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Letter to
the Editor: Marina manager speaks out on liveaboard ban
 Toby
Hansen of Ft. McAllister Marina writes in to discuss existing
liveaboard law issues and propose a solution.
I think anyone would agree that our coastal
marshlands are a great asset to the state, to local residents, and
to anyone who makes their livelihood on the water. There’s no
question that the need to protect this eco-system is of huge
importance on any level, and personally, I don’t know anyone who
feels differently.
Yet I ask you, how does a person living aboard their
vessel endanger the marsh?
Currently, Georgia law allows a maximum of 30 days
spent aboard your vessel in a calendar year. Ours is the only state
in the Southeast from North Carolina to Texas with this type of ban
against liveaboards, and we’re the worse for it. We’re missing the
boat, folks, and it’s time that changed.
As a marina manager, my objection is lost revenue for
my marina, of course. When someone calls about dockage, I must turn
them away if they ask about liveaboards. My business is suffering
because I play by the rules and follow the law. I can’t take the
risk of having a liveaboard vessel in my marina – I could lose my
permits and I could be fined. I recently had to turn down a 130-foot
yacht. The owner, who was from Atlanta, wanted to spend six months
in Barbados, and six months here. While the boat was here, he wanted
to come down and spend a week on it every month – six weeks total,
42 days. Against the law – and I lost $7,800 in dockage, not to
mention fuel and power.
Why? He had a fully functioning holding tank aboard
his boat. He wasn’t pumping waste into the marsh, he wasn’t throwing
trash overboard, his boat was well-maintained and he wanted to spend
his money here. So what’s the problem?
I can’t find a good answer to that question. I’ve
asked around, and all anyone can tell me is that it’s against the
law. I did get one person, a formerly high-ranking official with the
DNR, to tell me that the state doesn’t feel that living aboard a
vessel is an appropriate use of state waters.
Appropriate for whom? Some guy in a suit sitting in
Atlanta who’s never even been to this side of the state, and who
doesn’t make any money on our waters? Well he does, really, because
I pay taxes, my marina pays taxes, we pay for our bottom lease, we
pay our employee’s salaries. So the guys under the Gold Dome are
getting their cut in the grand scheme of things. I am not alone in
this. Other marina owners and managers are faced with the same loss
of revenue. Every marina up and down our coast has the same issue,
though as we all know, some are willing to take the risk.
But lost revenue for coastal marinas isn’t the only
part of the bottom line. Take the guy I had to turn down. He would
have spent money here by eating out in restaurants, renting a car,
sightseeing, grocery shopping, having his boat worked on, all those
things we all spend money on in the course of a year that support
our local economy. But now, he won’t! He’ll head a few miles up the
coast, cross the state line, and South Carolina will get his money.
While other coastal states are spending millions to
draw in water-based tourism and embracing visitors who arrive via
their coastal waterways, Georgia is sending a very clear message to
the opposite. “We don’t want you! Go away!”
Where’s the benefit to Georgia? Claiborne Young, of
the Southeast Cruiser’s Net, who has a finger on the pulse of the
cruising community, feels that many liveaboards who make their way
throughout the Southeast are uncertain about Georgia.
In addition to questionable water depths in the ICW,
they’re also concerned about the liveaboard ban. “Many will simply
leave the ICW at the Savannah River and re-enter at the St. John’s
River in Florida, avoiding the Georgia coast entirely.”
There’s a very simple solution here. Change the law.
While there may be some who would worry that this would indeed
attract the “wrong element,” that we’d have a bunch of floating
trailers hanging around, that waste would be pumped into the marsh,
or other such concerns, these can all be dealt with simply:
• A dockage agreement requiring a vessel to properly
dispose of trash (including food waste) and to maintain a pump-out
log
• A stipulation that a boat must be sufficiently
maintained that it’s able to make way under its own power (no
trailers on barges)
• A reasonably-priced permit, purchased from the
state, similar to a hunting or fishing license, giving the boat
owner the right to live on their vessel so the state gets their cut,
too.
This is a win-win solution – for liveaboards, for
marinas, for local economies. It’s time to act.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has a vested
interest in this situation. Please email me at:
tobyftmac@yahoo.com.
– Toby Hansen
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