Boating Infrastructure Grants Deadline Sept. 28   The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is accepting proposals for the Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) program for federal fiscal year 2008 with a deadline for applications of September 28th. BIG is a program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that reimburses up to 75 percent of the cost of projects that provide docking and other facilities for recreational transient vessels that are at least 26 feet long. The state Division of Marine Fisheries is the liaison with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for BIG projects in North Carolina. The types of programs that could be funded include mooring buoys, day-docks, boat slips for transient vessels, safe harbor facilities, floating and fixed piers and breakwaters, dinghy docks, retaining walls, dockside utilities, trash collection and recycling facilities, water and telephone capabilities, navigational aids and marine fueling stations. It also may fund one-time dredging to provide access between open water and a tie-up facility. For more information, contact Brian Cheuvront, federal aid coordinator, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, at (252) 808-8015 or (800) 682-2632 or Brian.Cheuvront@ncmail.net.

Boatbuilder Response to Survey Needed

All of our 100 plus NC boat builders have received a faxed or hand carried survey designed to assess the economic impact this industry has within North Carolina. If you have received this survey, please take the time to fill it out and return it. If you haven't received it, call 252-728-2804 and leave your fax number. Our ability to demonstrate the economic value of this industry is critical for legislative support of industry concerns such as working waterfronts for recreational boating businesses.

NC IBEX Booth # 1020 - your one stop

North Carolina will have 34 exhibitors at this year's IBEX (International Boatbuilders Exhibit and Conference) in Miami, October 10-12. Our NC Boating Industry Services will have our booth (#1020) and again serve as a resource to visiting NC attendees and to our NC exhibitors. We will help network attendees with NC product and service vendors.

The following exhibitors are currently signed up. If we missed you, please let us know.

3 TEX Inc. - #1629; Accu-Form Polymers - #367; Ameritex Technologies - #486; Aplix - #2660; C. E. Smith Company - #2587; Camco Manufacturing - #1059; DNA Group (Digital Switching Systems) - #500; Dustcontrol (Transmatic Environmental Systems) - #1834; Florida Marine Tanks - #1282; Forest City Tool - #1734; Glen Raven Mills (Sunbrella®) - #2462; Guidi America - #438; Hickory Springs Manufacturing - #1211; HK Research Corporation - #1130; IPS Corporation (Weld-On) - #2307; John Boyle & Company - #2502; King Marine - #373; Lawrence Industries (Novaflex) - #2575; Morbern - #2567; Morse Industries - #448; Novaflex Hose - Lawrence Marine - #2575; Odyssey Group - #331; Piedmont Plastics - #2447, 2551; Reichhold - #2030; Sea Tech - #473; Shuford Mills - #290; Southtech Plastics - #291; Technicon Industries - #741; tesa tape - #2207; The Gartner Group - #628, 631; US Surface Protection - #1238; Valtekz - #269; Victory Bolt & Specialty - #477; Warvel Engineered Product Solutions - #706

IBEX Innovation Award Entries due by Sept. 21

NC exhibitors should take advantage of the free product promotion offered through the IBEX Innovation Award event. The deadline to turn in all materials is Friday, September 21. Awards will be presented at IBEX 2007 in recognition of exceptionally innovative new marine equipment and processes in the OEM sector. The judging of the Innovation Awards is conducted by members of Boating Writers International Inc. (BWI). For more information about the awards, or to download an entry form, click here.

N.C. Legislators Pass Legislation to Improve Water Access

From Soundings Trade Only
Issue Date: 8/6/2007, Posted On: 8/6/2007

The North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation that helps preserve public access and some working waterfronts along the shore.

 

Gov. Mike Easley signed a two-year state budget into law last week that set aside $20 million for a Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund. The money will go toward public access, and may also be used to help restore and protect all types of working waterfronts, the Carteret News-Times reports.
 

 The General Assembly also approved a bill that provides tax relief for certain working waterfront properties. This will go into effect July 1, 2009.

