Boat Show Challenge winner takes delivery of boat

Will Ketchen, the winner of the first ever Bayliner Boat Show Challenge contest at the Seattle Boat Show, took delivery of his new Bayliner 175 yesterday from Lake Union Sea Ray. Will stood on a wakeboard behind the boat for 72 hours at last month's Seattle Boat Show, and was selected in a random drawing from 4 other contestants who also managed to go the full 72 hour time-limit in the contest. This is Will's first time owning a boat.

Lake Union Sea Ray posted pictures of Will, who was very excited, while taking delivery of his new boat on its Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LakeUnionSeaRay

Meeting with Seattle Mayor this Sunday

This meeting is for anyone with a business within 200 feet of the shoreline, so marinas & boatyards within Seattle. Additionally, brokers may be interested to know that no yachts will be allowed (unless pre-existing) in any Urban Maritime or Urban Industrial setting.

Date: Sunday, February 27, 2011

Location: History House (790 N 34th StSeattle, WA 98103-8801)

Also there is a Lake Union Association/ Association of Independent Moorages meeting with Maggie Glowacki of DPD on Tuesday, March 1st at 2 pm at History House.

Economic study will be released tomorrow

During tomorrow's Super Yacht Meeting (2:30 at NMTA), Jim Hebert of Hebert Research will share with our members his findings regarding the economic impact of recreational boating. If this is of interest and you would like to attend, please email peter at nmta.net to save a spot as space is limited.

You may remember that NMTA along with NYBA and the group formerly known as the Pacific Northwest Yachting Association commissioned this study to help us get our head around the dollars we bring to the area.

Early indications are that Florida's Sales-Tax Cap means more business

As a preview of what we expect to learn on Friday (that there are significant ecnomomic benefits to recreational boating in Washington state) at the Super Yacht Meeting (all NMTA members are invited to this 2:30 event), there's this gem that appeared recently to support the Florida Sales-Tax Cap. Here's the link.

NMTA supports a 2020 phase-out for copper paint

NMTA's Board met yesterday and agreed that Jan 1, 2020 would be an acceptable timeframe to phase-out the point-of-sale of paints for recreational boats under 65 feet.

Additionally both bills in the House and Senate remain alive. They are Senate Bill 5436 and House Bill 1785. We are working with Rep. Upthegrove to update his timelines.

House Bill 1785: http://tinyurl.com/5rfh2wm

Senate Bill 5436: http://tinyurl.com/4dqxgo5

To watch the George Harris' testimony on House Bill 1785, you can click here. The hearing on this bill is in the first several minutes.
Link: http://tinyurl.com/674suhs

Cruising Permit Action Alert

Recently, Representatives Judy Clibborn and Jay Rodne have introduced a bill to make it easier for out-of-state boats to cruise in Washington state waters and spend money here. We completely support this bill and are appreciative of this bi-partisan effort.

The next step in the legislative process is to get a hearing for this bill in the Washington State House of Representatives.

That’s where you come in. Please help us get a hearing for this bill by directly emailing your representatives and state senator. (They can all be on the same email “to” field)

Find your district: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx and there is a formula for their emails. It’s their last name separated by a “.” And then “@leg.wa.gov” . For example: Rep. Ross Hunter would be Hunter.ross@leg.wa.gov

Background on this issue that you should know:

Smaller recreational boats tend to be owned by people in their personal name. For reasons of liability and insurance, the majority of larger recreational boats are owned by people via a legal entity (LLC’s, Corporations, trusts, ext). Individually-owned boats have two options when they visit: they can cruise our waters for 6 months per year, every year or can cruise for one year and then leave Washington state waters for two years. That makes sense to us.

On the other hand, recreational boats owned by out-of-state residents via entities (which are the majority of boats over 50 feet in length) are treated differently. These boats can only cruise for 60-days and then must vacate our waters or face a use tax around 10% (depending on your municipality) of the boat’s value. This rule activity discourages these larger boats from visiting our state and spending their money here on moorage, provisioning, refits and repairs, entertainment, dinning, and tourism.

(Please note: The cruising permit only applies to out-of-state residents.)


Our ask: Please treat out-of-state recreational boats owned via entities the same way our state treats individually-owned out-of-state recreational boats.

The gist of your email to your state representatives and state senator (If you aren’t sure who these folks are, go here and type you address in: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx )

***Your email and contact gets bonus points if your legislators are on the House Ways and Means Committee)*** (Here’s the list of Ways and Means Members from the House: http://www.leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/WAYS/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx

Here’s the gist of how your email should look:

Subject line: Cruising Permit Bill (HB 1904)

“Dear Senator _______ and Reps __________,

The Recreational boating is a $2.9 billion dollar industry for Washington state’s economy. Unfortunately, our state is “leaving money on the table” by not encouraging more recreational boating in our state.

