We're looking for the trash fence...

I went to the Shilshole Bay Marina Dock Captains meeting tonight, this is part of the Washington Liveaboard Association. Amongst the dock captains there were also non-liveaboards in attendance such as myself. In attendance at the meeting (I’m going to butcher some name here) were the Marina Manager (Sharon), her boss Darlene from the Port, Joseppi to report on marina security (not sure on that) and Cathy Glees (?) to report on emergency preparedness also from the Port (but just the wet part, not the flying part she noted).

Security

We kicked off with Joseppi on security at the Marina. He reported no major incidences have made it to his desk. The attendees indicated one car break-in recently and a report of transients roaming C Dock with a FOB for entry who were ushered away by Port Security. Main takeaways from this are that if you loose your key FOB report it to the Marina ASAP, they can turn them off within minutes. Also, if you have any break-ins or car damage I would also report those to the marina as well.

Joseppi also indicated there is a functioning notification list for doc captains, and that one for the general public is in the works as well.

Emergency Preparedness

Cathy Glees(?) spoke next on emergency preparedness. Aside form the general “be prepared” message, she spoke specifically about two things I felt were worth repeating. The Port is looking to work with HAM Radio Operators who want to be involved in emergency communication efforts. She mentions ARES and RACES, so I assume the port is working with ARESRACES of King County. There are soo many radios down here I’m sure some of you would love to help out. I may look into it myself even!

Secondly, the port is working with King County’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) effort and is looking for volunteers (liveaboards I assume to) to attend training sessions. The basic idea behind this is that if a large natural disaster occurred and emergency services were overwhelmed it would be useful to have people out in the community who were comfortable with using fire extinguishers, could search a building, help out their neighbors, etc. The training sounded pretty cool and it involved putting out real fires and doing simulated searches. As with everything contact the marina office for more information.

Liability Insurance Requirements

The big topic of the night was the coming mandatory liability insurance requirements for all of the water properties in the Port of Seattle (i.e., all the marinas recreational and commercial). The exact specifics will be coming in the mail in July, but at a high level it works like this:

• Policy goes into effect 1 October 2009
• Boats over 16’ moored in the water with engines have to carry \$300,000 of liability
• Boats on the dry moorage regardless of size which use the hoist, also have to have \$300,000 of liability
• Proof of insurance must be provided by making adding the Port of Seattle as a certificate holder. This will mean they get notified if you change, renew, let your policy lapse, etc.

That summary covers 99% of us, if you have a 100’ canoe with no motor call the marina or wait for the mailing in July for all the corner cases.

The Port seemed to be prepared more for people to be upset about the requirement, but most people were complaining about the wait till October, they’d rather see it go in effect immediately. I was kind of shocked by that. I agree in that I’m surprised they don’t require it already, but I completely understand that the Port can’t make things required over night.

They also said several times ”This is where we’re starting.” so you can expect that over time the requirements will go up and at a minimum I’d expect them to add wreck recovery and pollution in the not so distance future.