Whoa,

I just got a call from Sag Harbor Vallage who are looking for people to rent their moorings. I had put my name on a list years ago and it came up! They said the list was 200 long and I was #100.

The rates are too expensive. Inside their jetty on "town property" you can rent space for something like $45/ ft. No dinghy dock include. Add $450. But you don't get a mooring. You have to buy or rent one from one of 2 approved companies one who charges $1/ lb + $400 for the gear... so for a mooring for my boat that's $1,200. Total price with a dinghy dock is $3,200 / season. I can see why people are bailing.

One installer rents moorings outside the breakwater and you don't need to pay the Village - so the fee would be $1,200 which is reasonable. I might take it since my old mooring is $1,500 and I have to deal with an expensive ferry to get there.

But the cost is not the point of this post. The point is that in tony Sag Harbor, people are giving up their slips and moorings and no one is calling THEM, they are calling US.

It sounds like they have a serious shortage of mooring renters. If that trend continues you may be able to negotiate a darn reasonable price for a mooring.
It's all a numbers game and a matter of waiting long enough.

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What the hell did I just do

VERY interesting!!

I chartered out of there before. Watch out outside the breakwater... you can be in for a serious ride sometimes - you'll need some good anti-chafing gear set up so you don't eat through the mooring line if a really rough one comes up and blows up between the harbor entrance and Shelter Island.

I'm amazed that 100 people are saying no to moorings at that price in Sag Harbor of all places! You were right in the other thread about boat prices dropping. I did a little Yachtworld today and noticed that many MANY boats are plummeting under $50K that would be 80-90K last season.

We're looking at the same ugly stuff the housing market has seen, applied to boats.

I think it will be some time before they either drop their prices or accept an "offer". I don't know what a mooring actually costs, but one could assemble the price and there is some labor involved and overhead for the installer, insurance etc. His labor rates could come down, but the materials????

The village is another story. Their income is from taxes and fees they can charge for things like moorings. I suppose if no one is renting their slips or their moorings at the asking price they might drop it to see if they can gin up some biz. But this will take some time I would think.

BUT... thinks are now no longer moving UP in price that's for sure. Will they stay at this level or begin to drop? And when would that be?

I'm thinking we are seeing some drops now in boat prices and sooner or later the services will have to follow suit. The general economy is showing slight signs of life, but nothing definite yet. We aren't quite out of the woods, IMO.

One disturbing trend I have observed is the increased ticketing and harassment by law enforcement, which seems to be aimed at increasing tax revenue. I saw a police officer in my area ticket a guy who is staying at the same marina as me this winter. He got a ticket because he "lives" here (for 5 months) and doesn't have his car registered here. Ouch.

Nobody would ever normally ticket for something like that in my experience.

I have a chafe free system for my mooring. I install a huge bow eye below the anchor and have a Wichard snap hook on the end of one of my two mooring painters. The other goes to a bow cleat and is slack unless the bow eye one goes. It can't chafe though. A hurricane force blow came through one afternoon in Dering Harbor. It made a mess of the East end of LI. We sat it out on our mooring and saw 4 foot waves kick up in the harbor in a few minutes. Our mooring held,and the snap hook distorted a wee bit, but not enough to open or break. I replaced it.

But regardless a calm anchorage is what you want for your mooring. When we visit Sag we anchor outside the West side of the breakwater. It's a bit bumpy from wakes and I wouldn't want to sit there with something from the NE or even N.

We'll see.

Yup. Just making sure you knew about the Sag Harbor conditions outside the breakwater. We sat through a tropical storm remnant there and got pounded silly. I was actually worrying our keel would hit bottom we were flying up and down so much. NE winds came straight down the harbor entrance toward the anchorage.

They will ticket you in Cal. for this.
If your vehicle is registered out of state and you take residency (rent or buy or have a mailing address) or you take employment here, you have two weeks to register your vehicle here. If you are visiting from out of state and here for 30 days or more you must register your vehicle here. You can and will be cited for this if they figure out what you are doing. Another words, if a cop see's you around enough and decides you are here over the time limit he can and probably will cite you.
Interesting enough the Department of Motor Vehicles in Cal also registers boats and it is all under the same vehicle laws. If your boat is not documented you can also be forced to register it here.
I recently had a discussion with our Harbor Master because one of their newer employes told the county my boat was not registered in Cal. The county/Harbor Dist. sent me a letter telling me to register in Cal. immediately. I pointed out to the Harbor Master we were a documented vessel and he cleared it up, but they were going to force me to register because I was a live aboard here.
You should read the Motor Vehicle/vessel laws for your area it may surprise you what it says about registeration on a state level.

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What the hell did I just do

Where is that thread on how much I don't like society again?? Let me go post in that. ha ha

How many months make up the "season"?

Down here I was paying around $155. mo. + elec for a 32' floating dock. Now I have moved due to the hurricane, and the rate is $205 mo. for a 32' floating dock and $265 for a 38'