Greetings. We hope this newsletter finds you and your family safe and healthy and finding ways to enjoy these fantastic fall days in our harbor. We have a lot to cover in this newsletter, so let’s get right at it…
In this Newsletter
We have the latest news on several topics for you today: As you surely all know by now, the new boater parking control gates will be lowered on November 2 (next Monday!). Boat slip tenants will require the new parking tags in order to access our boater parking lots. The latest details and updates on the parking management plan below.
Next, in a recent newsletter, marina management announced that all dinghies and other personal watercraft must be removed from the water in and around our slips by October 31. No exceptions. What we’ve learned and our thoughts on this follow.
The holiday boat parade is on! A few details below.
Finally, we are excited to introduce you to two new directors elected to our DPBA board.
Parking Management Plan Update
This coming Monday morning the gates to our boater parks lots will be lowered. We have covered this topic extensively in previous newsletters and will focus today on the parking app and issuing guest passes. (If you haven’t read our previous newsletters, you can find them here, here, and here.)
According to the plan as it’s been published and previously communicated to us, only tenant vehicles with affixed transponder tags, tenant guests with passes, and limited paid shared users (mostly authorized vendors and employees and guests of building tenants that reside within the parking lots – brokers, yacht clubs, etc.) will be permitted entry. Marina management promises us that they remain committed to never charging boater tenants to park. We are also assured that non-boater paid shared use would be closely monitored and controlled to ensure available boater parking. If you are a marina slip tenant and haven’t received your transponder tag, do it right away by visiting the marina office.
In other news, in their October 14 newsletter, The Marina at Dana Point announced the implementation of their new tenant parking app and instructions for issuing passes to our guests. And by the way, they are not the same thing. We’ve spent some time playing with this new process and offer our initial feedback here.
The FlashParking app can be downloaded for Android and iPhone. This app allows authorized slip tenants to display a barcode to enter the parking gates if they happen to be driving a vehicle other than those registered with the marina office. The app is super easy to use; after downloading the app and entering your credentials the first time, you simply open the app and click “Enter Garage” to display a barcode to open the gate. And that’s all it does. The FlashParking app is NOT used to issue passes to our guests. That’s a separate system…
To issue our guests a pass, marina management has provided a link to the ParkMobile website. On your first visit you will enter your marina credentials and set up your account. Once you have an account, you will be guided through a process to select the entry and exit dates/times for your guest, up to 72 hours per pass. Then, after entering your marina account number (more on that in a moment), you order the pass by adding it to your cart, much like making a purchase from Amazon. You will then continue to checkout, validate the pass information, and enter your billing information to complete the order, which requires a 50-cent transaction fee but no other cost. Once your purchase is confirmed, you will be provided with a link to a PDF file of the parking pass. You can either forward this link to your guest, or download the PDF file, attach it to a text or email, and send it to your guest. Your guest will then either print the pass or display it on their phones to enter the gate.
The guest pass is issued in the name of the slip tenant; the system does not collect guest data or issue the pass directly to your guest. You will send it to them yourself. Also, the guest pass says “Access Code Required” on it. We are assured by marina management that no access code is needed by the guest to enter the gate; they simply need to display the pass at the parking gate.
When ordering a guest pass, you are required to enter your marina account number as it is displayed on your monthly invoice. If your account number starts with a ‘0’, such as 01234, do not enter the ‘0’. It won’t accept it. Simply enter 1234. However, if your account number starts with two or more ‘0s’, then enter the last four digits of your account number; for example, 00012 would be 0012. We recommend getting a head start on issuing your first guest pass to practice.
As the gates remain up as we prepare this newsletter, we could not carry this process through to actually opening the gates. We plan to test the system on Monday and will share any additional helpful observations.
We are keenly interested in our boaters’ observations and experience with the new parking management system, including the FlashParking and ParkMobile apps. Please email us your feedback HERE .
All Dinghies Must Be Removed from the Water by October 31
In their October 20 newsletter, The Marina at Dana Point announced that all dinghies and other personal watercraft must be removed from the water in and around our boat slips by this Saturday, October 31. No exceptions.
DPBA supports enforcing rules that prevent dinghies from obstructing the fairways or impeding adjacent vessels from maneuvering in and out of their slips. However, we believe that dinghies that are tucked safely within the leased slip space (plus the 10% overhang allowance) should continue to be allowed. In our observation, there are many dinghies tied to the sterns of vessels in our harbor that cannot be hauled onto their boats or otherwise conveniently stowed. Fully enforcing this rule will require these dinghies to be removed from the harbor.
To be honest, our slip license agreements have never allowed storage of dinghies behind our boats. However, except when a dinghy presents a hazard to navigation, this rule has never been enforced and keeping dinghies safely behind our boats has always been at least implicitly allowed in our harbor. Many of our boaters have purchased their dinghies based on this understanding, or have selected their slip sizes in order to safely accommodate their dinghies. The Marina at Dana Point has the discretion to amend the SLA or selectively enforce the rules in order to make this accommodation, and DPBA has urged them to do so. At the time of this newsletter’s publication they have not yet flexed on this matter.
Cruising the harbor in our dinghies on a warm afternoon and visiting our friends is one of the joys embedded in the culture of Dana Point Harbor. We fear this new enforcement will take this pleasure away from many of our boaters. We remain hopeful for a compromise from marina management. If this issue affects you, please share your thoughts with us HERE.
Holiday Boat Parade
After such a surreal and challenging 2020, we are thrilled to conclude it with the joys of the annual holiday boat parade. We are grateful that marina management has agreed to carry on despite the added challenges of the Covid era. The theme for this year’s parade is Fiesta Holiday. The dates are Friday and Saturday nights, December 4 & 5, 11 & 12.
In addition to the awards offered by the parade organizers, DPBA will be awarding our annual Most Spirit award to the crew best exhibiting the fun of being a Dana Point boater. This award is not about your decorations – it’s about how much fun your crew is having.
We urge all Dana Point boaters who are able to do so to participate. Registration is now open HERE.
Introducing Our New DPBA Directors
At our October 20 DPBA board meeting, two new directors were elected to our team: Victoria Winters and Jeff Brown. Both previously served as advisors and proved their value in representing and advocating for our Dana Point boating community. With Victoria and Jeff on our team, we continue to expand our outreach to our boaters and representation of their interests in matters affecting our community. Please join us in welcoming Victoria and Jeff to our team. Their bios follow:
