Boat Owners

ANNAPOLIS -- Ken Bacham looks at his 45-foot, tall-rigged Morgan sloop as a floating retirement haven after his years on the District of Columbia Fire Department.Uncle Sam looks at it and sees an annual $100 user fee.Sometime around July, the federal government will hit Mr. Bacham and many other boaters with a fee ranging from $25 to $100, depending on the size of their craft, unless it's scuttled by a bill now winding its way through Congress."It's such an unfair tax," said Mr. Bacham, who also owns a 25-foot Donzi ($35 a year for the U.S. Treasury)

The General Assembly has an opportunity this year to give a big boost to Maryland's struggling marine industry while also generating additional tax revenues for the fund responsible for upkeep and improvements to the region's waterways. It's time us to place a cap on the state's boat excise tax. Over the past few years, Maryland has fallen behind our competitor states up and down the East Coast when it comes to how much of a boat's value should be subject to an excise tax. Neither Delaware nor Rhode Island has a tax. Virginia has long had a cap, limiting boat owners to paying no more than $2,000 in an excise tax, and Florida passed a cap three years ago. Not surprisingly, Marylanders who own bigger and more expensive boats are increasingly choosing to register them in other states.

You can buy the Naughty Lass or put money down on the Great Dog, but Snake Eyes is off-limits and Hope has no asking price.All four boats were stored in cradles at marinas in Shady Side and Galesville, the objects of desire for boaters who sell and resell used craft in an annual spring ritual along the Chesapeake Bay."Bigger and better, that's what we want," said Joe Ketterer, who is selling his 42-foot motor yacht docked in Shady Side. "My wife didn't like the last one."The official shopping season begins today at City Dock in Annapolis with the annual spring boat show.

One of the great summer pleasures that comes with living in Maryland is the opportunity to get on a boat and paddle, motor or sail your way around the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Few places in the U.S. are better suited for boating, and the state's geographic blessing has produced economic rewards for its citizens - an estimated 35,000 jobs produced by a $2 billion industry. But these are not the best of times for those in the boating industry. The economic recession of 2007 hit hard, and the recovery has been slow.

The General Assembly has an opportunity this year to give a big boost to Maryland's struggling marine industry while also generating additional tax revenues for the fund responsible for upkeep and improvements to the region's waterways. It's time us to place a cap on the state's boat excise tax. Over the past few years, Maryland has fallen behind our competitor states up and down the East Coast when it comes to how much of a boat's value should be subject to an excise tax. Neither Delaware nor Rhode Island has a tax. Virginia has long had a cap, limiting boat owners to paying no more than $2,000 in an excise tax, and Florida passed a cap three years ago. Not surprisingly, Marylanders who own bigger and more expensive boats are increasingly choosing to register them in other states.

Don Walker always dreamed of owning a boat just like the ones he fixed as a service worker at Pleasure Cove Marina in Pasadena. Four years ago, he finally took the plunge, plunking his savings into a 28-foot cruiser. But last year, high gasoline prices prompted the Linthicum resident to put his dream up for sale. And with prices climbing even higher as the pleasure boating season begins, marina owners and other boaters fear that he might not be the only one to turn in his keys. "These people have `X' amount of money put away to run these vessels, and when it's gone, they're done," said Jeff Barger, the manager at Pleasure Cove.

The burning of wintertime socks in Eastport, a decades-old ritual to bid the cold season a defiant good-bye, is no longer the lone harbinger of spring, that favorite season of Chesapeake Bay boaters. Now there's shrink-wrap recycling. Recreational boat owners around Annapolis who have traditionally shielded their craft from harsh winter weather with custom-made canvas or tarp covers increasingly are switching to cheaper plastic wrap, encasing their boats like packages of frozen chicken in the supermarket.

The 22-foot sailboat wasn't very pretty. It had sat in its owners' yard on Dundalk Avenue so long the wheels of its trailer had sunk into the soil and a foot and a half of water had collected inside it. George Geary saw the boat there every time he drove through the neighborhood. But he didn't think much of it until he went sailing for the first time with a co-worker of his wife's. It was the summer of 1995, and Geary hadn't been out on the water in nearly 20 years. But that sail hooked him. As the saying goes, "It's the journey, not the destination," says Geary, 50, of Reservoir Hill in Baltimore.

Mickey O'Malley bought his 32-foot cabin cruiser, dreaming of a sweet life on the Severn.But the Crownsville resident says his dream soured when he realized he had purchased a lemon.In the water barely 11 hours, O'Malley's $68,500 boat broke down."When we first saw the boat, it had cosmetic problems," O'Malley said. "The dealer said not to worry. Then, 15 minutes away from the pier, we had engine problems and ended up stranded on a sand bar."Then, the boat began to list 4 inches to the left.

