Boat sales are slow and San Diego marinas are running vacancy rates of 10 percent or more. But Oceanside has a 3-8 year waiting list.
A reliable gauge of recessions usually can be found in marinas.
In good times, people buy boats, fill available slips and even if they don’t make it to sea very often, they host wine and cheese socials on board in the serenity of the harbor.
In San Diego-area marinas, the toll of the recession is counted in empty slips —- 10 percent and more at some.
Remarkably though, a combination of geography, demographics and economics not only has kept the Oceanside Harbor full, but has also swollen its waiting list to as much as eight years.
“These slips are so desirable,” said Frank Quan, Oceanside’s harbor and beaches maintenance manager.
Indeed they are.
Oceanside is the only major marina in North San Diego County, and access to the open ocean is close, even for boats far back in the harbor. It can take an hour of sailing from some San Diego marinas to get to the ocean.
Even the opening of new marinas such as Pier 32 in National City hasn’t diminished demand for Oceanside slips. People who live along the Highway 78 corridor and in Southwest Riverside County like the convenience of Oceanside. Slip fees are competitive, and nearby shops and restaurants are attuned to middle-class wallets.
Still, especially on weekdays, marinas can be lonely places these days.
Boating experts say that as work demands and commuting stress have increased for boat owners, they spend less time on their vessels.
Revenue at Oceanside Harbor is down about 5 percent during the last fiscal year, Quan said. Nonetheless, as Quan surveys his domain from his office along Harbor Drive, nary a vacant slip besmirches the view.
Not too many people interrupt the vista, either.
Even in good times, boating for most is mainly a hobby of possession and puttering.
“People just come and sit on them,” said Doug Sharp, a custom boat designer in San Diego.
People who order custom-made boats from Sharp’s company typically possess an ocean-going checkbook; a big, custom-designed boat will cost about $1.5 million per meter. That makes a 50-meter boat about a $70 million investment.
A boom in orders for such big boats —- 80 feet and larger —- ended last year, Sharp said. Worldwide sales of big boats now are off by as much as 30 percent, he said.
In Southern California, most of the boat departures from marinas have been small power and sailboats —- vessels that can be trailered home to park in the driveway or stashed in storage yards, where costs are far cheaper than the $10 and up per-foot each month that a marina typically charges.
However, many San Diego-area marinas say that the slip occupancy rates have been creeping up in recent weeks as the economy has gathered strength.
At Chula Vista Marina and RV park, for example, manager Jessica Kirkpatrick says the occupancy rate has risen to about 93 percent now from 90 percent in the depth of the recession.
Quan, Sharp and others involved in the pleasure boating industry note that, boom or bust, most boats only occasionally leave their slips.
Nowadays, Sharp and others say, boat owners, especially those with the keys to the bigger luxury yachts, acquire a big boat as part of a lifestyle completion strategy.
“It’s part of a picture that includes a second home, luxury cars and jewelry,” he said.
Yet, even in Oceanside the recession’s toll is evident.
At one dock, a battered sailboat is marked “impounded,” and dozens of boats in the last year at Oceanside and other marinas have been “chained” —- locked to the dock —- when a lender repossesses a boat after the owner defaults on his loan.
Bad economy or not, true boaters must commune with the ocean in a hull of some sort.
A retired Fallbrook man, the owner of a power boat at Oceanside Harbor, said he has downsized in the poor economy — going from a 52-foot power boat to a 38-footer, then a 34-foot vessel and finally to his current ride —- a 25-foot power boat.
He declined to give his name, but said he had owned boats since he was 13.
“I went without a boat for three months once,” he said. “I went nuts.”
Posted in Business on Sunday, October 11, 2009 12:00 am | Tags: Nct , Business , Local
