The boat traffic — with mariners trying to negotiate in a maze of trailers, lines built up waiting for first-timers to drop their boat in the water and with the available parking spots being a half-mile away — can lead to frustrations boiling over.
“You can see husbands and wives fight,” Atkinson said. “It’s just such a hassle getting your boat in the water.”
And that’s on a normal weekend. Atkinson said holidays, like Labor Day, are almost unbearably busy.
Lewis Howell and
Howell has cleared a section of land along
There is still considerable work to be done laying a solid concrete foundation so the building will rest 9 feet above the water, a foot above the flood plain. Constructing the metal building itself poses the largest expense for the project, but Howell plans to have
“We’ll be very competitive with any other boat storage in
The facility will be able to house 240 boats, each up to 34 feet in length. There will be four layers of bunks with employees using a forklift that can extend up to 47 feet high, a little bit higher than necessary.
Atkinson was excited about the convenience of the storage. Customers call ahead of time and when they get there, their boat is in the water. But, he laments, his 25-foot fishing boat has made few appearances in Bay waters recently.
“I’ve owned a boat since I was 14,” Atkinson said. “The last 10 years, I’ve enjoyed it less than ever.”