It's gettin' scary...

[ancora]

Our dock has ten 50 'foot slips on one side and 10 40' foot slips on the other side. We always jokingly refer to it as the "Dock of the Dead" as most of the boats are "slip-huggers" and never move or have anyone aboard. In the past four months 5 of the skippers have gone to that great "marina in the sky." It's gettin' downright spooky.

 

[Nomad Willy]

In LaConner Wa things were slow during the recession. I heard when there were 20 boats left in one major section of the marina (08 I think) they lowered the rates so don't be too scared ... there's usually a good side to all evil.

Me being scared the rates will go back up soon may be posponed for some considerable time by the effects of the sequester.

 

[Baggiolini]

It amazes me as I walk our Docks. There is a boat with a 2003 registration sticker and a bunch with 2007. Probably half of the boats on my dock have never moved since I bought my boat. Most of them show it but a few are in magnificent shape including a Nor'Sea 27.

My buddy in the harbor office tells a story of a guy who comes in to pay his annual slip fee and asks for a pair of binoculars to take a look at his boat. Walks out the door and says see you next year.


In Monterey there is an 18 year waiting list for anything above 30' so perhaps that explains why people hang onto their boats.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

We have had a few "wood" boats sink at our marina. They actually had plants growing out of them. On a 34' Fairliner the hull split right down the middle.....

 

[BaltimoreLurker]

At my marina last season, many people didn't even put their boat back in the water in the Spring. I think the economy is starting to wear people down.

 

[yachtbrokerguy]

In February our office sold some boats, a 84' Westbay Sonship, an 80' Burger, an 80' Hatteras, a 58' Viking, a 56' Sunseeker and a 55' Novatec. The stock market is fliritng with record highs, boat sales are improving.

 

[ancora]

At the yacht club, we had an old 60' wooden sportfisher that had not moved in years. The club leaned on the owners to get rid of it but no one wanted it, even for free. Last year, the couple that owned the boat died, and the estate was forced to move it to a public marina. As for the down economy's effect on boating: here in San Diego we have slips beggin' for boats to fill them. Even our yacht club has empty slips.

 

[Phil Fill]

.
Most of the people that can afford a big boat are up in age and/or retired. Since most of us have boated for many years, have other interests, it not worth the energy, money and time to take the big boat out. Besides most of the time the big boat was the mother boat to carry/tow all the stuff to another location to be tied up. As we get older boating becomes exhausting and work. It also tougher to find other people to even come as they have their own busy lives/interest.

Most of the major marinas in the Puget Sound require yearly proof of insurance and current tabs/registration even if the boat does not leave the dock. The law in the State of Washington is any boat moored in the water is required to have a current registration weather its used out not. The police also come around the and check. So people are starting to dry store their boat.

Everett has a 20+% vacancy. for the last 3 years, and the dry/land storage has doubled during that time. Besides land/dry storage is cheaper and not as hard on the boat as being moored in the water. when we move off the Eagle, I might dry/land storage during 9 rainy cold month of the year, which we had SOUTH TO WARMER CLIMATE.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Everett has the 20% vacancy because their rates are high. I think they are high to help pay for all the stupid development that has nothing to to w boating. They're up to their ears building infrastructure for the apartment buildings they have planned. I could be wrong but that's the way I SE it.

Don't know why Bellingham is high. And they have (perhaps had) a waiting list. If I quit boating it will be because of the high rates.

Of course at my age just about everything seems high.

 

[Conrad]

Somewhere on the drive between Seattle and the turnoff to La Conner/Anacortes there is a large field/storage lot that has many, many boats on the hard. Every shape and size, and some look like they have sat there for years, largely untouched. Anyone know that that place is about?

 

[Anode]

Somewhere on the drive between Seattle and the turnoff to La Conner/Anacortes there is a large field/storage lot that has many, many boats on the hard. Every shape and size, and some look like they have sat there for years, largely untouched. Anyone know that that place is about?

Every time I drive by, I want to stop and 'root around', but never have.

 

[Phil Fill]

Every time I drive by, I want to stop and 'root around', but never have.

That probable is Dagmars in Everett! Largest dry/dirt storage around. Several miles up the Snohimish river from Everett Marina.

Everett rate is high compared to what? Certainly not Seattle! What is LaConners rate?

 

[Marin]

Somewhere on the drive between Seattle and the turnoff to La Conner/Anacortes there is a large field/storage lot that has many, many boats on the hard. Every shape and size, and some look like they have sat there for years, largely untouched. Anyone know that that place is about?

That is not a field full of boats, that is Dagmar's Marina. It's a dry storage marina and it's been there for decades. We know several very active boaters who keep their boats at Dagmar's. According to them there is the same boater activity there as there is in most other marinas. The back of the yard is near the freeway which is why the boats you see there from I-5 tend to never leave their spaces. The more active boats are kept near the river.

 

[Marin]

Don't know why Bellingham is high. And they have (perhaps had) a waiting list. If I quit boating it will be because of the high rates.

Of course at my age just about everything seems high.

Last I heard Bellingham's Squalicum Marina has a four or five year waiting list for slips in the 40-45 foot range. Our dock was replaced last year and re- opened to boats at the end of the summer. Every slip is now full. The very long G-dock was also replaced. Half of it had been empty for two or three years due to severe storm damage. Now that the entire dock is new, it is rapidly filling up. It has 35' slips on one side and 50' slips on the other.

 

[Codger2]

Of course at my age just about everything seems high.

That reminds me of an old joke:

A guy walks in to a peanut shop and asks "how much are your cashews?
The proprietor answers, $1.49 a pound.

Nah, I don't think I should continue........

