Town needs to make mooring more accessible

It wasn't that long ago that the city of Beaufort weighed regulating moorings just off The Bluff on the Beaufort River — similar to what Port Royal is deliberating now.

Instead, the city has refocused on extending its free day dock.

Beaufort isn't exactly a boating destination, but it certainly has a good deal of traffic, and giving boaters free or low-cost options is a good way to attract more of them.

One distinct advantage that our fair city has is that it's on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, which runs from Norfolk, Va., to Key West, Fla., and thousands of pleasure craft pass beneath the Woods Memorial Bridge each year. Another advantage is that goods and services, from restaurants to shops, are within a 5-minute stroll of the downtown docks. Rounding up the argument is that boaters can drop hook in the bay at no cost and row their prams when they want to spend some dollars downtown.

In the world of bad cliches, that's called a win-win-win situation.

Boaters and downtown merchants aren't the only winners; residents are, too. One of the most picturesque sights in all of Beaufort is the field of sailboats bobbing gently in the incoming tide. If you don't believe that, just look over the shoulders of the dozens of artists who spend lazy days painting, sketching or photographing under The Bluff's live oak canopies.

Port Royal hasn't enticed the boaters Beaufort has. But the sleepy little town that's looking for a developer to transform 316 acres of waterfront property, formerly home to the industrial Port of Port Royal, is taking some proactive steps to safeguard against too many boaters on its "bluff."

Town officials are pondering whether to add and regulate a small mooring field off the 11th Street shrimp dock, which for the last several years has been home to a few local sailboats and some wanderers who've managed to get off the beaten path.

The town's concern is that if left unregulated, as the waterfront and surrounding area grows, an explosion of boats — such as in Charleston Harbor — would tie up for free just past the proposed boat slips and dock.

While it's not necessarily bad to regulate mooring fields, it's important that enough moorings are available and the price isn't prohibitive. It can even be free. As it stands, Port Royal is planning for only five to seven moorings for a fee not yet determined. Officials said this week the cost of installing and maintaining the waterfront would be $3,000 to $4,000, so the rental fees would have to offset those amounts.

Live-aboard boaters or those who sleep on their boats during passages generally are not interested in paying for a night's stay when they could motor a couple of hundred feet beyond the rental moorings and drop hook for free.

The idea is to attract boaters, not discourage them — and more than the 40- to 75-foot boats the town thinks that will moor. Port Royal has the potential, and can possibly match or exceed what Beaufort has, once its waterfront is developed. Ample moorings would help, as would reasonable, or free, tie-up fees.