Conference unifix::sailing

    The Danversport Yacht Club this year was $300 dues plus $58 per
    foot. My Lobster boat cost me $1565 or there about for a slip.
    
    I sold my boat and now have a 30 foot Pearson.
    
    Moorings in Salem Harbor at Darby point about $600 for next season.
    I will never have a slip again. Their too expensive, are not safe
    in a severe storm, you don't have your privacy. Moorings are the
    way to go.
    
    Winter storage is another story. For my 30 footer this winter at
    York Harbor Marine I'll be paying $600.
    
    Somehow I get the feeling someone saw you coming. You can do a lot
    better than you did this year. Good Luck.
    
    Paul

Things are getting expensive up here (Gloucester), too, and the latest 
news may have a noticeable impact:  Cape Ann Marina is going condo.  As 
perhaps the largest marina around, certainly many of the currently renters 
will not be able (or choose) to come up with the $54K-78K cost for the
99-year lease, so the pressure is on.

My solution (and I'm actually big-boatless these days) is the Eastern 
Point Yacht Club.  Membership is $900/yr, plus $200 bar, restaurant and 
snack bar minimum.  There's an initiation fee of $900, and a bond you must 
post -- technically a non-interest-paying loan to the club -- of $2K.  
BUT,...

Moorings are very well built and maintained by the full-time club manager 
and his staff (small boats get 1500 lbs, bigger boats up to 3000 lbs) plus 
heavy-to-lighter chain all the way to the surface float, and new nylon 
painters each year.  You "buy" a mooring (~$600??) which the club will buy 
back from you when you leave or get rid of your boat, and pay a couple 
hundred each year for diver's inspection, maintainance and fresh painters,
floats, etc.  

If you plan on staying a few years, and can swallow the entry fees, the 
annual cost is not bad -- under $1500 for any boat up to 50', and with it 
you get a very good restaurant with views of Marblehead and Boston (even 
P-town when the mirages are strong!), heated pools, and a marvelous old 
mansion of a clubhouse.  Good parking, too, and a high-tide trailer launch 
beach.

Now, if you really want to be in a marina, check out the yellow pages.  
The others, including a few in Gloucester's Inner Harbor, don't offer as 
pleasant surroundings, and require a couple extra miles motoring and 
sailing to get to and from.  Of all this category, Brown's Yacht Yard has 
the best reputation and services.  Call Dave Zingg at 281-3200 (and
mention my name if you wish.)   

Two of the three marinas in the Annisquam are now condo-ed, and there is a
waiting list for every public mooring area in Gloucester and Rockport.  If 
you have a sailboat, you don't really want to be moored in the River -- 
trust me.

J.

    Brown's is expensive, very expensive.  Limited number of slips with
    a desireable location.  We store there during the winter and I have
    to admit that Peter Bent has a good crew working there.  They can
    fix damn near anything.  But they are also very good at emptying
    your bank account!
    
    Dave

    While we are on the subject of Yacht clubs and moorings;
    
    Salem Willows Yacht Club (accross form Jubilee) I believe runs about
    $300 initiation and $150 dues. You buy your mooring, and pay to have it
    serviced. I believe they are wait listed but the wait list is about 1
    year long. 
    
    American Yacht club in Newburyport runs about $300 initiation and $150
    dues, and you buy your mooring from the club and pay to have it
    serviced. My mooring cost about $320 and the cost to service it (i.e.
    put it in and take it out) was $50. We are also wait listed about 1-2
    years. 
    
    Several places in Salem (Barnegat Transportation, Darby, etc have
    moorings available) cost about $600 per year for a $25. Newburyport
    also has moorings available (City boat works, Rivers Edge, again about
    $600/year). Slips are running again about $85/foot. 
    
    It basically comes down to the more desirable the harbor, the more the
    cost to moor there, or the longer the waiting list. Newburyport with
    the problems with the Merrimac, and Salem with the problems of the
    power plant, tend to be cheaper. I also believe the Parker River Yacht
    club is similarly less expensive. 
    
