Santa Cruz Harbor to charge $10 to launch kayaks/sups 11/17/12

   This sign was not at the ramp when I launched this morning, but was there when I got back.  It says the Port is going to enforce  sups/kayaks paying $10 to launch beginning 11/17/12 and mentions Ordinance 406 and the SC Port District.
    The Harbor has a website, perhaps there is more info there, as well as minutes of meetings.
    There have been an increasing number of SUP's launching from the ramps, and a lot of them paddle up and down the harbor and don't go outside. With any luck, SUP owners and the two businesses at the harbor that sell them will reason together with the Harbor officials.
 

Yeah. SUPs and kayaks contribute to lots of wear and tear on the port. 

 

terrible

Another way to get some money from us. Soon the state will mandate boat registration for kayaks.

WHAT!
this is first I heard of that. After being free for so many years...........

Will the same go for the small craft dock across the way?

the ever tightening noose........

I am sure the answer is NO...

but if you now pay $10 to launch will that do away with the parking meters? Seems like you could almost dump $10 in the meter for a day of fishing? Cost may be a wash if so....

from the port district website:

SECTION 406 - Launch Ramp Use
It shall be unlawful to launch or retrieve from the launch ramp without a
valid permit, regular slip licensees excepted.

I'm thinking then that this would apply only to the actual launch ramp, and not the human-powered vessel launches. It would make sense that the harbor would try to discourage the yak & SUPs from using the PB launch.

WTF?! We already pay $10 a day to park there. This new $10 launch fee is on top of that?

Is launching from the floating dock across the channel is still free?

Quick search of the harbor website found mention of a proposed fee in the 09/25 minutes...sounds like it was focused on the increased SUP traffic?

http://www.santacruzharbor.org/portCommisionMeetings.html#PortCommissionMinutes

Those are the most recent minutes I saw on there...

Sincerely,

Jim

I never launch there anyhow. I launch off the north beach at the pier. I have had a lifeguard tell me not to once, but usually launch before they get there, and when I come back in, I stay to the far side away from the beach activities. Still gotta pay to park.

My harbor source is looking into it. But the general thought is that it is a new way to reduce the number of SUPs and kayaks that clog up the power boat launch ramp and get them to move to the opposite side of the harbor.

    The sign I saw and took a photo of was at the launch on the west side of the harbor near Aldo's and the kayak ramps.
    I think it's interesting that the ordinance they cite says "the launch ramp" (singular) and not "the launch ramps" or "launches" (plural).  That indicates to me that it was meant to cover the large concrete ramp (singular) on the east side.
   I can't imagine that kayaks that launch and almost always immediately leave the harbor are as much of a financial or other risk to the harbor as are large boat trailers and the vehicles that tow them backing down over a public walkway,  and sometimes winding up rolling way further into the water than intended.   So imposing the same fee for kayaks and trailered boats seems excessive, in my opinion.
 
 

Word from the harbor is that the fee is meant to reduce the #'s of SUPs that are clogging the PB ramp and creating a hazard.
It does not appear that fees will apply to the floating docks.