One of the great summer pleasures that comes with living in Maryland is the opportunity to get on a boat and paddle, motor or sail your way around the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Few places in the U.S. are better suited for boating, and the state's geographic blessing has produced economic rewards for its citizens - an estimated 35,000 jobs produced by a $2 billion industry. But these are not the best of times for those in the boating industry. The economic recession of 2007 hit hard, and the recovery has been slow.

I support a reasonable boat registration fee increase, but the most recent request for an increase by the Department of Natural Resources is still way out of line ("DNR seeks smaller rise in boat registration fee," March 14). To go up from $24 to $100 for the most popular size boat will not benefit Maryland. Boat owners already are finding ways to register their boats elsewhere and still boat in Maryland. Instead phasing in a doubling or tripling the current fee, use the Transportation Trust Fund tax paid by boaters on the water into the Waterway Fund in Maryland.

One can hardly blame the boating public for feeling a bit of sticker shock at news that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources wants to triple registration fees for most boaters. The recession has hit the boating industry hard, gas prices are up, and the General Assembly is already considering a number of taxes and fees to balance the state's budget next year. But there's only one thing the legislature could do to Maryland boaters to make life on the water even worse, and that would be to do nothing at all. Like Odysseus, the DNR is trapped between Scylla and Charybdis with no pain-free choices available.

John Frederic Requardt Jr., a retired businessman who enjoyed sailing, died Feb. 10 of complications from a stroke at William Hill Manor in Easton. The one-time Trappe resident was 92. The son of a lawyer and a homemaker, Mr. Requardt was born in Baltimore. He was the grandson of Marie Oehl von Hattersheim Bauernschmidt, a well-known Baltimore political crusader for more than 40 years who died in 1962. Mr. Requardt attended Gilman School and graduated in 1939 from the Kent School in Kent, Conn.

A state proposal to raise boat registration fees for the first time in nearly three decades has dismayed many boat owners. A bill filed Thursday morning in Annapolis would replace the flat $24 boat registration fee paid every two years with fees ranging from $50 to $700, depending on the size of the boat. The increases would be phased in over four years, beginning in October, for Maryland's 191,000 registered boat owners. "What's the benefit? Or is it just one more way to raise revenue for the state?

Anne Arundel County's charter boat operators plan to hold their first industry show this spring as part of an annual Annapolis festival that celebrates the city's maritime heritage. Boat owners said they hope the show, scheduled to feature 11 vessels, will debunk any notion that boats-for-hire serve only the rich. The area's charters range from lavish party cruises that cost thousands of dollars to simple afternoon rides that cost a few dollars a person, said Susan Hall, manager for the Marine Charter Industry Association.

On Saturday, an armada of 500 powerboats and motor yachts will convene in Charm City for the 51st annual Baltimore Boat Show. The crafts will be parked at the Baltimore Convention Center for nine days - enough time, dealers hope, for prospective buyers to fall in love with the gleaming fiberglass hulls and decide to buy. And, if the past is any guide, this will happen at an astounding rate. "It is not a boat show, it is a boat sale," said Dave Baumgartner, a co-owner of Riverside Marine in White Marsh.

Although opponents have vowed to get it repealed, the nation's new "recreational vessel fee" will soon be a fact of marine life.Starting July 31, owners of recreational boats larger than 16 feet that are used in coastal or Great Lakes waters will have to display a federal decal costing $25 to $100 a year.And even though the fee is for one calendar year, it will not be prorated for 1991, according to a Coast Guard press release. So boat owners will have to buy their second decal by Jan. 1, 1992.

A state proposal to raise boat registration fees for the first time in nearly three decades has dismayed many boat owners. A bill filed Thursday morning in Annapolis would replace the flat $24 boat registration fee paid every two years with fees ranging from $50 to $700, depending on the size of the boat. The increases would be phased in over four years, beginning in October, for Maryland's 191,000 registered boat owners. "What's the benefit? Or is it just one more way to raise revenue for the state?

After signing all the papers - including the check - to take ownership of a boat perhaps the most important decision is what to name it. The practice dates back centuries, before the invention of marine insurance, to the Egyptians, who no doubt needed a way to tell one floating pile of papyrus from another. Over the ensuing years, some boat names have become part of everyday landlubber talk. No one wants to be in the unenviable position of "arranging deck chairs on the Titanic." America went to war against the Spanish in 1898 with the battle cry, "Remember the Maine," for the battleship that blew up in Havana harbor.

Don Walker always dreamed of owning a boat just like the ones he fixed as a service worker at Pleasure Cove Marina in Pasadena. Four years ago, he finally took the plunge, plunking his savings into a 28-foot cruiser. But last year, high gasoline prices prompted the Linthicum resident to put his dream up for sale. And with prices climbing even higher as the pleasure boating season begins, marina owners and other boaters fear that he might not be the only one to turn in his keys. "These people have `X' amount of money put away to run these vessels, and when it's gone, they're done," said Jeff Barger, the manager at Pleasure Cove.