    /jim

    re:.2
    
    After reading the Eastern Point Yacht club dues, initiation fees,
    minimums, service charges, (did I leave anything else out ?) etc.
    I FAIL to see where the "good deal" is. 
    
    I also moor in Salem harbor where for about $600 a season (launch included)
    I get a beautiful view of the Power Plant :<), a couple of nice
    restaurants close by, plenty of space, no mooring to "buy", no interest
    free loan to give, no initiation fees, no minimum spending, etc., etc.
    
    Help me out here - where is the bargain at $3500 buy-in and $1100 + per 
    year ? I understand that $2600 is refundable, but this seems like
    a lot of money to shell out upfront.
    
    
    JC
    

    re:.5
    
>>>    After reading the Eastern Point Yacht club dues, initiation fees,
>>>    minimums, service charges, (did I leave anything else out ?) etc.
>>>    I FAIL to see where the "good deal" is. 
    
I never said that EPYC was a "good deal."  That depends on what you're 
looking for.  It's probably the best deal for only a 0-1 year wait in 
Gloucester (which the note's title specified.)  And FWIW, after buy-in 
it's about 2/3 the cost .0 currently is paying per year, with significant 
(to some people) amenities available.

J.     

    Actually, Eastern point YC has advantages, one of them not being
    the upfront cost. I'm currently in Gloucester yankee marine, and
    you have that long sail to get out of the harbor. Presumably from
    EPYC you just have to go around the breakwater and you're out.  My
    problem is I'm fed up with circumnavigating Cape Ann (I've done
    it 20 times this year) and I don't usually like to go South. Going
    North to Plum island for a day sail has the problem that you have
    to go thru the river twice and these days you never know if the
    B&M bridge is going to be working (Don't try going under it when
    it's down!). SO all in all EPYC seems like bucks but a reasonable
    possibility. What's that little marina you see on your port side
    just before going under the B&M bridge coming from Annisquam?
    
    Chris
    
    r

RE: .7 

I agree; these days the Annisquam River is pretty bad on weekends.  
Not only has the volume more than doubled in the last 10 years (USCG
statistic, not mine), the "quality" of seamanship, piloting skill and 
courtesy exhibited by the average skipper in transit has diminished 
drastically.  Pity, since it's really a rather charming passage if you 
can relax from constant attention to the hot-shot powerturkeys and 
brain-numbed stinkpotters (excepting all you DECies, of course ;-]), not 
to mention staying in the often-shallow and shifting channel.  (Each 
season the local rag never fails to print an approximately bi-weekly 
"yacht aground in the river" photo!)

On the north side, well you need a Gloucester mooring permit for Lobster 
Cove (where the Annisquam YC is located), or for Lane's Cove and the other 
tiny haunts leading up to Halibut Pt.  On the other side is Rockport, 
though the wait for a large-boat mooring is now well over 10 years at 
best, and I probably wouldn't bet on less than 15.  Granite Pier is a bit 
less, but not very weel protected in a sou'easterly, and we get 'em 
regularly.  Pigeon Cove is a working hbr; getting a pleasure boat in there 
is an exercise in extreme patience, local politics and native birthright,
There is, however, a new small marina going into Old Harbor, right at the
base of Bearskin Neck on the north side, but I lost touch with it when 
they offered me a lip for my 15' outboard boat -- for only about $2500/yr.

>>>  What's that little marina you see on your port side just before going
>>>  under the B&M bridge coming from Annisquam? 
    
Gloucester Marina, and it's the only non-condo, non-city-controlled slip &
mooring space in the river.  I think it has all the disadvantages that
come with having to negotiate the gauntlet at the southern end, and
nowadays the northern end is no easy picnic.  If you like lighter winds,
choose Ipswich Bay; for a heavier SW breeze many afternoons, head down off
Manchester.  My guess is that unless you have a small boat and dislike the
motorboat chop in Gloucester Harbor, there's just as much sailing and more
variety at that end that off Wingaersheek.  And EPYC puts you within easy 
range of Thachers Island and clean sailing offshore.  FWIW. 

