How the heck does one get fingernails into a crack in the PNW?

[Tooluser]

Greetings y'all; relative newbie to EY here, as I'm just looking at an E-38 for sale in the PNW. Love this forum.

I sail a C&C 30 on the San Francisco Bay and recently took my family on a charter in the San Juans for a week. They loved it (my wife: "If you can keep sailing me to old-growth islands like this, I'm all in.") and we're looking to move our family center of gravity north in the coming years.

So I've found an E38 (owned by a forum member, I think, and I'm not sure about the mores there!) that I'm surveying and will make an offer on. But I've been a fan of the E38s for some time; they're a sweet spot of a boat, and I feel like I got to know Thelonious II personally. I love this forum and all the detailed, principled, and organized data in it. So, the boat is great, and maybe just a little aspirationally priced, so assume that's fine.

But I'll be damned if I can find a place to put it.
I've been calling everywhere, and getting further and further.
Berths have ridiculous waiting lists - or don't even bother holding waiting lists, they're so long!
I could store it on the hard and splash it each spring (my planned use is intermittent weeks and the occasional month cruising, and I would do some shoulder sailing *IF* the boat could be in the water) but then . . . . where to store it in the summer?
We have property on Orcas Island but the waits there are in years.

In my ideal world, it'd be in B'ham harbor, I think. I'd do Blaine happily. I'd even store in Anacortes if I could find a ball for the summer. But - nothing.
(Before you ask, the current owner is getting a new boat and keeping his slip! Happy for him...)

Is this a matter of a whisper net? Do I need to trust that an empty dock will appear, surrounded by fairies and rainbows, and make the leap? Not my style.

If I can't find a place to put it I sure can't buy it. So what do y'all DO up there? Any suggestions? The only place I've found with a slip available is Point Bob, which is logistically so difficult that it would kibosh my deal.

Thanks!

 

[Loren Beach]

This has been a difficulty in the whole darned Puget Sound area for decades. Back when we bought our previous 26 footer, out of BC, we found a slip in our customs-arrival port, at Port Angeles. We kept it there from March to September, and sailed it to Portland. Back in the 80's, very few Sea-Tac boaters wanted to commute to a slip that far away, and they seemed to always have openings. I hear that their marina may be more in demand now. (?)
We also liked Pt Townsend, in spite of the potential commute, but their marina was full up even then.

I hope that some other boaters here can offer up a suggestion. About a decade ago a Portland friend of mine was able to keep his boat in Olympia for two years before tiring of the commute, and then moving it to Portland.
That whole area is probably one of the "boating capitals of America" so slips are indeed scarce.

You might want to widen the search to yacht clubs with their own moorages, too. I know a couple keeping a boat at the Olympia YC for several years, and they really love that place.

Apropos of whatever, I had a look around the huge marina at "Pt Bob" a few years ago while picking up delivery, and it was indeed odd to leave and reenter the US, to get there!

I just looked at the web page for the big marina at Everett, and it looks like there is indeed a wait list for slips over 28 feet. https://cms9files.revize.com/everett/8-23-2023 MOORAGE AVAILABILITY.pdf
Have you built a list of marinas and checked on each?

Best of luck,
Loren

 

[Tooluser]

Thanks Loren - yes that’s exactly what I’m doing, working my way down a list into increasingly distant locales.
I haven’t yet gotten all the way over to the Olympic peninsula yet, but I will.

Your suggestion to talk to yacht clubs is a great one. It seems a bit mercenary though, or hard to get into if I’m not already a member of one with space.

 

[AlanO]

We ended up at Tyee Marina in Tacoma for our 38-200 purchased last year and we will probably stick around for a few years. Not a lot of amenities, but it has a price to match that level, which helps pursue the upgrades we want to do. It's a bit of a haul to the San Juan's, but offers South Sound to explore. They had several 40 ft slips when we moved in w/out waiting list.

Good luck on the search.

 

[Nick J]

We bought our 35-3 without a slip. Our fallback was Blain which had slips available, but it's a little over an hour away. Everett is 20 minutes away and they keep a list of tenants looking for subleases. There's usually a dozen or so available and they usually are available longer than they are listed due to over ambitious haul out projects (I now totally understand how this happens). We went through 3 subleases for about 6 months before finding a perminant spot. It is a little risky, but it works for most people. Our experience was at the beginning of COVID so that may have affected it a bit.

 

[Marlin Prowell]

When we bought our E34 five years ago, there was no space in Bellingham, but there was plenty of space in Blaine, so we put the boat there. The Blaine marina is run by the Port of Bellingham. If you want to get into the Bellingham marina, being in Blaine is an advantage. Anyone transferring from Blaine to Bellingham gets preference over anyone transferring from outside the Port of Bellingham marinas. It took about nine months on the Bellingham waiting list before we got a Bellingham slip.