 

The bill also makes expanding public access to coastal waters a priority in planning state roads and increases vessel titling fees.

 

Dr. Michael Voiland, the executive director of N.C. Sea Grant and chairman of the N.C. Waterfront Access Study Committee, said he was pleased the state had accepted some of the committee's 27 recommendations for improving access.

 

Under the new law, the state will tax certain types of working waterfront property - primarily fishing piers and fish houses - at their present use value, rather than their true value, which often is residential use at a more costly rate. Owners would need to pay the difference between the taxes when the property no longer qualifies as a working waterfront.

The legislation also creates an advisory committee that will create a plan to provide greater water access to the state and develop recommendations for increasing and improving waterfront access in the state.

 

Voiland said not all the issues raised by his committee were addressed this year, but the General Assembly made a good start.

 

"There may not have been enough time nor political momentum for the General Assembly to address the many other WASC recommendations in this legislative session. But I believe that the actions taken to date represent a very good start for the state in how it will need to deal with the loss of working waterfront uses and access to coastal public trust waters in the future," he said.

Voiland has been asked to serve on a committee to develop a spending plan for the new fund. The Sea Grant director is also listed as a member of a new Department of Environment and Natural Resources committee on waterfront access.

NC Working Waterfront - Recreational Industry Update

"What happened to the boat building and boatyards working waterfront needs?" The NC legislative action outlined in the above article is a good start and appears to be helpful to NC Wildlife efforts to increase boat ramps and related boating access. The missing component is a response to the needs and concerns of the recreational boating industry and the problems resulting from similar loss of working waterfront

The billion dollar plus NC recreational boating industry with 20,000 to 30,000 employees in over 3,000 boating industry companies across the state also faces serious loss of working waterfront locations required by the non-trailerable bigger boats built by over 40 of our NC companies and absolutely necessary to most of the 14,000 transient boats that feed the Intracoastal Waterway economy annually.

In short, the NC law S646 primarily responded to the critically needed (and boating industry supported) concerns of the commercial fishing industry, but stopped short of addressing the wholesale loss of working waterfront business such as boatyards, marinas, and deepwater boat and yacht building properties. The key element was the bill’s component entitled “PROPERTY TAX RELIEF FOR WORKING WATERFRONT PROPERTY” which allows for deferred taxes for commercial fishing properties. As noted, the legislature also approved $20 million set aside for a Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund. This fund will be administered by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. (See additional NC Sea Grant Coverage and click on Waterfront Access.)

Most in the industry following this issue blame themselves for not carrying a strong and unified message to our legislators and for not engaging in appropriate legislative education – something the commercial fishing advocates did and did well. The next steps for the boating industry are to look at suggesting stronger boating industry representation on the Committee for the Coordination of Waterfront Access (there are eight state agencies' appointments including Marine Fisheries, CAMA, Sea Grant, and Aquariums; and the NC League of Municipalities and the NC Association of County Commissioners but no positions representing boatyards or boat builders, or marinas). Other steps would be to look at reconstituting the NC Marine Trade Association (see below) and educating the 363,000 NC boater-voters across the state.

[Other states are working on solutions as well. A federal working waterfronts bill was drafted by Virginia legislators and submitted as HR 3223 filed in Washington to deal with preservation of working waterways and waterfronts. It has some very “NC useable” wording. See the VA Keep Our Waterfronts Working Act markup and a summary of that project. Also see Access to the Waterfront: Issues and Solutions Across the Nation on Maine’s Sea Grant site and Florida's Property Tax Reform summary. Also read where Maryland introduced legislation to create a task force to study the boating industry - MD House Bill 305.]

