FALL RIVER – There will be more boats and more activity inside Battleship Cove this summer, the city’s harbormaster said.
And the city will continue to work hard to make Fall River, if not a yachting hot spot, then at least a place on boaters’ map, Bob Smith said.
“We are looking forward to a great season,” Smith said. “We expect to have a lot more boats in the cove.
“The mayor told us he wants more boats and more activity on the water. We are doing everything we can to accommodate that.”
The city is in the boating business. It controls 33 moorings in Battleship Cove and 10 in North Cove, which is just north of the Cove Restaurant.
Smith and the assistant harbormasters are now studying old mooring field maps, to determine if they can fit more moorings in the city mooring field.
“I’d like to get everyone who is on the wait list onto a mooring this summer,” Smith said. “There currently are 15 people who have signed up for a mooring and we placed on the wait list.
“We plan on finding everyone a place, either in Battleship Cove or in North Cove. We’ll do what we can to get the people with moorings who don’t use them to give them up.”
But empty moorings don’t go unused. If there is no boat on a mooring, the harbormaster can rent it for the night to a transient boater. The charge for that is $36.50 a night.
“Last season we had several yacht clubs come into the cove,” Smith said. “We used empty permanent moorings to give them a place to stay.”
The city is doing what it can to make Fall River a more attractive boating destination. The dingy dock will be expanded this year and the harbormaster is working with the Chamber of Commerce and the Battleship Cove Museum to provide visiting boaters with a guide to local attractions.
Columbia Street, the restaurants and bars on the waterfront, the museums, The Narrows and the boardwalk have all been written up glowingly on cruising blogs, Smith said.
“But we are still lacking some amenities transient boaters need, especially showers,” he said. “We are hoping that, when the City Pier comes online, we can provide that.”
In the meantime, Smith and the four other harbormasters make a point of swinging by all the transient boaters to offer a pump out for their sewage holding tank and to take away their trash.
“We hope the transient boating traffic will continue to grow,” he said. “They come in and really stimulate the economy by visiting restaurants and stores.
“If we continue to offer a good product and good service, we’ll do fine. We know we have to work harder than most other communities. We are way up the river.
“We have to offer more.”
Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.