Marina tenant questions Port’s dinghy storage

A local boat owner is questioning Port of Camas-Washougal commissioners’ recent decision to restrict the amount of time a tenant can store their dinghy in the marina’s free storage area. “The dinghy parking lot seems like it’s been working really well from a consumer standpoint,” Washougal resident Tony Bacon told Port commissioners last month, during the Commission’s Sept. 17 meeting. “There’s been space available in it all this season. I’ve used it this year. I used it last year. If a limitation goes into effect, it will just make it not useful to me anymore. I just won’t put my dinghy in there.” Port commissioners approved a staff-proposed update to the Port’s marina policy manual on Oct. 2, which places parameters on the type of watercraft allowed in the Port’s dinghy storage area and limitations on boat owners’ previously unrestricted use of that storage area. “I do think the bigger picture is taking a look at our mission, our vision and our values, and preparing ourselves to make sure that we meet all those (things) in all ways,” Trang Lam, the Port’s chief executive officer said during the Sept. 17 meeting. “We think of this as a simple policy. We also think about community benefits and equity. We also are concerned and want to think about doing right by the public.” The Port is simply trying to “fine tune certain things,” Lam said. “It’s not about penalizing anyone, but it is about trying to open (the storage area) up to more people, and being able to serve all of the more than 300 tenants that we have here,” she said. “It’s going to be a change, and I think it’s going to be for the better as we fine-tune things.” The updated Port manual defines dinghies as a “small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel,” and states that tenants may utilize the dinghy storage area for a maximum of 10 days per month. “We’re just clarifying what qualifies as a dinghy and making it equitable for all of the tenants, so that everyone has the opportunity to use it and it’s not dominated by just one tenant,” Krista Cagle, the Port’s finance director, said during the Sept. 17 Port Commission meeting. In the past, Cagle said, “someone could leave a dinghy there all year round” without penalty. “We chose to change it to 10 days in a 30-day period,” Cagle explained. “That covers that equitable aspect. If there’s only four spaces, how does anyone else get to use them if four dinghies can stay there all year round?” The Port provides the storage area, located near the marina’s “A” row, on a first-come, first-serve basis to vessels with a maximum length of 16 feet, at no charge to tenants. Owners must register their dinghies with the Port office before placing them in the storage area and are allowed to store one dinghy per leased slip. “We do feel that a lot of our tenants probably don’t even know that they’re able to use that space for free,” Cagle said during the Port Commission’s Oct. 2 meeting. “It’s underutilized at this point.” Eric Platenberg, the Port’s facilities director, said the new policy also may have some unintended positive impacts. “Just a few weeks ago, when we had those rainstorms, somebody put a little aluminum boat in (the storage area), and luckily the harbormaster caught it before (it went) underwater and pulled it up onto the dock,” Platenberg said. “Having a boat that’s not very expensive, people just kind of forget about them during the winter, and over the years, we’ve had multiple (boats) out there actually sink due to the same reason — rain, people not paying attention to them.” “That is part of the problem with free storage that we’re dealing with — people are less likely to come down and check on (their) boat, so you do have the potential for problems when someone hasn’t been down here for a period of time,” Cagle said. “The boat is taking on water or leaking something into the water.” The Port will allow tenants who require storage for more than 10 days a month to utilize the marina’s breakwater dock, where they can store their dinghy for seven days in a 10-day period, beginning Jan. 1, 2025. This new policy increases the breakwater dock storage, which now allows marina tenants to store their dinghies there for just four days during a 10-day period. “We gave a lot of flexibility to this,” Lam said of the new Port policies. “When we say 10 days within a calendar a month, if someone really needed to extend that, they can do it at the tail end of one month and start up at the new month, so there is that flexibility of (having) more than 10 days and they can set their travel plans appropriately. We’ve also got the breakwater, and people can actually park there as well for shorter periods of time. We’re thinking about 300 tenants … that’s the big picture.” Bacon, however, said he is still irked about the decision, and said he believes Port leaders were looking to solve a problem that didn’t exist. “The marina is full, and turnover of the types of boats that use dinghies is low,” Bacon wrote in an email to Port Commissioner Cassi Marshall. “It is unlikely, without expansion of the marina, that more dinghies needing dinghy parking are going to show up.” Even if the storage does become an issue, Bacon said, the Port could have dealt with it then. “You have that freedom,” he stated in his email to Marshall. “You might think that maybe people with smaller boats would want to store a dinghy. People with small boats don’t need a dinghy; their small boat serves the purpose.” After being asked by Port Commissioner John Spencer during the Commission’s Sept. 17 meeting why he disapproved of the 10-day limit, Bacon said it would negatively impact his weekend cruises, on which he “ferries guests back and forth.” “If there’s a limit, I’m not going to have my dinghy always sitting there ready for me to use it. I’m going to have to have part of my getting ready to go out on a cruise include launching the dinghy and getting in the parking lot beforehand,” Bacon told Spencer. “There’s a lot of work that goes into getting (a dinghy) ready to go. We’ve got to get the boat provisioned before we go out for the weekend, and then when we get back, (we have to put) things away,” Bacon added. “If I have to launch my dinghy to use it and then retrieve it when we get back, I’m just not going to bring people out. We’re not going to use it anymore to ferry people.” Bacon claimed that the updated policy will “make it harder to be spontaneous” in his planning. “When we cruise, it is spur of the moment,” he stated in his email to Marshall. “A typical cruise involves three to four hours shopping for the weekend food and loading it onto the boat. Most often, we do this on Thursday, ahead of a weekend cruise. Then we get off work early for a midday Friday departure, allowing us to beat the crowds. If we need to pick someone up, it’s a short half-hour round trip to the marina and back in our dinghy, a trip that would take two hours on the big boat.” Rather than solve a problem, Bacon said, the updated policy “creates one for (us), as well as those future three dinghy parking lot users should they ever materialize.” Bacon has proposed that the Port define a dinghy as “an auxiliary boat used to ferry people, pets and supplies to and from a main boat.” “If I can’t store my dinghy, it means I will have to contend with the overcrowded launch ramp, and it’s just not worth the bother to take the dinghy in the hopes our kids might come out and they don’t let us know enough in advance, and I don’t have the time it would take to arrange to launch the dinghy prior and retrieve it after,” he stated in his email. “I heard one of the drivers for the time limit is to prevent abusing the free parking. How does taking advantage of something offered for free constitute abuse? I use the free garbage receptacles, free used-oil disposal, free water at the marina, free launch ramp, free parking for my car, and yes, free parking for the dinghy,’ Bacon stated. “But I can tell you that none of these things are free. I pay over $300 monthly for the privilege of using these things in addition to my slip.”

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