Nahant to ban boats on trailers at town wharf

NAHANT – Residents who store their boats on trailers at the town wharf will be out of luck next year when a new ruling goes into effect.Selectmen voted 2-1 to accept a new boat storage application form that does not allow for boats on trailers to be stored at the town wharf, but it won’t go into effect until 2015.”I originally proposed this for this year, but the other two members thought it was too hasty,” said Selectman Michael Manning, who is also an assistant wharfinger.He voted against the measure because it was only “deferring the inevitable.”Selectman Richard Lombard said it would be unfair to ask boat owners to find someplace else to store their boats this late in the season.”This is the end of September,” he said. “The letter should have been sent out in May.”According to Manning, there are 120 boat excise bills sent out, and roughly one-third of those apply for winter storage space on the wharf. Others park their boat in their yard or at a storage facility, he said.Lombard wondered if there might be an alternative location for the six or eight boat owners who do store their boats on trailers at the wharf. He suggested the lowland’s parking lot on Nahant Road, but Chairman Perry Barrasso nixed that idea, noting it was in a flood plain and could be problematic.Lombard argued that residents who live in the Bass Point and Little Nahant areas of town have very little space and, as taxpayers, should have an option.Manning said the decision was made to ban trailered boats for two reasons: space and efficiency.When the larger boats are pulled from the water, it is done all at once by a marine hauler, and they are put in the same way. The trailered boats, however, trickle in during the fall and can be slow to disappear in the spring. Manning said it often results in phone calls and headaches when the town is trying to get ready for Memorial Day, which includes a service at the wharf.The smaller boats are also easier to relocate, Manning added. The larger boats aren’t easily trailered because masts and or rigging won’t fit under wires or through tunnels.It also comes down to space.Manning said last year they packed nearly 40 boats onto the wharf and, in doing so, left only three open parking spaces. People who wanted to work on their boats, winterize them or simply visit the wharf in the off season had nowhere to park and so most parked illegally, he said.”We’re trying to have rational parking,” he said.Lombard said he would adopt the new form but only if it’s not put into effect until next year.Barrasso agreed.”I think it’s prudent for landowners, taxpayers that have boats on trailers that we give them one last (season),” he said, adding that if boat owners were allowed to store their boats on the wharf last year they be allowed this year. “This will give due notice that we’re changing the rule.”