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August 2004 - NC Marine TradeWinds Newsletter
SBTDC NC Marine Trades Services
Catawba-Wateree Area Marinas − Respond to Recreation Facility Providers Questionnaire
NMMA Member Boats Certified with ABYC Standards by 2007 Model Year
Harsh Reality of Building or Servicing 65+’ Boats
Coast Guard Issues Final Rule on Hull Identification Numbers
Making Coastal Waterways Tourism Work for You – October 5th and 6th – Greenville
NCwaterways.com Website Numbers Up
Water Access – Public/Private Solutions for North Carolina?
NC Air Quality Permit Requirements for Fiberglass Builders - update
We urge those public marina operators who received a questionnaire survey from Duke Power Lake Management to respond to this recreation use and needs survey. The “Catawba-Wateree Area” referred to in this questionnaire includes the following lakes: James, Rhodhiss, Hickory, Lookout Shoals, Norman, Mountain Island, Wylie, Fishing Creek, Great Falls, Rocky Creek, and Wateree, and the river sections downstream of Lakes James, Rhodhiss, Hickory, Wylie, and Wateree to the confluence with the Congaree River; and adjacent public recreation facilities. See www.dukepower.com/community/lakes/management.asp to view acreages, miles of shoreline, and purpose. Your responses will be kept confidential. If your marina did not receive this survey, call 704-382-5778.
Due to growing demand for larger recreational boats, the NC boating industry has been pulled much closer to the pitfalls and harsh complexities of big business shipbuilding – even though we don’t have a shipbuilder in the state. If a business is building or servicing boats of 65’ or greater length, the business falls under Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act (LHWCA) requirements. This means insurance costs that can cripple even the most profitable recreational builders. Nationally, efforts are underway to come up with a legislative solution for the recreational builders in the form of a bill, H.R. 1329 entitled the Recreational Marine Employment Act. For a one page NMMA summary, go to our www.Ncwaterwaya.com Business Assistance Tab for boatbuilders.
Effective
August 16, 2004, U.S. manufacturers of recreational boats will be allowed to
display a two-character, country of origin code before the 12-character Hull
Identification Number (HIN) without separating the two-character code by means
of borders or on a separate label as is currently required by HIN regulations.
The new revision removes the previous prohibition adversely affecting U.S.
manufacturers who sought to export some of their recreational boats. The removal
of the restriction allows U.S. manufacturers to comply with the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) HIN standard without changing the
information collected by states on undocumented vessels they register. (from:
the NMMA Washington Wave 6/24/04)
Eastern
NC commercial recreation business owners have an opportunity to attend a series
of interactive workshops focusing on the dollars and sense of waterways tourism.
In one of the workshops, Mike Bradley, NC Marine Trades Services, will lead a
discussion on marketing opportunities using existing resources along coastal
waterways including waterfront municipalities, the NC Coastal Boating Guide (DOT
map), coastal websites such as www.NCwaterways.com,
and the NC Ferry System. Penny Leary-Smith from the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center
will provide an example of boating tourism impact and focus on the importance of
our ICW waterways to tourism. To enroll in the workshops, click on www.sbtdc.org/events/ecutourism/
or call 252-328-6377.
The
www.NCwaterways.com website has seen a
growth in viewers with nearly 9,000 unique visitors in July, up from 6,000/month
in early 2004. We will be working on the site to make the regulatory and small
business components easier to find and we will be eliminating the Job
Market section, as it has not been well utilized.
This is not a new story
and not without controversy. The privatization of water access sites from public
access doesn’t mean the reduction of boats and boaters – in many cases it
means just the opposite because boataminiums and privately-owned condo slips
often increase the boating population. But recent marine press articles point
out the growing problem of loss of public boating services and the importance of
town, county and state solutions and incentives to keep the “public” in
public water access and the “service” in boating services.