One way to help support this is help us get a hearing for the Cruising Permit Bill, which is sponsored by Reps. Clibborn and Rodne, which is my direct ask to you, Rep. Hunter.

During the hearing, Northwest Marine Trade Association will demonstrate that there is a fiscal benefit to getting this bill signed into law. Please support our effort to treat boats visiting from out of state the same, whether they are individually owned or entity owned. Our economy benefits when out-of-state boats visit, which is the crux of this bill.”

Other points you may want to use in your email:

-Recreational boats bring all the direct and in-direct economic benefits to our economy. Boats are like floating economic stimulus packages where ever they go. With them, comes the need to provision, repair and accessorize.

-If you’ve owned a boat, then you know just how much money is spent for upkeep and maintenance. Our economy would greatly benefit from this revenue that we are currently sending to other states and Canada.

-All we are asking is to treat these out-of-state recreational boats owned by LLCs or S Corps the same way we already treat individually-owned out-of-state recreational boats.

Here is the link to the cruising permit bill:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1904&year=2011

Marina Rents hearing is tomorrow

As the marina-rents issue picks up momentum, the next step in this sausage-making legislative process is that this bill will be heard in House and Senate committees.

These hearings are scheduled tomorrow for the House and Wednesday for the Senate.

Recognizing that many (if not all of you) will be working during the hearings and won’t be able to attend, the second best way to make your voice heard on this issue is an email to the committee chairs with your feedback.

Rep. Dave Upthegrove: Upthegrove.dave@leg.wa.gov

Sen. Kevin Ranker: ranker.kevin@leg.wa.gov.

(If you would like to attend the hearings, please let me know and I’ll send along that info, map etc. You can reach me at "peter at nmta.net"

Here is more info on House Bill 1553: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2011-12/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1553.pdf

Senate Bill 5550 (which will be heard on Wed): http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2011-12/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5550.pdf

Please note that NMTA hasn’t taken a position either way on marina rents. What we are taking a position on is giving our members the tools needed to advocate effectively on this and other issues that impact our industry.

2011 Northwest Salmon Derby Series kicks off

The 8th annual Northwest Salmon Derby Series, presented by Allstate Boat Insurance, kicks off this weekend at the Roche Harbor Salmon Classic, February 3-5. The complete 2011 schedule is available online at www.NorthwestSalmonDerbySeries.com.

Each year, the Derby Series has awarded a grand prize boat to one lucky angler simply for participating in any of the 16 derbies on the Series schedule. This year's grand prize is a fully outfitted, 22-foot River Hawk boat, powered by a 225 hp Suzuki, on a tandem axle galvanized Karavan trailer.

The Northwest Salmon Derby Series was created in 2004 by NMTA for the purpose of promoting salmon fishing opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. In the first year of the Series, six existing derbies were identified to become partners of the Series. Since that year, the Series has expanded to 16 tournaments in 2011.

Carefully and selectively, the Series has been very keen to partner with derbies that are wild fish friendly. Each event occurs within the guidelines of open fishing seasons that occur at a time of the year and area where hatchery chinook and coho salmon exist. In fact, some of the tournaments have gone to “hatchery fish only” even during times and places where retention of unmarked chinook and coho are acceptable for retention in accordance with the Department of Fish and Wildlife rules.

We, at the Northwest Salmon Derby Series and NMTA, are a partner to the protection and enhancement of wild chinook and coho stocks. We encourage anglers to fish selectively and carefully to release unmarked chinook and coho salmon, particularly when the rules require release.

By working with government agencies to protect wild stocks, while accessing abundant hatchery salmon, we believe this formula is the road map to the future of sport fishing for salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

Copper-bottom paint update

While the Boat Show was going strong (Here’s a recap from Three Sheets Northwest: Link), the copper-bottom phase-out legislation took a significant step last week. Specifically, Senate Bill 5436 was heard in the Senate’s Natural Resources & Marine Waters Committee. If you would like to view the testimony, you can go here (LINK) and then fast forward to 1:36.

While we are in full support of a bill that is tough, fair and reasonable to phase-out copper in bottom paint, we have some concerns with the senate bill. To drill down on what we are proposing: NMTA would like to begin this phase-out with new recreational boats up to 65 feet on Jan 1, 2017. We would like to extend this phase-out to cover all recreational boats (new and used) up to 65 feet by Jan 1, 2027.