J.

    
    Is there any place left on the Mass. coast where you can buy an
    "inexpensive" cottage (i.e. < 150K $) and get the right to moor
    your boat nearby?
    
    In Rhode Island we have a cottage near the water and for under
    60 $/yr we may drop a mooring and have the use of a dock.  Slips
    are 250$, I think, but I didn't want one.  Winter storage costs
    $720 this year, so with the expected amount of gear replacement
    and new toys my total sailing cost should be a little over $1000
    next year, calamities excepted.
    
    Did the $1500 mentioned earlier in this note (.2 i think) include
    winter storage?
    
    If there *are* places left like this within a 2 hour drive of
    Boston, I'd be interested in hearing about them.
    
       - Jim
    

      The only place i could think of where you might look would
    be the New Bedford area. My sister just bought a house in the city
    for, i believe around 85K. Prior to buying she was renting a cottage
    that included a mooring, i believe the owner offered to sell it
    to her for 120K or so.
    
      It's the only depressed Mass. seacoast area i can think of.
    

    
      thanks, although i don't equate affordable with depressed; then
    again i haven't looked at housing prices along the coast recently.
    

RE: .9

>>>    Did the $1500 mentioned earlier in this note (.2 i think) include
>>>    winter storage?
    
No way.  That $1500 was my estimate of what the owner of a 30 or 40-footer 
probably would pay to the club for *everything*.  There are some local 
storage options that run less than some of those mentioned elsewhere in 
these notes, but it's just plain a new fact of life that this much
convenience to Boston creates a demand that gets reflected in prices.  As
a "local", perhaps I will eventually enjoy some of the benefits of mooring
locally for minimal cost (Rockport is something around $100/year for yacht
club harbor launch service, and approved moorings can be bought and set
for a couple hundred.) 

As far a residences go, while some might consider Gloucester to be mildly 
depressed in spots, the house bargains are coming back.  Friends just 
bought a house with harbor views and an income apartment for $125K!  Sure 
it needs work, but it's in a definitely up-and-coming neighborhood.  There 
are several listings in Rockport for under $200K now, too.  Locally, 
though, if you want a mooring off your house, forget Rockport (which has 
only a couple and they're not for sale) and plan on spending the bigger 
part of $1M for one of the few Gloucester Harbor spots.  *Maybe* there's a 
semi-bargain in the river if you look around hard enough.

J.

    In fact a house on the river sold last year for 200,000. The owner
    lost no time in extending the house, adding Anderson windows all
    round and beefing up the pressure-treated pine on the LONG dock.
    You see if on the western side of the Annisquam where the channel
    markers are close to the shore on that side before going under thge
    128 bridge.  I think you might be able to get something on thew
    river for less than 300K. If you need a realtor, call Mike Rose
    at 508-283-2600. He knows what's out there.
    
    

RE: -.1

>>>    In fact a house on the river sold last year for 200,000. 

Is that the one on the northern (Wingaersheek) point of Rust Island?  If so 
(and your description of the construction sounds right), they were asking 
$450K less than two years ago, and turned down two offers in the mid-300's!  
What happened, I wonder?  (Things on the water haven't gone down *that* much.) 
    
Maybe it went to family after all; there had been rumors it might.  Anyway,
one can't trust the numbers reported in the paper (taken from Registry of
Deeds records)--there's a lot of "dealing" that goes on to avoid taxes and 
being conspicuous.

J.

BTW,  Another knowledgeable and trustworthy r.e. agent in town is Mike's 
brother, Jesse Rose -- 508-281-3710.  They don't work together, but do
cooperate when appropriate.  Mike is unaffiliated; Jesse is the Carlson
Cape Ann office manager. 

    Yeah, that;s the house. Maybe it wasn't 200k. I know Jesse too.
    Maybe I'll ask one of them to look it up. I can never bring myself
    to go to the Registry of deeds and look at the latest selling prices
    of all the properties I bought and sold or nearly bought!