Securing a slip

[bes1020]

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first "big" boat (47ft). I must say that one of the most vexing aspects of this entire transaction is figuring out the strategy for securing a place to keep it. Our plan is to cruise fairly extensively during winter and spring and to do just short trips in summer and fall.

We have to be north of Florida for hurricane season so that rules out keeping it any place close to our home in the keys. We have tentatively settled on somewhere in South Carolina. For those of you in similar situations of being gone from your home marina for extended periods of time, how to you make sure you have a spot when you return 5 months later? Do you just pay for the entire year? Does your marina allow you to make seasonal reservations? Or do you find there to be adequate enough space that you can always find a space somewhere?

An ancillary question is for those of you who lease on an annual basis; if your boat is registered out of state how do you avoid triggering personal property tax in places like Georgia or South Carolina. It seems as though an annual lease would be waving a huge red flag.

 

[Larry M]

Depends. We kept a boat in North Florida. We’d cruise each winter and wanted to keep the slip we had. The marina charged us 1/2 price for the slip while we were gone and they would rent it out for full price. We did need to give them 30 day notice on when we were returning.

We had friends in South Florida and slips were hard to come by. There, they payed for the year whether they were there or not.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

A while back I remember reading about the cost of slips in south Florida and thinking "Hey, that's not as bad as I though; we are nearly paying that much here on Lake Erie." I had to sit down when I realized the south Florida cost was monthly compared to what we pay for the entire season. Still gives me pause.

 

[38ark]

I live in San Fransisco and am looking at keeping a boat in the Pacific Northwest. The Insurrance company is going to require a caretaker since I don’t live where I would be keeping the boat. Just another thing to think about.

 

[intdln]

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first "big" boat (47ft). I must say that one of the most vexing aspects of this entire transaction is figuring out the strategy for securing a place to keep it. Our plan is to cruise fairly extensively during winter and spring and to do just short trips in summer and fall.

We have to be north of Florida for hurricane season so that rules out keeping it any place close to our home in the keys. We have tentatively settled on somewhere in South Carolina. For those of you in similar situations of being gone from your home marina for extended periods of time, how to you make sure you have a spot when you return 5 months later? Do you just pay for the entire year? Does your marina allow you to make seasonal reservations? Or do you find there to be adequate enough space that you can always find a space somewhere?

An ancillary question is for those of you who lease on an annual basis; if your boat is registered out of state how do you avoid triggering personal property tax in places like Georgia or South Carolina. It seems as though an annual lease would be waving a huge red flag.

We spent 18 months in Charleston SC. We are a resident of another state. We were charged a substantial SC property tax on our boat for renting a slip. We were told by the tax office that if in Charleston SC waters for six months in a calendar year, does not have to be contiguous we are charged. Won’t return. Our boat is federally documented.

 

[Stickman]

for sc:
1) if the tax office representatives even suspects your boat has been in state for greater than 179 days, they will try to locate you and send you a tax bill. It is up to you to prove them wrong, and then they will dismiss it promptly. Yes, you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. I have been through this personally.
2) if your primary residence is in Charleston county, you owe the 10.5% annual assessment on all your personal property including cars and boats. The location of them is irrelevant. this of course depends on them identifying you as an owner of a boat they have seen in their waters. my Coast Guard documented Boat, with a port of call out of state, we’re still subjected to the county personal property tax, once they discovered I was the owner. I am a resident of the county. yes my next cruising boat will be handled differently.

 

[La Sirena]

This is what I would do. I would determine where you want to keep the boat when not using it considering insurance requirements and taxes. Then I would look to see if there is a Safe Harbor marina in that location. If you have an annual contract with them, you can get up to 3 nights at another Safe Harbor for free. That would be handy when you're cruising. The slip rate for annual contracts is much less than monthly or daily rates, so it will likely to get the annual contract even though you will only be there for part of the year.

There is a train that goes up the coast from FL that is reasonably priced. You can leave a car by your boat slip to local transport.

Yes, it is a bit complicated.

 

[divert00]

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first "big" boat (47ft). I must say that one of the most vexing aspects of this entire transaction is figuring out the strategy for securing a place to keep it. Our plan is to cruise fairly extensively during winter and spring and to do just short trips in summer and fall.

We have to be north of Florida for hurricane season so that rules out keeping it any place close to our home in the keys. We have tentatively settled on somewhere in South Carolina. For those of you in similar situations of being gone from your home marina for extended periods of time, how to you make sure you have a spot when you return 5 months later? Do you just pay for the entire year? Does your marina allow you to make seasonal reservations? Or do you find there to be adequate enough space that you can always find a space somewhere?

An ancillary question is for those of you who lease on an annual basis; if your boat is registered out of state how do you avoid triggering personal property tax in places like Georgia or South Carolina. It seems as though an annual lease would be waving a huge red flag.

Just an fyi, NC tax burden is considerably less than SC. We are at Wrightsville Beach, still far enough south to have minimal cold weather(no ice or snow).

 

[Flatswing]

We have tentatively settled on somewhere in South Carolina. For those of you in similar situations of being gone from your home marina for extended periods of time, how to you make sure you have a spot when you return 5 months later? Do you just pay for the entire year? Does your marina allow you to make seasonal reservations? Or do you find there to be adequate enough space that you can always find a space somewhere?

An ancillary question is for those of you who lease on an annual basis; if your boat is registered out of state how do you avoid triggering personal property tax in places like Georgia or South Carolina. It seems as though an annual lease would be waving a huge red flag.

We own a slip in Windmill Harbor, Hilton Head, SC.
Several boats come here for Hurricane season. One can lease/sublease privately from slip owners but our marina will also broker slip rentals to transients & short term rentals while we are away.
We live in SC so the higher personal property tax is offset by the low state and county taxes. That said, the PPT is county driven, for us a Beaufort County employee walks the docks every 2-3 weeks and tracks which boats are present. In some jurisdictions marinas are required to submit a list of vessels - usually Jan 1. I have no knowledge of PPT being assessed based on a lease if your vessel is out of state for >6 mos, but each local jurisdiction can set their own rules

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
We kept our 46' trawler in Camden county NC. Personal tax was 3%. One of the lowest in NC. We rented for the season but were there most of the time. Lambs Marina

 

[REO]

Another tax to be aware of is sales tax. Washington state charges sales tax on the full value of a boat that was in Washington waters for 6 months if sales tax has not been paid in another state....no limit on how long the boat has been owned. They also have dock watchers, I'm told they pay a bounty when an out of state boat is turned in. This is enforced by requiring a registration sticker after 6 months. Seems like many states have a tax trick waiting for the unaware boater.