The May/June issue of Boating Industry carried the following article: “A Solution to Water Access: Public-Private Partnerships”; the February edition of Marine Business Journal carried “Stopping the Erosion of Waterfront Businesses: Ensuring the Next Generation of the Marine Industry”; and the July/August issue of Boating Industry had a 9-page article on the topic. And, Palm Beach County Florida voters are likely to borrow $50 million to buy waterfront property for expansion of public marinas, addressing the growing loss of public access to waterways and because they understand the critical role that attracting and keeping boaters has on the local business economy.
One
of the key factors is not the loss of slips, but the loss of boating services
such as boat and motor repair for transient boaters, and the opportunity for
open and dedicated transient docks. The solutions may require public-private
investment, specialized zoning and even tax credits to be competitive in the
marketplace.
These
are quotes from the above articles: “boaters (boater-voters) are demanding
government intervention.” “public-private partnership will lead to
waterfront rewards for all … as it generates new revenues and makes the city
more marketable to visitors and employers.” “Industry leaders often speak
about the importance of retaining first-time boaters by selling the boating
dream and eliminating the hassle of spending time on the water. A lack of
boating access, however, is the ultimate hassle.” “There is no industry
body, no government agency tracking the level of water access for boaters.”
“Even if funding for new boating facilities is acquired…unfounded environmental
concerns have … created an atmosphere that dictates potential marina investors
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on … permits and studies to prove
that their facility will not have a negative environmental impact.” “Since
so much of the waterways are controlled by government agencies and because they
are don’t have any money, if they want to see increase [in access], it’s
almost certainly done with private dollars.” “Encourage communities to
incorporate access into their local community and recreation planning. This is
often not the case even for communities that are highly dependent on
recreational boating.” “Exposing and actively resisting unscientific
efforts to restrict public access and deny marina permits. This includes
unsubstantiated formulas for determining carrying capacity of recreational
boating waters.” “The continuing erosion of recreational boating access is
insidious…and when combined with other factors could have a long-term negative
impact on recreational boating.”
With
boat building, marine business recruitment, and waterways tourism gaining
significant attention from most tourism agency, economic development council,
community college, university and waterfront community east of I-95, the
comments quoted above are timely. The October 5-6 ECU Coastal Tourism
Conference and October 7th UNCW Economic Outlook Conference
(with a boat building industry focus) sponsored by the Cameron School of
Business are timely. Each event will present a look at the critical issue behind
our marine industry’s success: access to public waterways for boats of all
sizes.
We have been asked to
help several small builders with NC air quality permits and we have learned that
the process is not
an exact science. Consider this example: Builder A of Region X builds similar
boats in similar numbers to Builder B in Region Y. Both companies are aware of MACT
standards and of Small, Synthetic Minor, and Title V categories for boat builders;
both have been quoted turn-key permit costs by consultants; and both have
researched NC DAQ websites (pertinent boatbuilding information quite outdated). Is it
likely that these two builders receive similar information? That the consultants provide proposals that just address the company’s
requirements and advise them away from unnecessary modeling, testing, and
expense? That the company owners will understand what is required of them
and know how to make good business decisions to gain compliance? In short: No.
The upside from these
efforts is that a number of state regulatory representatives are actively
working to solve the complexity of this issue for small composite builders. In
addition, some consultants are working with the smaller builders and offering
reasonable solutions and programs for compliance. You should be concerned about
the status of your company in the air quality compliance maze. If you are
selling boats, your company is on the radar screen.
Give us a call at (252) 728-2144 and we will ask your questions without
giving up your company name or location.
The SBTDC is a business development service of The University of North Carolina operated in partnership with the US Small Business Administration. This website and newsletters are a product of the Marine Trades Services of the Small Business and Technology Development Center and are in part funded by the SBA. For additional information, contact Mike Bradley (252) 728-2144 or MBradley@SBTDC.org.
| This material is based on work supported by the US Small Business Administration (SBA). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. |