I

Vessel Hull Design Protection Act Amendment

The Vessel Hull Design Protection Act (VHDPA), passed in 1998, was found during a court case to contain a loophole that allows infringers to copy a vessel's hull, but make subtle changes to the deck that negate infringement claims - a copycatting technique called "hull splashing." Legislation recently introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT.), Senate bill 1640 amends the VHPDA to make clear that the Act's protections extend to both registered hull and deck designs to prevent against "hull splashing." This is a critical step to offer a greater level of protection against copyright infringement to boat manufacturers who register and protect their designs. [Condensed from the NMMA's Washington Wave - August 30, 2007

This topic has become increasingly more important to NC builders because of our high number of custom builders and innovative design builders. In the next edition we will have suggestions for quantifying and qualifying your boat's characteristic designs including new techniques such as s digital measuring and digital templating.

Regulatory Updates

Court of Appeals Hears Ballast Case
Appeal Legislative Solution, H.R. 2550, Gains Steam in Congress with 27 Co-sponsors

"As it stands now, a permit will be required for 'normal operational discharges' on every recreational boat - even your dinghy - in every state where you boat," said BoatU.S. Vice President of Government Affairs Margaret Podlich. "This is an attempt to apply a complex permitting system designed for industrial dischargers to recreational boats that will not yield significant environmental benefits."

BoatU.S. and NMMA are pushing for passage of H.R. 2550 "The Recreational Boating Act of 2007." It would continue a 34-year-old exemption applied to recreational boats and release the EPA from having to implement an expensive and bureaucratic national permit system for all recreational boats by September 30, 2008. The original lawsuit was brought against EPA in an effort to control the spread of invasive species contained in commercial ships' ballast water tanks.

For more information on this issue, or for help contacting your legislators, go to the BoatU.S. site www.boatus.com/gov/ and contact Scott Croft, 703-461-2864 SCroft@BoatUS.com or to the NMMA site www.nmma.org/government/federal/ and contact Cindy Squires (csquires@nmma.org or 202-737-9766).
 

This rule, when finalized, will require new exhaust emission standards for all classes of gasoline powered marine engines and, for the very first time, evaporative emission standards for recreational boats. NMMA was recently joined by nearly 50 boat and engine manufacturer-members in submitting comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) related to the proposed "Control of Emissions from Non-Road Spark-Ignition Engines, Vessels and Equipment." To read comments NMMA members submitted to EPA, click here and then under the "Search Dockets" tab (located on the upper left hand-side of the page) enter "EPA-HQ-OAR-2004-0008" in the "Docket ID" search field. For more information, contact John McKnight, NMMA director of Environmental Safety & Compliance, at (202) 737-9757 or jmcknight@nmma.org.

North Carolina Clean Marina Workshops Planned

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

December 4, 2007: New Hanover County Cooperative Extension, Wilmington
December 6, 2007: NOAA/Coastal Reserve Administration Building, Beaufort
December 11, 2007: Town Hall, Kitty Hawk

 

These workshops will provide information and solutions to marinas and boatyards about current challenges and issues faced by the marine industry. Morning sessions include information on the Clean Marina Program, available grant funding for marinas, hazardous waste management and stormwater regulations. The afternoon session will focus solely on pressure washing discharge, including compliance information from the Division of Water Quality, business strategies and technology solutions. A formal agenda and registration announcement will be released at the end of October.

 

The North Carolina Clean Marina program is a partnership between North Carolina Boating Industry Services, the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management, North Carolina Sea Grant, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the U.S. Power Squadron, Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuarine Program and North Carolina Big Sweep.

Most recently certified as North Carolina Clean Marinas:

• Twin Lakes Camping Resort & Yacht Basin of Chocowinity and the

• NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries & Habitat Research in Beaufort

Most recently recertified to maintain their facility's Clean Marina status:

• Deaton Yacht Service of Oriental

• Cypress Landing of Chocowinity

• Wilmington Marine Center

Workshops are sponsored by the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management's Clean Marina Program; the North Carolina Divisions of Water Quality/Coastal Management's Coastal Nonpoint Source Program; the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve's Coastal Training Program; and North Carolina Sea Grant.

