Small-Boat Owners Fear Marina Expansion

With a salary of $6.50 an hour and bills that include monthly child support payments, John Thompson figures he’s living pretty lean. Sure, he’s got a sailboat. But the 22-footer is hardly a yacht. If it were, Thompson says, he wouldn’t mind paying more than the current $160 a month for a slip in San Pedro.

But now, as the Los Angeles Harbor Department considers expanding the port-run Cabrillo Marina, many small boaters like Thompson face a difficult choice: Move or pay for larger slips than they need.

Prompted by the success of the $45-million Cabrillo Marina, the Harbor Department is planning to add 1,510 slips to its marina south of 22nd Street by 1994. To do this, port officials intend to evict four private marina operators who have been in business for decades and replace their old wooden docks with concrete wharfs that cater to larger boats. The average slip will measure 42 feet, and none will be shorter than 30 feet.

The plans for larger slips, officials say, are backed by studies showing that the best use for slips at Cabrillo Marina and elsewhere is to berth larger boats. “We’ve found that when vacancies occur, they tend to be at smaller slips--those have the highest turnover and the lowest demand,” said Mark Richter, the port’s assistant property manager.

Moreover, port officials say many of the nearly 200 smaller boats (less than 30 feet long) that occupy slips in the private marinas can easily be put on trailers and launched from ramps. That is especially true for powerboats, Richter said, conceding that some sailboats pose hauling and storage problems because of their keels and masts.

Private marina operators and small-boat owners take issue with the port’s attitude, saying they deserve better treatment.

“The small-boat owners were the ones who built these marinas . . . and this is unfair to them,” said Valerie Gerkey, dockmaster for the 450-slip Fleitz Brothers marina, the largest of the four to be evicted by the port. “I mean, everybody with a boat is not rich . . . and there will be a lot of people who won’t be able to handle” the fees for larger slips.

Thompson, a 29-year-old boat repairman, agreed: “Why should I pay for a 30-foot slip when I have a 22-foot boat?” A larger slip would cost at least $50 more a month, he said. “It’s just unfair.”

So far, Gerkey and other marina operators say, the port’s plans to expand the Cabrillo Marina have drawn little attention because they are incomplete and have not been publicized. “Nobody knows what the plan is, exactly,” said Steve Gossett, assistant manager of Holiday Harbor Marina. “I have a feeling that when they do, there is going to be quite a commotion.”

Though the Harbor Department has begun to make way for the new marina by issuing a demolition permit for the Navy’s fuel dock, port officials say they are months away from finalizing the marina’s design. No date has been set for the evictions, but it is certain that the private operators will be gone. And many of their small-boat customers may follow.

“It’s going to hurt a lot of people. A lot of people won’t be able to have boats anymore,” said Donald Holland, foreman of the 110-slip Cabrillo Boat Shop, owned by his father, Rolland.

“I don’t know where they’re going to go,” said Kathy Geiger, who manages Shelter Point Marina, which opened in San Pedro 35 years ago.

With all but nine of its 79 slips measuring less than 30 feet, Shelter Point Marina has catered to smaller boats whose owners haven’t had to pay for one foot more of slip space than they needed, Geiger said. They include Thompson, whose 22-foot sailboat, “Das Boat,” has been in a 22-foot slip at Shelter Point for four years.

Another Shelter Point tenant, Candace Rivilla, is a part-time schoolteacher who lives aboard a 27-foot sailboat with her husband and daughter. “People think that if you own a boat, you’re wealthy,” Rivilla said. “And it just isn’t true.”

The rent increase is “going to be a problem for some of our neighbors who like to just come down on weekends and use their boats,” Rivilla said, predicting that it will force some to give up their boats. “The sport sailors are the ones who are really going to suffer.”

Port officials dispute that claim. They say expanding the marina will provide more slips and better facilities for boaters. “The current facilities are in deplorable condition,” Richter said.

The expansion plans, he said, include concrete floats to replace the old, weathered wooden docks and three new hoists for boats that are not moored at the marina.

Richter said the eventual slip prices will be reasonable, given the new amenities for boaters. “The rent will be commensurate with the quality of facilities,” he said.

But as they wait for the port’s plans to take shape, the private marina operators and some boaters say the Harbor Department has put the squeeze on the little guy.

“I can understand that the port is in the business to make money. But I think they should provide water space for smaller boats,” Geiger said.

“Come down on a weekend and see which boats have gone sailing. It’s not the big boys. All of them are in port. It’s the small boats that are out there.”