Internet reservations at marina are creating potentially costly situation
There?s a problem developing at the Rogers City marina with the new reservation system, one that not only could be costly to a budget already in the red, but also to the city?s reputation. Equipment at the harbor has been sitting in boxes and has yet to be installed, but reservations already have started to be accepted by phone and via the Internet in Cumberland, Maryland.
Harbor master Ken Rasche, who fought against the system?s installation, went to marinas in Cheboygan and Mackinac Island for some self-training. ?It really threw up some red flags, at least to me it did,? said Rasche at Tuesday?s meeting of the Harbor Advisory Committee. ?I found it amazing to learn that a girl in Mackinaw City could get on her computer and find out how many people, and the names of the people, who had reserved slips in Rogers City for this year. I didn?t know, because I don?t have the equipment in.?
WHAT REALLY surprised Rasche was the number of owners of smaller boats who had reserved slips already. About 22, 24-foot-long boats have reserved space at the marina, but there are no 30- to 32-foot slips available. That means dock space, set aside for larger craft, is going to be taken up by smaller boats. ?I have nothing against 24-foot boats, however, when you don?t have any 30- or 32-foot slips available, and start renting 38-, 45- and 60-foot slips to 24-foot boats, we?ve got a problem.?
The system was approved by members of the Rogers City Council as a tradeoff; the marina received 20 additional slips to improve revenue, and in return agreed to establish the Waterways Commission reservation system. Rogers City was one of a few, if not the only, harbor on Lake Huron without it.
RASCHE HAS been able to stop the reservations of small craft being called into Cumberland from people calling on the phone, but the system cannot halt Internet reservations. The program is not designed to accept reservations for different size boats. ?You?re really at a loss if you are going to put a 24-foot boat, off a trailer, into a 40-foot slip,? said committee member Joe Signorelli. ?That guy, he puts gas in his boat before comes to the harbor and you?ll be turning away a large boat that?s going to pay the full shot for a 60-foot slip, plus they have to buy fuel. It?s a loss that just multiplies.?
Rasche said, ?The 60-footers and 70-footers, and the 80-footers will simply keep going down the lake, past us, because we don?t have room for them. Where we?re going on this, I don?t know guys, but I?ll tell you what, it scares the living devil out of me.? Mayor Beach Hall, who serves on the committee, said representati
HALL SAID Waterways Commission member Janet Mansfield from Alpena ?knows we have a situation that we can?t live with.? ?They just don?t understand that boats have length and the dockage is dependent on the length of the boat,? said committee chairman Jack Smitka. ?You can?t put a 60-foot boat into a 32-foot slip and you don?t want to put a 24-footer into a 60-footer. The price is based on the size of the slip. The 24-footer is going to scream if he has to pay the 60-foot fee.?
?He?s already paid for it,? Rasche said. Another of Rasche?s concerns is on any given weekend, with the exception of the double handed challenge and the annual salmon tournament in August which are blocked out, a group or cruising club could reserve every available space on the Internet and fill the harbor to capacity, all with smaller craft.