A powerboat rental company operating alongside Wrightsville Stand Up Paddleboarding can now expand after the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen voted Nov. 12 to change owner Martin Foerster’s permit from allowing three boat rentals to nine.
Board members voted for the permit change despite environmental and safety concerns raised by residents. The aldermen said giving Foerster control of all nine slips could actually reduce boat traffic at the dock, which they said was often overcrowded during the summer months.
The town already approved powerboat rentals at the 96 W. Salisbury St. location, but for a different business, Carefree Boat Club. When that company went out of business, Foerster started leasing a few of the slips for his rental business, SeaGate Marine, Inc., other boat owners used the remaining slips.
But the conditional use permit granted to Carefree Boat Club allows for only three boat rentals and Foerster hopes to grow his business beyond that.
A resident of nearby Bahama Drive, Mark Laboccetta, said he and his neighbors were worried that increasing the number of inexperienced boaters in the area would cause safety and environmental issues.
He said, based on his experience with several boat rental businesses in other cities, boat renters are less careful with the vessels because they don’t own them. He was aware of one renter in Charleston who sunk a boat after tying it to the dock too tightly.
“They’re beginners, most of them anyway,” he said, adding that even if they aren’t, they could still cause damage to the vessel or the ecosystem because they’re less familiar with the local waterways.
“At low tide, going through Lees Cut, it’s very easy to run aground,” he said. “So we’re talking about the possibility of nine boat renters … running over sand bars, oyster beds and sea grass because they just don’t know.”
He was also concerned about safety because during the summer that part of Banks Channel is often busy with swimmers, kayakers and paddleboarders.
In response, Foerster explained the measures his company takes to ensure boaters are not inexperienced. They are first screened on the phone, he said, and then they go through a “very regimented” orientation both on the dock and in the water with an instructor.
“Possibly one-third to one-half of our boater club members have been boat owners previously and they’ve boated extensively,” he said. “They realize this is the way to go because it costs so much to maintain [a boat].”
Parking is also an issue at 96 W. Salisbury St., W. Henderson Street resident Neal Briggi pointed out, because in addition to the crafts rented at the docks by both SeaGate Marine and Wrightsville SUP, “the entire sand bank there is full of things that float.”
“The entire space has very quickly — because of the success of those businesses — outgrown the original intention for those nine parking spaces,” he said.
Board members heard the concerns raised but said independent boat owners overcrowded the dock this past summer, so giving one person all the slips would create an easier situation to regulate.
“Having one person in charge would make the ability to control it and police it and oversee it a more simply matter,” Mayor Pro-Tem Darryl Mills said.
But while this decision could alleviate the overcrowding, Mayor Bill Blair added, the situation this summer was in violation of property owner Reggie Barnes’ conditional use permit and the town needs to do a better job enforcing those violations.
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