T&T: Avalon Moorings

[Frank Burrows]

I visited Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island near Los Angeles on an overnight 
trip via the ferry. The moorings there are unlike any I have ever seen. You 
tie up the boat using the small float adjacent to the large mooring buoy. 
The small buoy has a second smaller line that leads to a larger line for 
the rear of the boat. The moorings are very close together and I assume 
this is done to maximize the space. We had some extra time so I found the 
harbormasters office to find more about how the system worked. He gave me a 
brochure that describes the setup. Here is a link to the procedure: 
<http://tinyurl.com/72w9lp>http://tinyurl.com/72w9lp

I told the harbormaster that I was an east coast boater and we talked about 
the Bahamas and other moorings like the ones in the VIs. I asked him if 
people could reserve the moorings and he got a big smile on his face. He 
said that I was really going to like this story. The moorings are all 
privately leased to individual owners. They are actually owned by the City 
of Avalon but owning a lease enabled you to moor your boat anytime. All you 
had to do was call the night before and they would move the boat on your 
mooring to the next available mooring. Any boat tied up to a mooring they 
do not lease directly is only guaranteed the mooring for 24 hours.

Then he told me the leases currently sell for $875,000 for a mooring for a 
50 foot boat. There was a 70-foot mooring that sold for over 2 million last 
summer. Owning the mooring does not entitle you to any of the income 
collected. The City collects this fee and keeps it. You are responsible for 
an annual tax and the maintenance of the mooring. The only advantage is to 
guarantee you a spot when you want to visit Avalon. The moorings are not 
available to friends or any boat other than the one assigned to the mooring.

I realize that this is not news to the west coast boaters but I thought 
this was very interesting.


Frank Burrows     Destiny   1979  43'  Viking MY
Piney Narrows Marina   Chesapeake Bay