Comments on: What Happened to this Year’s Transient Boat Season?

By: publisher

publisher — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:59:41 +0000

Sounds all too familiar to me. My previous pied-a-terre, St.Maarten in the Caribbean had the same neglect for the boating industry until we calculated the local economic impact of the boating community to be around $55 million a year to expand with about 9% annually. Things got quite different after that.

By: tommylee

tommylee — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:53:47 +0000

I'm baffled...a quick google research....The only site that reports Marina news for Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach is SearchAmelia.com. I'm talking NEWS and not commercial "marina and boating related" websites.

I guess Jamie D, there's part of your answer.

By: tommylee

tommylee — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:41:41 +0000

In a further fact finding mission I checked the official tourism site of Amelia Island and was confronted with a complete lack of attention to the boating community, the marina was mentioned in passing in a youtube promotional video for ONLY 2 seconds. and that's it folks. The tourism (ameliaisland.com) website doesn't even acknowledge the existence of boating. Nowhere on the site... Now there is your reason why only very happy few boaters know!

By: tommylee

tommylee — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:46:02 +0000

The answer is rather simple to pick-up on the trend of "immovable boats" due to infrequency of the north-south or south-north track. Home-porting should be the focus.

The marina as it is built now is not sufficiently focused on home-porting but it doesn't mean that with simple adjustments and "fee" attitudes it could not become a "homestead" i.s.o. of a transient harbor cutting out at least half the expenses (a bit more I would say) of the track from north to south and back.

Most of the ingredients are here. Perfect airport for small private (-jet) aircraft to fly into offering wealthier (northerners) direct short distance access to get to their yachts.

2 world class resorts to cater to the same for a one night stay over if necessary.

A quaint downtown area and the friendliest people around with a true "service with a smile" as well as "we go out of our way to make it happen" attitude that pleasantly surprised me when moving here after 20 years Caribbean where megayacht catering is as common as catching a flounder in the intercoastal waterway.

So I asked myself:"what's the difference why Fernandina Beach is not a "homestead" catering to the luxury yachts and St. Maarten for example is?"

Well, it hit me right between the eyes after 30 seconds of pondering.

1) No decent chandlery (St. Maarten has three MEGA chandleries and some smaller ones)

2) St. Maarten spends its sparse marketing funds on telling/showing the boating community about their facilities and that is something I have missed sofar here on Amelia Island. The destination is UNKNOWN!!!!! let alone the megayachts know about Fernandina Beach or Amelia Island.

So the century old saying still is as valid today: "what you don't know you can't crave"!

Fix those two and you got yourself a chance in home-porting!!!!