A letter to the BCDC

Part of The Underway Gourmet by Suzy O'Keefe

This letter to the BCDC (Bay Conservation & Development Commission) was mailed in May 1998 and shared via email with: "Live-aboard mailing list live-aboard@crux.astro.utoronto.ca

Well, here we are. We've bought a beautiful 37 footer... the perfect cruising vessel and big enough to comfortably live aboard at the dock until we're ready to go in the Autumn of 2000. Without wasting all that money on renting a house or getting locked into a huge home mortgage, we can have the boat paid off and have money in the Cruising Kitty by the time we leave. Not to mention the fact that we'll be familiar with how the boat sails and have had the chance to modify what needs to be modified before we leave California.

The only problem is that marinas in the Bay Area treat us like we have the plague when we say we live aboard! "The Rules say" marinas can only have 10 percent of their slips occupied by live-aboards. Can someone tell me a good reason why?

The rules don't seem to care about the myriad of boats sitting empty & unused that spend their days covered by ugly blue plastic tarps - tattered & flapping in the breeze. Eyesores to say the least. How about the boats with 2 years growth at the waterline because no upkeep is being done? These vessels are often little more than floating garages; incapable of moving under their own power. Yet, the marinas seem to turn a blind eye to these *tenants*. They pay their rent and the owner is never around to use the facilities ; let alone complain about them. I can tell you (as someone who does spend some time aboard) that I don't enjoy having one of those poorly maintained vessels as my slip mate.

We bought this boat to cruise and yes the year 2000 is a ways away, but why must you make it so difficult for us to enjoy our boat between now and then? We want to sail on the weekends and sunny late afternoons when work schedules allow, yet we seem to be relegated to marinas at the bottom end of the bay that are literally up the creek! There, we are hours away from any decent sailing or any of the major Bay sailing events. There, we are so restricted by the shallow depths that we must time our comings & goings precisely to avoid being stuck in the mud. Once out of the marina, we can either stay out 2 hours or 12 hours... nothing in-between or there won't be enough water in the channel to return.

We are not deadbeats. Our decks are not strewn with soggy sail bags and salon cushions. We pick up trash we find floating in the marina. We don't even have clanging halyards! We look after the boats around us and we are good neighbors in many other ways. Our *home* gets compliments wherever we take her. For us, living-aboard means having a comfortable place to relax after work, a place to be warm & safe from the rains, a place to invite our friends, and a vessel we can and do sail. We have all the amenities you have in your land based abode... ours are just on a smaller scale. We have fewer pots & pans, a tiny microwave, less clothes hanging in the closets, a bathroom that has no tub. But, we have a home that we love and we believe that we should be afforded the opportunity to move it to a *nicer* neighborhood if we maintain our high standards.

We've applied for membership in the Yacht Club of our choice and we love the marina associated with it, but *we* can't have a slip because we live-aboard. So many of the tenants already live aboard that when the marina STARTS enforcing the rules (any week now, they say) many will be asked to leave. Oh, the marina will put them on a waiting list in case a slip opens up, but what are they supposed to do in the meantime? What are the folks like us supposed to do until "our number comes up"? Are we to be moved deeper and deeper into the shallows of the Bay until we are surrounded with only mud like the unfortunate folks of Alviso?

If it's really the derelicts you want to get rid of, then do so. Don't lump all of the live-aboards into that category though or you'll be as guilty of discrimination as any racist.

Somehow... those of us who know that the quality of our lives and the lives of those around us is so much better by living aboard... somehow, we must make those who make the rules understand. We know that there must be rules, but PLEASE, let the rules deal with the real problems! Must the wording of your rules adversely affect those who are not at fault?

Perhaps marinas should be more like restaurants... have a Dress Code "No Shirt, No Shoes; No Service" or "We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone". Won't those two rules just about cover it? Selective enforcement is already common practice. Make your rules fit the problem and don't look down your nose at those of us who have found a better way. Those of us who use very little electricity and water, those of us who have learned that we don't need that big expensive house with huge property taxes, those of us who don't have 3 cars and a riding lawnmower parked in our garage, those of us who know that many times... less is more.

We sail, we race, we participate in Yacht Club activities, and we want to be near our sailing friends. What's so terrible about that?