Deadbeat Law Needs a Look

A boat is contracted to stay in a slip in your marina. The owner has disappeared and you have not been paid his slip fee for several months. What can you do? In North Carolina your option is limited to trying to find the negligent boat owner, and then going to court to recover your losses. In a few other states like Florida and Rhode Island, you can auction off the abandoned boat. This is the Deadbeat Law. In these states, marina owners can write into their lease that if a bill is outstanding for at least six months, the boat will be auctioned off and the proceeds used to cover the bill and pay other lien holders. The vessel owner must be notified in writing of the sale, and it must be advertised in the newspaper, but otherwise the sale goes on. This mechanism is of great benefit to marina and boatyard owners who have a way to recoup losses without having to go through a demanding legal process. We will be investigating other state’s policies, and responding to requests to look into these procedures to bring the deadbeat law to North Carolina.

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What Constitutes a Marina Slip in North Carolina?

The state does not have a clear definition for a boat slip. When you get a permit for your marina and are allowed a certain number of slips, there is no way to clearly determine how many you have. This was discovered when a marina was cited for having too many slips. State regulators counted one number and the marina owner counted another number. The marina owner questioned the definition of slip and heard from an Assistant Attorney General that the Division of Coastal Management and Shellfish Sanitation define a slip as “a place to moor a boat”. This provides ample room for individual interpretation and is especially problematic for marinas that have drystacks and accompanying staging areas, where boats are tied up for short periods. According to the state, the staging area is counted as multiple slips. It may be time to re-examine the slip definition and come up with more precise language to avoid confusion and conflicts on slip counts.

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We Keep Getting Smarter

Marine Trades Specialist Wendy Larimer has just completed her MA in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Her thesis is entitled “The Impact of Government Regulations on North Carolina Marinas”. The paper highlights problems in the current regulatory process and possible solutions for improvement. The main findings conclude that there are regulations written without sound knowledge of what constitutes the business of marina operations, and regulations written with the assumption of pollution but without the facts of pollution. And, because of over-regulation, marinas are not able to expand to meet the needs of increasing demand. This is causing a loss of service to boaters, a decrease in public access to our waterways, and a loss of revenue to local and state economies in the form of lost tourism and jobs. This comes as no surprise to the marina businesses, but this research has facts to back up the claims that the composite or total of regulations is hurting the industry.

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BIG P

The federal Boating Infrastructure Grant Program (BIG P) is going to provide $32 million across the country to use to build transient boating facilities. The purpose is to increase recreational opportunities for boaters with non-trailerable boats, and at the same time, strengthen economic benefits and public access for waterfront communities.

The basis for the funding is from the millions of dollars that recreational boaters pay each year in motorboat fuel taxes. Generally this money has gone to building boat ramps and other services for trailerable boats. In pushing the BIG program it was pointed out that large boats contribute up to 15% of gas taxes and should benefit as well.

The BIG program will fund mooring buoys, day docks, transient slips, dinghy docks, restrooms, bulkheads, recycling and trash receptacles, navigational aids, and safe harbor facilities. The projects have to be open to the public, must preserve valuable natural resources and historical sites, and will be expected to last at least 20 years.

There is a down side. This is not a lot of money to go around. Any community or individual having an idea for using this money will submit a proposal to the designated state contact for review and then the best ones will be forwarded to the federal committee. We will keep you posted on how to submit proposals.

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Business Expansion and the William S. Lee Act

This newsletter has carried information on this economic development tool in past editions, but this year 33 counties have changed tiers, making it more advantageous for business expansion in a new set of counties. In the most economically distressed (Tier 1) counties, an expanding business (several new jobs) is eligible for credits toward their state taxes worth $12,500 per job created, a 7% investment tax credit for all machinery and equipment placed into service during this year, and as much as a $1,000 tax credit for each employee that receives job training. The changes in county tier designations are available at http://www.commerce.state.nc.us/finance/0099tiers.htm and by phone at 919-733-5297 (NC Department of Commerce’s Commerce Finance Center). These and other incentives can be viewed through our SBTDC Business website www.SBTDC.org and link through the NC 2000/Hot Tip button or at the state’s DOC website: http://www.commerce.state.nc.us/finance/. [Courtesy of the April edition of the SBTDC NC 2000 business fax-letter – available free to NC businesses by calling 800-258-0862].

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Plastic Waterfront? FRP Options

March’s edition of Composites Fabrication magazine has an article on the advantages of using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in marine waterfront operating environments. In short, the article emphasizes the benefits of composites for load-bearing structural applications because of the materials’ inherent resistance to the effects of a corrosive marine environment. The article also highlights the historic reluctance to use FRP in major marine structures because composite products use materials and processes that are largely unknown to most professional engineers, designers and decisions makers involved in waterfront structures. North Carolina though, has a number of businesses that are designing, engineering, and proto-typing marine structures using non-traditional materials such as FRP. In the same edition of CF, an article is dedicated to boatbuilders building architectural pieces. NC builders have historically had “back-shop” projects that were never meant to float.

What is this article doing here? This might be a good time, with profits up, demand for boats high, and engineering and production staff at full creativity, to look at other potential projects, new products and “other-than-boat” profit centers that could exist back-to-back with the mainstay of boatbuilding. If you want some help researching your options, put us to work. Call or email Mike Bradley.

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Put Your Kids to eWork

Lets face it, your kids, your employee’s kids, or your in-law’s kids have a better chance of getting your business up and running with email, a company website, a company emailed newsletter, an eBOT for your customer list, and maybe even eproduct sales – than you’ll ever have. Most small business owners who aren’t up and running with e-mail as a key communication tool and a website of their products that they can get to from their own desktop computer are just holding their breath until some magic package walks in the door and is priced at $500. It isn’t going to happen because most of business owners don’t know what to ask for, how to ask for it, or what it’s supposed to do once its up and running. So hire that high school senior or college sophomore that you know and trust and let them get the answers for you. We’ll help with free direction, assistance, guides, and the basics.

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Selling Your Boats, Products, and Services to Government Agencies And Organizations

North Carolina has recently implemented a new program that can be beneficial to a number of our marine businesses. It is an electronic database of vendors, called “Vendor Link”. The registration is free and is done via the Internet. Once registered, the state sends you emails to let you know about opportunities to bid on, based on your products/services. The NC Vender Link web address is www.ips.state.nc.us/ips/vendor/. Another program is a federally mandated opportunity called the HUB Zone program. It is also free and has many benefits including “Sole Source” contracting and/or a 10% preference in award consideration. This 10% advantage allows Hub Zone contractors a 10% price preference or edge when in competition with non-Hub Zone contactors. To qualify, your company must be located in a designated HUB Zone area and 35% of your employees must live in a HUB Zone. To find out if your company qualifies (there are 17 Hub Zones east of I-95), to obtain free assistance in using the Vender Link or to obtain a copy of the How to Do Business with the State of North Carolina purchasing guide, contact our SBTDC Procurement counselor, Doug Bowlsby at 910-962-3744 or Dbowlsby@SBTDC.org.

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Have marine trades related question or problem? The NC Marine Trades Services is a service of the Small Business and Technology Center and available to all small businesses without charge. Marina related - call (910) 962-3351. Boatbuilding and Boatyard related - call (252) 728-2144. The headquarters of the SBTDC is located in Raleigh and can be contacted by calling (800) 258-0862.

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