Wait lists for moorage slips may be years long, but they are also shortening as poor weather and grim global economics hurt business at Vancouver's marinas.
"This is the worst year I have ever seen," said Marcus Jensen, manager at Granville Island's Pelican Bay Marina Ltd.
While multi-year wait lists are still the norm at downtown-area marinas, Jensen said Pelican Bay's spring moorage renewal this year involved "the biggest exodus we've ever seen."
"It took us a couple months to even get full of regular tenants, which I've never seen before – and my family's been down there for about 20 years."
Jensen said he resorted to extreme lengths to fill the empty slips this year. "I put out a bounty to all the [boat] brokers – if they could bring us a tenant, I'd pay them," he said. "It worked."
Even with the slips filled, Jenson said business is down. He said 30% of his revenue is renting out slips to transient boaters while annual tenants are out boating.
But not this year. "We can't take in visitors when our guys don't go out."
He said even with a dramatic drop in transient boater reservations this year, he's having to turn people away because tenants are staying put.
What's keeping boaters on land this year? "It's fuel, weather, just the economy in general."
In the heart of downtown Vancouver, Coal Harbour Marina general manager Steve Varley said his marina dodged much of the 2008 downturn fallout. But his wait list, now two to four years, is shorter than a few years back.
He said the biggest hit to business right now is a slump in transient boater traffic. He said that impact is mitigated somewhat because transients are staying longer, which he attributes to high fuel prices.
He added that the marina is seeing more vessels from within a 20-kilometre radius that are taking a "tourist in their own town" approach rather than visiting destinations further afield.
But Varley said he's hearing from boat brokers that sales are starting to come back.
Does that mean better times ahead for the marina business?
"We're sure hope so."
Far from the downtown core at Crescent Beach Marina, manager Carol Charles also said it's been a harder year in the business.
"Marinas depend on the weather, so with our lousy summer we're really feeling it this year."
Charles said while the marina tends to have a full roster of permanent tenants, demand has dipped in 2012.
"This year is the first time we have a couple of slips available – usually we don't."
Beyond that, she said, marina use is down this year.
"During the summer, we rely on the students and the young adults that are wakeboarding – and we're not really seeing that this summer."
As far away as Nanaimo, Townsite Marina manager Ray Lovstad said he's seeing the industry slow – and his slip wait list shrink.
"I've got a couple of boats that have sold and their spaces will become vacant at the end of the month and I don't yet have someone to fill those spaces – although I'm confident I will," he said. "But normally I would just call on my waiting list."
Lovstad said most of his tenants are from Nanaimo, but some are from Vancouver and beyond.
Kevin Pritchard, president of the BC Yacht Brokers Association and a broker with Fraser Yacht Sales Ltd., said his sales are strong, but that the broader industry is still struggling with a downturn in the used powerboat market.
However, he said brokers are starting to become "cautiously optimistic" that things are turning around.
He noted that while buyers might delay decisions, demographics favour the industry.
"There's an aging population that can't wait for [the economy] to get better or they'll be dead," he quipped. "If all the boomers were 45 years old now, we'd probably be in really serious shape."
Also voicing optimism for the boating industry's future is Matthew Coté, managing director of the $16 million proposed MilltownMarina & Boatyard Inc. in Marpole, which hopes to be leasing berths by early spring of 2013.
The project includes approximately 200 water berths and 200 dry stack slips.
"What we're finding is that with very little marketing, we've have over 100 reservations," Coté said. "So I'm fairly comfortable that by the time we have our in-water slips available for customers they'll be fully booked."
He said while high fuel costs might have slowed the powerboat market, Vancouver's demand for moorage doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
"What I see from website inquiries and the unbelievable number of phone calls I get is that people have not bought a boat because they couldn't find moorage," he said. "They'd given up."