A lot of Seattle folks keep their boat in Anacortes (Port of Anacortes, Skyline Marina) because it is closer to the San Juans, but I have no info about the waiting list for an Anacortes slip.

 

[Mr. Scarlett]

Get on the waiting list and check in often. Preferably in person. Get to know people's names. Work out a temporary transient deal, ie: in and out for ~1 week intervals, wherever they can fit you and don't try to negotiate. Making friends with your neighbours could turn into a favourable reference.

 

[southofvictor]

We are in Elliot Bay Marina in Seattle proper and I just got an email asking if people wanted to move slips to let them know. Makes me think they might have some space available. We like it there especially while commuting back and forth to the boat from our home base in Idaho. It’s a long day to the San Juan’s but doable. There‘s a ton to explore between Olympia and Port Townsend, more than we can probably do in a lifetime. Tons of options when planning for family and friends visiting ranging from 3 hours to three weeks.

 

[Tooluser]

@Mr. Scarlett Great point; showing up in person can result in spots appearing that were previously invisible!

@southofvictor That's a great perspective, thank you. I've been rounding down anything that far south because flights to B'ham are so cheap from SF, but your point about it being possible - and available - is a great one. It may be what I need to do, even if only until I can find my way into something near B'ham (and cheaper).

Thanks y'all. A bit less despair here.

 

[bmills]

I recently put our boat (Ericson 34-2) at a marina in Port Orchard. There are a few marinas in Port Orchard with availability, at least as of June when we were looking. I keep our boat at Yachtfish Marina.

If you look on the other side of the bay, in Bremerton, make sure you familiarize yourself with currents in the marina. My understanding is that the Bremerton Marina is tricky except at slack, and Bridgeview is essentially inaccessible outside of slack. Current has not been a problem for us at Yachtfish Marina.

The ferry goes from downtown Seattle to Bremerton and there is a passenger ferry from Bremerton to Port Orchard. It is easy and pleasant to take public transportation from Seattle to Port Orchard.

We also found monthly moorage in Olympia at Swantown Marina but decided on Port Orchard for access to Seattle and to be further north.

 

[sialawaysailaway90]

I’m at Everett.


THERE ARE TOO MANY BOATS THAT ARENT IN USE. Slowly sinking or just covered with decades of mold and mildew taking up slips. It’s not fair and for some reason nothing is being done. The boat next to mine is slowly rotting. It hasn’t been used in two years. Things haven’t fallen off of it. It’s Not that it’s an eyesore, it’s just.. you’re never going to use that boat (based on how you never use it)!and it’s not fair to fellow boaters.

im not sure if the marinas cant tow away these boats of if someone is still paying for it or whatever.


it would be amazing if we added more spots to marinas via funding or something to that effect. Apply to race and it’s a $ 100 buy in or so, the top three get some but the rest goes to improving marinas all over the puget sound. From upkeep to adding more.

 

[Tooluser]

@sialawaysailaway90 If you're suggesting Batman-justice freeing some of those abandoned boats under cover of darkness. . . . tempting. But no, that'd be wrong.

 

[Tooluser]

@bmills thank you; considering the two-hop transit solution is a good idea too. And thanks for the details 'on the ground', literally.

 

[Loren Beach]

THERE ARE TOO MANY BOATS THAT ARENT IN USE. Slowly sinking or just covered with decades of mold and mildew taking up slips. It’s not fair and for some reason nothing is being done. The boat next to mine is slowly rotting. It hasn’t been used in two years. Things haven’t fallen off of it. It’s Not that it’s an eyesore, it’s just.. you’re never going to use that boat (based on how you never use it)!and it’s not fair to fellow boaters.

Pretty much the same down here in Oregon. Club moorages like ours can keep pressure on members to keep their boats registered and keep them (mostly) clean. We always have a certain % that have not left their slip in a decade and the owner refuses to sell 'em or give it away. In one respect, like the corporate/public marinas, as long as the slip rent is paid the neglected boat can remain. They have to provide annual proof of insurance, too. The whole ignored-boat situation is just So Sad.

One Difference: Unlike those for-profit marinas, we do have one other form of persuasion since our club is member owned .... we require that members put in work hours every year, and if someone goes into a second year of trying to pay $ in lieu of unworked hours, the Board will ask them to resign.

If you ask the management at your marina about the dirty/dying boats you will likely find that the owners do pay every month, and that the marina prefers to have the regular slip rent rather than have to actively "work" their long list of waiting boats. At least that's just one (cynical) guess.