Marina Dock Age

Although Hurricane Irene packed a less severe punch than originally anticipated, marinas up and down the coast still felt its effects, many suffering damage to boats and docks.

On Aug. 27, the hurricane made landfall on the U.S. East Coast in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and moved up into southeastern Virginia. After then reemerging over water, Hurricane Irene made its second U.S. landfall near Little Egg Inlet in New Jersey on the morning of Aug. 28. The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm before it made its third U.S. landfall in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn, N.Y., also on Aug. 28.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, on Aug. 27, Irene’s hurricane-force winds extended outward as much as 90 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extended outward as much as 290 miles. Flooding records were broken in 26 rivers — New Jersey (eight), New York (14) and Vermont (four). An estimated 40 people died as a result of the storm.

In New Jersey, Ray Fernandez, owner of Bridge Marina in Lake Hopatcong, said docks and marinas on the lake were severely flooded, estimating that they were between a few inches to one foot under water. The docks at Bridge Marina were nearly flooded but managed to stay an inch or two above water, having been built within the last several years to withstand such high water elevations. A lake-wide “no wake” restriction went into effect Aug. 28 and remained in place until waters dropped below the high-water marker of 9.5 feet. Read more here on the damage to Lake Hopatcong, from the original New Jersey Herald report.

At McCotter’s Marina in Washington, N.C., the hurricane destroyed covered dock slips and tossed boats around in the water as it made landfall. A boater at the marina said the storm surge rose 9 feet above the docks. After the storm, maintenance crews were repairing many of the damaged docks, board by board, nail by nail. Read more here, in the original WCTI New Channel 12 report.

Marinas in Barrington, R.I., faired fairly well during the hurricane. J. Michael Keyworth, general manager at Brewer Cove Haven Marina on Bullock’s Cove, said he had one boat sink. He said he told the owner to turn the boat the other way (bow into the waves). The warning was unheeded, and Keyworth said, “It was overwhelmed by the waves,” Keyworth said.

Striper Marina on the Warren River had no boats in its slips when the hurricane arrived — a requirement of the marina. Sean Merryman, a marina employee, said there was little boat damage to worry about. Read more here on these Barrington, R.I., facilities, from the original Barrington Patch report.

Just to the north in Massachusetts, marinas were closed up and down the Connecticut River after the storm. At Brunelle’s Marina in South Hadley, the tropical storm flooded the marina and damaged the docks. Even after the storm, the marina could not assess the extent of the damage until the water receded. It pulled 100 boats from the water and stored them in a nearby field.

At Oxbow Marina in Northampton, Mass., Shelley Duda Anderson, manager, said the parking lot was flooded, but the docks held up well, with no damage to any boats. She said there was no current or debris being swept through. Brunnelle said debris came down the river from the north.

On Aug. 31, after the storm, water was still rising at Mitch’s Marina in Hadley, Mass. The docks were “solid and floating,” said Phil Brocklesby, dockmaster.

Read more here about damage along the Connecticut River, from the original report in The Republican.

At little farther north in Maine, Richardson’s Marina in Standish, had a week of cleaning up after the storm, but overall, the storm preparation protected boats and property. Boatyard Manager Jeff Libby said the marina pulled more than 250 boats from the water in three days. The marina’s docks sustained a few thousand dollars worth of damage, getting knocked around by the waves during the storm. Libby said it would be a week before all the boats were back in the water, but pulling them was the right thing to do. Read more here, from the original WLBZ2 report.

In Stonington, Conn., Dodson Boatyard returned to work putting boats in the water the week following the storm, despite no having power. Most of the equipment and heavy machinery used regularly around the boatyard run on their own engines, so the work of returning the space to its pre-Irene condition went on without electricity. Dann Lockwood, general manager, said the marina has a detailed hurricane preparation program. It included hauling out nearly all of the yard’s small craft and as many of the larger boats docked at the yard as possible. The marina also secured boats that stayed on the water and moved equipment to storage or higher ground. Only one boat in the marina’s 115 moorings broke free, causing minor damage to another boat. Read more here on the damage to Stonington Harbor, from the original Mystic Rivers Press report.

In Guilford, Conn., it was a different story. The hurricane destroyed much of the town marina. Paved parking spaces lining the rock jetty were torn up; large chunks of the pavement were missing. Two seating areas with benches and picnic tables were unrecognizable. Park of a walkway leading to a dock, separated from stairs and floated away. Another walkway sunk. Read more here about the clean-up process, from the original Shoreline Times report.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced that a 760 square-mile area of Long island Sound is now a “no discharge zone.” EPA reviewed a DEC proposal to ban the dumping of sewage from boats for New York areas of the Long Island Sound and determined that there are adequate facilities in the Sound for boats to pumpout their sewage.

For more on this action, read the EPA press release.

The marina owners in Barnegat, N.J., fears their tax bills may put them out of buisness. They blame an increase in property taxes and a township-wide property reassessment for the situation.

