South Florida Marina Modernization...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – South Florida boatyards and marinas are investing heavily to modernize existing facilities and increase capacity and efficiency, in order to combat a shortage of new waterfront space and competition in attracting new recreational marine business, according to a story in today’s Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel .

The story cited several South Florida businesses that had multimillion-dollar investments under way, being considered or recently completed. They included:

Lauderdale Marine Center in Fort Lauderdale – Which recently invested $40 million to build new, covered repair facilities and office space, add dock space for megayachts, and buy new equipment at its 38-acre boatyard and marina complex.

Old Port Cove Holding Inc. of North Palm Beach – Which is investing about $3.5 million to build a new dry storage facility that will be able to handle up to 350 boats.

Delray Beach-based Marine Holdings LLC – Which is spending between $15 million and $16 million to refurbish Sunset Harbor Marina in Miami Beach and turn it into an exclusive yacht club.

The Sun-Sentinel also said a group headed by South Florida entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga plans a multimillion-dollar outlay to expand marina facilities at Rybovich Spencer in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County's largest boatyard.

"Marinas and boatyards investing new funds recognize that the only way to remain competitive with other cities competing with South Florida is to upgrade their facilities," said Jay Reynolds, president of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, in the story.

So true!!

There is a serious shortage of dockspace and hi & dry marinas in the South Florida area. Recently a group representing marinas attended a meeting with county commissioners to protest the re-zoning of some marina properties for use as new construction condos. This is putting alot of pressure on the existing infrastructure and generally, doing a remarkable job of stagnating growth of the marine industry in South Florida

On any weekend, the traffic on the water in this area is less than half of what it was a few years ago. Most of this is due to the excessive idle speed zones. Maybe this is a good thing for manatees (because they have rights too), but there must be some compromise that we can all live with (manatees included).

In South Florida, from November through March, it is idle speed along the intracoastal from North Miami to Palm Beach on weekends, which is about a 60 mile stretch. There are 3 or 4 places, about one mile long, that you can come up on plane in this area. Due to this, many people avoid boating... or just don't purchase boats because of this restriction.

In some ways, it is good, as it reduces the amount of traffic (and nuts!) on the water. But it makes going anywhere on the intracoastal... a LONG trip!

Ofcourse... that's just my opinion and I could be wrong, but I'm probably not.