AUTHOR: Dudley Dawson

The Department of Homeland Security (www.dhs.gov) brought together over 300 "stakeholders" for the first-ever Small Vessel Security Summit, held in Arlington, VA, in late June. The summit attendees were tasked with assisting the DHS in assessing and addressing the various threats to American interests posed by small vessels, defined by the agency as recreational and commercial craft under 300 gross tons - open boats, motor and sail yachts, tugs, ferries, dinner cruise boats, water taxis, etc. There were several North Carolina summit participants from both the recreational and commercial sectors.

Key presentations, some alarming, some reassuring, but all informative, were delivered by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, ADM Thad Allen, Commandant of the US Coast Guard, and others There were also presentations by three panels of speakers representing recreational interests, commercial vessel interests, and state and local government.

Earlier this year, the US Coast Guard (www.uscg.mil), an agency of the DHS, had indicated its interest in both a national maritime licensing scheme and the mandated use of onboard automatic identification systems (AIS) to address threats from small vessels. These were reintroduced at the summit, but were largely discarded as possible solutions by the end of the two days of discussions as being unacceptable for a number of reasons, including being largely ineffective against the foreseeable threat scenarios.
There emerged a consensus that a more effective deterrent is targeted government action based on advance intelligence of planned terrorist activity. A pivotal element in such intelligence, including the recent cases involving both Fort Dix and JFK Airport, is tips from the public . To this end, the summit participants were largely united in their opinion that America's Waterway Watch (www.americaswaterwaywatch.org), currently administered by the USCG Auxiliary, should have more widespread promotion and be enhanced with more depth and a broader scope.

Boaters and those in the marine trades spend many hours on and near the water, and are in an excellent position to assist in the AWW effort. They are urged to become familiar with the program and participate as fully as possible. Brochures, posters and wallet cards are available free of charge from AWW's website. There's also an informative AWW video that can be viewed and downloaded from the website for display in marina showrooms and at boating events.

For the NC Marine TradeWinds by Dudley Dawson, Contributing Editor, Professional BoatBuilder Magazine and Technical Editor, Yachting Magazine
Dawson Marine Group, Inc.
336-597-2063 and email: DawMarGrp@aol.com
See also: NSVSS Web Site: www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/programs/gc_1175627911698.shtm

Stinger, Oversize and Wide Load Boat Transport update

Recap: NC boat builders that transport boats with wide or oversize load characteristics have been stopped under certain load characteristic that are not denied on other state's road under identical conditions. See: June TW article on this topic.

Update: 1) Stinger Loads are multi-boat shipments classified as over-width and/or over-length. Our law GS 20-116 limits a motor vehicle combination to 60 feet total length unless exempted and our NC exemptions do not include boat transportation or stinger steered. It appears that a special exemption will be necessary and that will have to be accomplished in the next legislative short session (2008) unless a DOT solution can be devised.

2) Gooseneck Loads - A recent NC change to the General Publication 1 - General Non-Divisible Commodity Permits, a transportation unit ("truck-tractor" and 53' trailer) can transport multiple items "in line" as long as the load is <= 12' and within the length specified on the Permit. This rule eases some of the NC boat transport problems.

More on NC and Federal Transport Issues:

• NMMA Proposal to Update the U.S. DOT and State Specialized Boat Carrier Regulations - March 29, 2007

• NC notes and comments on NC activity.
  

Coastal Zone Management Act - Revisions being studied

The 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act, "CZMA", as reauthorized in 1996 is now being studied and discussed as part of renewing it within the next several Federal Legislative sessions. The Coastal States Organization website and the North Carolina Coastal Management website both have information about the timing and location of public meetings concerning the reauthorization of the CZMA.

One of the often overlooked parts of this Federal Act is the requirement that the affected States and their political subdivisions overlook, is that the citizens' access to public trust waters must be considered in any land use decision or regulation. Before the recent dramatic increase in the value of residential waterfront land this requirement was probably not relevant or useful and was dismissed with no harm to the citizens.

