bay Marine Park has been completely redesigned and rebuilt to improve the boat launches, boat trailer parking and additional car parking for people that are shore fishing, bird feeding, sight seeing, walking on the pier or beach or picnicking.

New features include a fishing dock and 12 transient docks for boaters to use during daylight hours (no overnight stays). They have also added a large playground just west of the marina behind Bill Grays that I was told by a panel of experts (my grandchildren) that it is "very cool".

As a boater who has used the marina for decades, I have to say that there are some pros an cons with the new design. The new launches are steep and harder to see when backing up. installing some poles on the sides of each launches or visible references would help make it easier to use. In addition, changes made the the loading/unload areas were meant to improve the turning radius, but but turning the trailer backing up from the parking up is harder to know when to start the turn as it us not visible.

Historical issues with the marina however have not been adequately improved. With a finite number of boat trailer spaces, many spaces are being used by individual cars so boaters need to be turned away. Stronger signs or police enforcement need to be implemented as tempers were flaring this week as non boaters refused to give up trailer only parking spaces.

In addition, cars of sightseers are always driving through the trailer parking lot lane where boaters are trying to back up their trailer in some cases for several hundred feet while dodging moving cars. This also creates grid lock in the lane that delays the retreaval of boats at the launch.

Although the three launch ramps are now marked with an in or out arrow on the pavement, boaters are using the only "out" lane to launch which takes away any ability to get your boat out of the water. There needs to be well posted visible signs that label which lanes are in only or out only and or park employees on site to enforce the rules.

Another change that amplifies the issues is that the payment shed and park employees have been replaced with a self payment machine that is hard to read in the sun. Without park employees to manage trailer flow it is just a chaotic mess when it gets busy.

Will somebody in the park services please read this post and correct the issues in the boat launch. Adding strong worded signs could significantly reduce the issues and minimize conflicts between people using the park.