Looking for an LI boat dock? Take a number

Barry Mines has waited patiently for 24 years for a place to dock his 37-foot cabin cruiser at Long Beach Town Park in Nissequogue.

His efforts have landed him where he is today: still without a dock, and behind 382 people on Smithtown's 2,668-person waiting list for a spot at the 180-slip marina.

Mines, of Commack, who publishes the magazine Boating Times Long Island, said he has all but given up hope.

"Every now and then I'd call up and I'd be number whatever, and it became almost a joke to check once a year to see how far I moved," said Mines, who at age 58 expects a spot to become available "when I'm ready to retire."

He added: "It's just one of these unattainable kind of things to the average person."

Obtaining a dock at a public marina on Long Island can be a trial -- especially in Smithtown and Oyster Bay, where wait times can last decades.

In the 10 towns with public slips, 9,657 people are waiting for a chance to rent one of 4,355 docks, town officials said.

And the rate of turnover at some marinas is as low as one person per year, officials said. Oyster Bay's Roosevelt Marina has a 503-person waiting list for 26-to-31-foot boats, and an average of one slip per year, out of 22, changes hands, officials said.

It's a matter of economics: A dock at a private marina can run $120 to $150 per foot for the season, while public dockage is frequently $55 to $75, said Rick Fulmer, a New York Marine Trades Association member and manager of Sunset Harbour Marina in East Patchogue.

Prices have flatlined in recent years due to the soft economy, said Chris Squeri, executive director of the trades association. The economy has also driven boaters to attempt to save money by waiting for public slips, which has left some private marinas at less than capacity, he said.

Town officials have tried a variety of policies to keep the process fair. In Brookhaven, a dock lessee cannot transfer a lease, for example, to a child, said Deputy Town Clerk Donna Lent. Southampton uses a year-to-year "dock lottery," town officials said.

Several towns also rent less expensive public moorings -- places to anchor out in the water with no dock -- and only Smithtown's moorings carry a considerable wait.

But most towns rely on a straight seniority list, and it can be years before some dock lessees budge, Lent said.

"There are people that have had the boat slips for 40 years. Is that also fair?" she said. "All town residents are paying for the costs and maintenance of the marina."

The lack of available public slips has motivated some zealous boaters to try to skirt town laws. One woman in Brookhaven attempted to forge her deceased mother's signature to take possession of a slip after the woman's father -- who held the lease -- died, Lent said. Lent declined to name the woman, who was denied a slip.

Other boaters question the accuracy of town waiting lists. Mines, of Commack, said he put his name on the list in 1987, but town records list him well after the town's longest-waiting resident, Diane Kirk, who signed on in February 1990.

Pamela Setchell, president of Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society, said the only solution is to wait -- as she has done for seven years in the hopes of a spot for her 33-foot Egg Harbor power boat at Huntington's Mill Dam Marina.

"I've never heard of anyone being able to cheat their way to the top," she said. "If so I would've figured it out by now."

Miller Place resident Tom Brischler, a retired teacher, received notice this year he finally will be granted a slip at Brookhaven's Mount Sinai marina after 10 years of waiting.

He said he's looking forward to getting his 35-foot boat in the water this year.

"The slip is going to be nice," he said. "I'll be able to just walk down the dock and jump in the boat."

With Carl MacGowan, Deborah S. Morris, Bill Bleyer, Denise M. Bonilla, Yamiche Alcindor, Sarah Crichton, Aisha Al-Muslim, Mitchell Freedman, Nicholas Spangler, Stacey Altherr, Emily C. Dooley, Emi Endo and Paul LaRocco