Empty slips

Many a conversation such as this has been had within my small conclave of boating buddies.

Everyone complains about the price of fuel, boats, bait, so on and so on.

But on a nice day there is a city on the water at the hook, and other fishing spots.

If you didn't see it you wouldn't believe it.
 
Just ride down the intercoastal or A1A and look at the number of "FOR SALE" signs. Scary.
 
On the west coast, most everything that is trailerable, was taken out of the water. Numerous empty slips 30' and less. Areas in San Francisco/ Oakland used to be filled with brokerages, are now gone/empy.
 
Things have gotten to the point that marina are aggressively seeking new customers. Representatives of one facility visit another,with offers of reduced rates and improved services in order to gain new customers.

The first reduced their rate from 12. per foot per month to 9 per foot. Now another has gone from 10 to 7 per ft. No contract required. In the mid 2000's new marinas were built to handle the demand. Now we have more slips then customers, a lot more.

John
 
when I moved to Florida 6 years ago, I paid for my slip a month before I got there. Harbortown in Merritt Island had a 2 year wait for a slip.
I have since gone into hi and dri (should have done this from the beginning). I would say at least 25% ofthe slips are empty now
 
That's also somewhat true here on Long Island, though far less so than in Florida. Our marina has some slips vacant. We've been looking at other marinas in the area and all of them have some vacant slips, usually under 10% of what each marina has available. However, none of them are offering any kind of incentives to come move to them. The rates are pretty much the same or slightly higher than last season. Since it's winter right now up here and not much is going on in the marinas, it's a little hard to tell about upkeep and maintenance. I have a feeling that some of that and other amenities might suffer some this season. Hy
 
I have been looking to move out to the east end and every marina I have called either had a slip or would find me one. not so a year or two ago. Some are now charging by the slip size, not by the ft.
 
A marina in VA beach was raffling a slip at the RIC boat show. My marina is about full. They niche is customer service above all. What a concept.
 
I guess that begs the question. Up here in the Northeast, what kind of "negotiating" for slip fees can we foresee. Or, is the shorter season up here something that negates that? That people will just pay it. That marinas can't discount?
 
HA. My marina sent out the same old letter advising us that they are keeping their rates the same in spite of all the increased costs.
 
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