Gloria Caswell, owner of Bob’s Bay Marina since 1983, said the property is assessed at $2.3 million. In 2010, she paid $38,000 to the township in taxes and her estimated tax bill for 2011 is $64,000, an increase of more than 68 percent. With business already down, many owners are not sure they can foot the larger bills.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. Next year is going to be even worse because I’m really going to have to jack up my boat slip prices to make up for the taxes,” Caswell said.

Read more here from the original report from The Press of Atlantic City.

After a decade of drought, the Colorado River is reaching record territory. The river system that fills Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States in Arizona and Nevada, is on track for its third wettest year since Lake Powell was filled for the first time in 1963.

As of the beginning of August, the surface of Lake Powell has risen to its highest level in a decade, while Lake Mead is back to where it was in early 2009.

The surface of Lake Mead is now 20 feet higher than it was a year ago, and current projections – ones now likely to be adjusted upward – call for it to rise another 33 feet by Aug. 1, 2012.

For more about the water level of Lake Mead and specifics from marina operators on the lake, read the original Las Vegas Review-Journal report, click here.

Government officials in Lake Co. in Oregon have claimed responsibility for a hefty decrease (tens of thousands of dollars) in moorage revenue at its three marinas the past two years, saying they allowed poor bookkeeping by private on-site managers to continue for decades.

The division manages 493 boat slips at three marinas: Richardson Park marina in Junction City, Ore., Orchard Point Park marina in Eugene, Ore., and Baker Bay Park marina in Dorena, Ore.

The revelation came as the county is beefing up oversight of the marinas and increasing moorage rates for hundreds of county residents for the first time in 10 years.

While the county attributed losses to bad books, a husband-and-wife team under contract to manage one of the marinas said a county parks manager who resigned this year under threat of being fired for other matters must share the blame.

For more about the revenue losses from the original report in The Register-Guard, click here.

The summer boating industry in New York has stayed steadily afloat, improving over business last year.

Tony Villarele, founder and president of Hampton Watercraft & Marine, which maintains marinas in Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach, N.Y., said there’s a few vacant slips but small craft sales, mainly outboard-engine fishing boats, were selling quickly, while the larger 30- to 50-foot cruiser segment has remained sluggish. He also noted a substantial spike in second-hand boat sales.

Jay Strong, the sales manager at the fourth-generation, family owned Strong’s Marine with locations in Mattituck, Port Jefferson, Southampton, and Port Washington, N.Y., said his facilities have seen steady increases over the three summers since the 2008 meldown. The service side of the business stayed strong throughout.

For more on these N.Y. facilities from the original report, click here.

Brewer’s Yacht Haven West, one of the Northeast’s largest full-service marinas with a boatyard for winter storage, will shut down in the fall after losing its lease from a developer that plans to remediate and develop the land.

Unable to gain an extended lease or purchase the 14-acre site, Jack Brewer said he was told by Building, Land & Technology (BLT) in Norwalk, Conn., two months ago that the boatyard must be off the property by Oct. 31.

For more on this closure from the original Stamford Advocate report, click here.

Now city zoning officials in Stamford, Conn., are asking if BLT needs their approval to close Brewer’s Yacht Haven West.

BLT’s plans to clean up soil and, in some form, redevelop the site have raised some concerns from zoning officials who said the plan might violate conditions of a general development plan approved four years ago, requiring BLT to maintain marina and boat repair facilities on the site.

The development plan was originally approved in July 2007 with BLT’s predecessor, Antares Investment Partners. It requires zoning and state and federal environmental approval before reducing slips or boating facilities, said Norman Cole, the city’s principal planner.

John Freeman, BLT executive vice president, declined to specify the company’s plan for future use of the property, but he said closing the marina has been an expected step toward improving the site, including replacing failing bulkheads and removing soil contaminated by more than a century of industrial and maritime use.

For more on this story from another Stamford Advocate report, click here.

The slow economy has hit some Connecticut marinas hard. John McMahon, manager at Brewer Bruce and Johnson Marina in Branford, Conn., said this summer is one of the worst summers he’s seen. Many smaller boat owners are keeping their boats and homes, and the issue has been compounded by high fuel prices.

For more about the Connecticut boating industry from NBC Connecticut, click here.

On the West Coast, another Seattle boatyard, Ocean Alexander Marine Center, has closed . After the recession started in 2007, business dwindled and the company’s workforce shrunk from 18 down to four, before finally closing its doors July 1.

For more about struggling Washington facilities from the original Three Sheets Northwest report, click here.

Florida environmental regulators are investigating whether The Docks on Fifth in Naples, Fla., is exceeding its allowed mooring capacity. Marina representatives and DEP officials said the two sides are working together to resolve the matter.

The warning letter also said that the marina’s 2004 submerged land lease expired in 2009 and that the marina might not have reported about $188,000 in wet slips sales as required by revenue sharing provisions of the lease.

For more about the possible violations from the full Naples Daily News report, click here.

The International Marina Institute (IMI), a training subsidiary of the Association of Marina Industries (AMI), is now offering its Intermediate Marina Management (IMM) course in six modules in order to make the trainings more convenient for those who are unable to attend the full four-day course.

For the course schedule or more information about IMI training, visit www.marinaassociation.org and click on “training.”