 

[Underway]

An issue on Lakes Michigan and Huron is the record low water level. Combine that with fuel prices and the economy and many marinas don't get beyond half occupancy for most of the season. And in their infinite wisdom, the state of Michigan raised slip rates 20% at municipal marinas to attract more customers. Private facilities followed suit. What the....???

At the end of last summer, older fixed docks were 6-7 feet off the water, so sailboaters and power boaters with low freeboard had to crawl/climb up onto the docks. Many slips are too shallow for deeper draft boats, and some harbors silted in...with no money for dredging. Looper traffic gets more and more slim. Towns are beginning to eye the waterfront occupied by marinas for other uses.

There's some pressure coming to bear over in the Detroit area for the Corps to choke down the outlet into Erie where years of dredging and widening has opened the flood gates. That combined with scarce precip, evaporation during unusually hot summers, and municipalities sucking water out of the lakes at unprecidented rates (billions of gallons) is disconcerting. But as mentioned previously, there's not much trouble getting a transient slip...for now.

 

[BruceK]

An issue on Lakes Michigan and Huron is the record low water level....That combined with scarce precip, evaporation during unusually hot summers, and municipalities sucking water out of the lakes at unprecidented rates (billions of gallons) is disconcerting. But as mentioned previously, there's not much trouble getting a transient slip...for now.

Take heart. 5 years back "climatologists" said dams in Australia would never refill, drought was permanent, we would starve with reduced farm production. A massive desal plant that (contractually) can`t be turned off was built in Sydney.
Now the dams are so full we want to extend the height of Sydney`s major dam wall to mitigate downstream floods. Been raining 1 week+, and that`s not unusual. There is repeated flooding up and down the east coast. Insurance premiums are skyrocketing because of floods.The expensive desal water is wasted.
And the "climatologists" are nowhere to be seen.

 

[swampu]

We have had a few "wood" boats sink at our marina. They actually had plants growing out of them.

That is the funniest thing i've ever read. I'll have to check mine in the morning

 

[Russell Clifton]

Just pulled into Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes today. There are tons of empty spaces in the marina and the dry storage yards are full of boats. So Cap Sante sent out a email a few days ago announcing they are taking applications for live aboard's. I heard a rumor that LaConner was also allowing live aboard's again after kicking them all out a few years ago.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Re LaConnor's rates our 30' covered slip ran us $253 a month. We checked Oak Harbor, Bellingham, Everett and Anacortes. All considerably higher.

I wonder what the rates are at Dagmars?

We are now out of the water at Latitude Marine just a mile south of LaConner for $160 mo.

Russell,
Sorry to hear about the liveaboards.

 

[Marin]

Eric-- The monthly slip fee for a 30' slip in Squalicum Marina in Bellingham is $207.60 which is $6.92 per foot. Whether they have a 30' slip available is another matter.

Bellingham does not offer covered moorage, however. There are boathouses in the marina but they are all privately owned.

 

[Pineapple Girl]

Wow this is so interesting to read. My marina has only a few empty slips and most all boats are in regular use. We have a few live aboards though technically they aren't allowed. Our next door neighbor is one and they say the marina owner looks the other way because they have a permanent address elsewhere. Maybe this marina has more boats in use bc it is somewhat expensive for the area? I think 50' slips on the "new" side with concrete docks (covered slips) and valet pump out are regularly $660 a month. We have a discounted slip because we are the first slip on the finger with a sharp turn to get in and we are in the river current where we don't like to come and go during the ebb. It works for us though and we love our marina.

 

[CPseudonym]

Re LaConnor's rates our 30' covered slip ran us $253 a month..

That's on par with rates for same here in the California Delta Eric.

 

[CPseudonym]

It works for us though and we love our marina.

We are still considering a move to your marina later this year. The social life there seems second to none.

 

[ARoss]

Since we are mostly an "active seniors" community (translation: retired) we have had a number of slips put up for sale due to owners heading to that marina in the sky.
This photo was taken about five years ago, in our marina, after an afternoon of "round the buoys" sailing. . Three of the five guys in the photo are gone, their boats sold and gone, a fourth has sold his boat, and I'm the only one that still has a boat slip, and it's a trawler, not a sailboat. Life goes on...

 

[Codger2]

Eric-- The monthly slip fee for a 30' slip in Squalicum Marina in Bellingham is $207.60 which is $6.92 per foot. .

You guys will get no sympathy from this quarter. We do, however, have slips available.

 

[Scout]

Marin is right in that there is a long wait for any slip more tha 30' at Squalicum Harbor with the exception of some 33' slips on the new G dock. But those slips are a LONG ways from the gate and are exposed to the prevailing weather. It surprises me that there are slips available at Anacortes and La Conner.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Is that Shelter Bay Walt? Thank's for posting those awful rates. Mine don't seem so bad now.

I used to walk the docks there in 1962. Had a sailboat in Mission Bay. Lots of fun sailing in the bay and we'd go out on occasion. Was a plywood 16' sloop.

Scout have you been to LaConner? Lots of covered moorage available. I want to stay covered for at least a year to do lots of maintenance like replace windows and again redo the cap rail ect.

Marin if you were at LaConner you could leave your brightwork open all the time.

 

[ARoss]

I do not know how prevalent "ownership" plans are in other marinas, but we "buy" a 99 year lease, typically for $500 - $800/foot; the lease is actually recorded with the county. We then pay an annual maintenance fee (full-time dockmasters, electricity, insurance) of about $750 for a 34' slip. If you assign a 10% "opportunity cost" to the slip investment, I figure my monthly cost, all in, is about $200/month.

 

[Codger2]

Is that Shelter Bay Walt?

Eric: I think you are thinking of Shelter Island. No, my boat is on Harbor Island, closer to the city and closest to escaping the 5 mph zones at all San Diego marinas.