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Wrightsville Beach
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Aldermen approve stricter boat rental regulations

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A decision by the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen March 12 gives town leaders the power to regulate boat rentals through the town’s conditional use permitting process.

Wrightsville Beach is currently home to several boat rentals, and Scott Weismantel hopes to open his own business, nationwide franchise Carefree Boat Club, on Salisbury Street. But when he applied with the town for a license to operate in January 2015, town staff realized boat rentals are not a permitted use in that zoning district, which also encompasses businesses along Old Causeway Drive, and Keel, Short and Marina streets.

To bring not just Weismantel’s proposed business but two others, Reliant Marine and Nauti Times Boat Rentals, in compliance with town rules, the aldermen had to amend town ordinances to either allow rentals as a permitted use or conditional use.

A permitted use would simply require the rentals to receive a permit from town staff. But aldermen opted for the conditional use, meaning all boat rental operations must apply for a conditional use permit. The application process allows residents to voice opinions during public hearings and the board to set specific conditions by which the businesses must comply.

Director of planning and parks Tony Wilson said the planning board could set conditions limiting the number of boats on site, setting a minimum age for captains and requiring boater competency on the water.

Town attorney John Wessell said the town would be able to revoke the permit if the conditions were violated.

The board favored the stricter regulations because of safety concerns expressed by residents.

“Your experience out on the water around Wrightsville Beach in the past years… [there is] more not very capable, or very safe traffic,” resident Neil Briggi said. “It might force people who are currently practicing to come before you and do their business a different way, but we’ll all be better off for it.”

Weismantel said his business has numerous safety measures in place, like requiring boaters to pass an on-the-water test. He also won’t allow anyone younger than 26 years old to operate his boats, a condition of which board members and residents both approved.

If the board holds other boat rentals in town to that standard, it will affect Reliant Marine, which allows its boats to be captained by those 18 and older.

Owner Marty Foerster argued age is not a definitive indicator of a captain’s competence. He said all of his customers undergo on-the-water training specifically tailored based on the customer’s prior experience and the conditions they might encounter where and when they captain a Reliant Marine vessel.

“Just because a person is 50 years old it doesn’t mean they know how to operate a boat,” he said during a March 17 phone interview. “We have 18- or 20-year-olds we have personally trained . . . and we know they’re better than most people out there.  . . . You don’t know their abilities until you’ve actually been there on that boat and seen them grab the wheel, take the throttle, use the channel markers . . . that’s what counts.”

Nauti Times Boat Rentals owner Jeff Hughes also emphasized the importance of a boater’s experience over their age. During a March 18 phone interview he said his customers must be 21 years old to captain a boat but he added he does not rent to anyone with less than five years’ boating experience.

During a March 17 phone interview, Wilson said the town hasn’t set a specific time limit for the three boat rentals to turn in CUP applications but it could, if the businesses don’t appear to be moving forward with the process.

He said if Reliant Marine and Nauti Times Boat Rentals turn in their applications soon, their permits will be considered, along with Carefree Boat Club’s, during the April 7 planning board meeting.

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