The issue of private use of public trust waters for less than the fair market value is becoming another issue being discussed both nationally and regionally. The issue is that of a private pier or other structure being over public trust waters and thus denying the use of that water to the citizens. Some jurisdictions impose one time or even periodic fees on the owners of these structures for this privatization but it is an issue that is only now starting to ripen as to value and legality. In some discussions a related issue is whether a dockominium has the right to transfer a right to use any or all of a public trust waterway.

Online Tool Measures Economic Impact of Marinas

www.tradeonlytoday.com
Posted on 7/25/2007

Several organizations within the recreational boating industry released the Online Boating Economic Impact Tool, a unique Web-based vehicle designed to estimate the economic impact of marinas across the country.

This interactive system estimates the marinas' overall economic impact on a local, regional and national level. The tool can also estimate the impact of the potential loss of marinas.

The Recreational Marine Research Center developed and maintains the tool on behalf of the Association of Marina Industries, the Great Lakes Commission, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the U.S. Coast Guard. It can be accessed at no charge at www.marinaeconomics.com.

"For the very first time this innovative tool allows marinas across the country to produce information that verifies their direct and indirect economic impact," said RMRC director Ed Mahoney, in a statement. "In addition to the organizations and agencies involved, more than 800 marina operators and 10,000 recreational boaters contributed their time to provide the data required to develop the tool's economic models."

NCMTA - North Carolina Marine Trade Association

We have had a number of calls to reestablish our long dormant NCMTA and the reasons are many and varied. The most easily supported reason is to create NC legislative awareness of industry needs and concerns - otherwise known as lobbying. Lobbying does not come inexpensively but the returns are certainly well demonstrated. As a state entity, our NC Boating Industry Services cannot manage or control this association, but we can provide the entity with information and services such as this newsletter, seminars, workshops, and a database of thousands of NC boating industry companies.

We will try again this winter to bring together interested business and corporate representatives to establish the basics for this association. There is nothing inexpensive about focusing on problems that adversely impact our industry and then devising strategies and actions to solve them. We don't have a cash-cow boat show or any other such revenue source so association dues will be required to fund the association.

A volunteer board made up of industry representation is critical but the day-to-day management must be a paid position and there needs to be a lobby budget. These along with an office of some type and basic communications costs easily run toward $100,000. The screams will go out from many on this number, and all remember when the NCMTA dues were $25 per company, but we also weren't paying any salaries, office, or much else and we were running an annual MarineEXPO event every year - all out of our office.

With 3,000 documented NC businesses@ $100 we get to $300,000. An impossibility of course and we would be lucky with 20% of that number at 600 @ $150 for $90,000 about the smallest annual budget possible. We have some big corporate companies that will understand the importance of this effort and may be willing to do significantly more, but then we will have to have degrees of memberships or sponsor members.

[The most successful and best run trade association in the country may well be the Marine Industry Association of South Florida (MIASF) which does it all very well, but 78% of its budget revenues come from the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show and 10% from member dues.]

What are the next steps? We need to identify the issues "worthy" of your time and money. They are out there in such items as working waterfront retention plans such as property tax deferment or a "save our business" plans like Florida's Save our Homes reform and others; uniform NC DOT boat transportation rules that accommodate nationwide usage; power wash regulations that won't kill off another 50% of our existing boatyards; coastal stormwater regulations that have some "forgive" for industry that must be on the water; CAMA and Shellfish rules that "bend" for multi-business marine parks, and a string of issues that have national acceptance but need NC ratification or full adoption such the "Ballast" issue, the Hull Splash issue, "Homeland Security" issues, and many others that will require North Carolina vigilance.

Your ideas, comments and concerns are needed, valued and important so we can have a starting point. Better yet, if you can give us the range of dues support your company is willing to invest annually (assuming NCMTA delivers to meet your expectations), we can start to get a handle on our next steps here. Send them to MikeBradley@NCwaterways.com. To see existing documentation on the NCMTA as it was established, read more here.