PORT TOWNSEND — Glen Paris-Stamm tears up when she recalls how she and her late husband nearly circumnavigated the globe in their English-built trimaran, Bananas.
“When my late husband died, he said, `Try to stay here. It’s a great place’ — and I’ve tried,” the 67-year-old woman said Thursday aboard the vessel at Port Townsend Boat Haven marina.
Paris-Stamm, who is from South Africa, has lived aboard Bananas for 10 years on the linear dock near the marina’s jetty.
Today, she shares the 57-foot-long, 27-foot-wide yellow and white sailboat with her second husband, Bob Stamm, 74.
Bananas is built for adventure, not luxury, she said.
Both she and her husband fear they could be priced out of the marina if port leaders declare their vessel “over-wide” and use a new formula that could raise their monthly moorage costs from $500 to $800, a more than 62 percent increase after taxes and fees.
“If all else fails, I guess I will go back to work,” she said.
She and her husband say they could live with an increase of between $90 and $100.
Wants port to wait
Paris-Stamm said she hopes the port will hold off on any increase until all moorage fees come up for increases in 2007.
Her vessel is one of two that would fit into the port’s over-wide reclassification.
Port Executive Director Larry Crockett said the port neglected over-wide guest moorage when the port commissioners last raised moorage fees by more than 4 percent two years ago.
He said the over-wide classification needs to be reviewed.
An “over-wide” vessel is one that will not fit into a moorage slip.
Port officials have been putting off the over-wide boat issue for nearly three years but now are considering using a formula that calculates rates based on square footage instead of boat length.
“Ultimately, we need to go to a square footage model,” such as is used in such ports as Edmonds and Skagit, said Crockett.
“At the end of the day, that’s the only fair model for all marina tenants.”
In a variation of that model, John Wayne Marina in Sequim charges for the length plus half the width of an over-wide boat.