Slip Fees

I think I'll move to the left or right coast, and leave the third coast. My slip fee is $3200.00 per SEASON. April15 to Oct 31. A little over 6 months, but almost a month of that is pretty well unusable, so call it 5 months. I have a 30' slip, water and elec included, but no other amenities. I am in a cheap harbor, the rates go higher as you go north. No competition, the Chicago Park District owns the entire lakefront, with 9 harbors, mismanaged by Westrec Inc. They make no apologies for the high fees, and freely admit that harbor revenue is used to fund other park programs. We are the cash cow for them and they don't even bother to feed us oats, we get grass. And it's almost to the surface, so in another week we'll be dealing with fouled props. Pray that your marina never decides to contract with Westrec as management. Regards, David Dobbs CAL29 411

On 7/26/2011 11:20 PM, david dobbs wrote: > > I think I'll move to the left or right coast, and leave the third > coast. My slip fee is $3200.00 per SEASON. April15 to Oct 31. A > little over 6 months, but almost a month of that is pretty well > unusable, so call it 5 months. I have a 30' slip, water and elec > included, but no other amenities. I am in a cheap harbor, the rates > go higher as you go north. No competition, the Chicago Park District > owns the entire lakefront, with 9 harbors, mismanaged by Westrec Inc. > They make no apologies for the high fees, and freely admit that harbor > revenue is used to fund other park programs. We are the cash cow for > them and they don't even bother to feed us oats, we get grass. > One benefit of the hard economic times is that it diminishes demand for slips and moorings somewhat. My Cal 20 lies in a little unofficial mooring field that had about 38 boats last year, and probably ten fewer this year. My other boat lives in a marina with a lot of vacancies this year (mostly, thank goodness, power boats). All those empty slips makes for a friendly management. The underlying problem is that the space available for mooring boats is limited. There's only so much protected water. We have wisely and properly placed some limits on "development" of waterfront property. One solution that works well is dry rack storage, a useful arrangement for power boats small enough to be lifted in and out with a big forklift, a specialized hi-lo device. The boats are indoors when not in use (reduces fouling, weather and UV exposure) and can be in or out of the water quickly. The fewer power boats competing for dock space or moorings, the better for us sailors. By the way, despite the reduced number of boats in my mooring field, there are a couple new ones, and one right next to my boat is very cool--an old Pearson Triton, a boat that's in everybody's list of "classic fiberglass." Other notable ones are a Cal 25, my Cal 20, and a Tartan 27. Chris Campbell > >