The British Columbia Nautical Residents Association, with concern over the safety of boaters, contacted BC Parks regarding the mooring buoys installed in the marine parks and received the following reply.
“In response to your questions, our regional staff have provided the following answers
Buoys are inspected as per engineers recommendations annually.
-Maintenance is contracted out as it is done in other provincial parks such as Montague Harbour
-The buoys have been designed by our engineers to hold two classes of boats. Those under 30 feet in length and those under 40 feet in length. Maximum length is posted on the buoys.
-A wind warning not to anchor to the buoys if the wind is over 30 knots is also posted on the buoys.
-The buoys have been designed to industry standards by an engineer utilizing Nominal Design Standards.
-Larger vessels may anchor outside of the mooring buoys area and in portions of the Nanaimo Harbour as approved by the Nanaimo Harbour Commission, as they have done in the past.
-Mooring buoys are supported by many boaters.
-The fees charged is the provincial standard as found in Montague Harbour and other Provincial Parks.
-Our Park Facility Operator carries insurance.
On a final note, the Master of any vessel is responsible to decide if any anchorage is safe for his size of vessel or not.
I trust this information is helpful.
Regards
BC Parks”
As there is no indication in the reply as to who in BC Parks is providing the response we will be following up with a hope that we can get in contact with the person in charge of the buoys.
I juist heard that Nanaimo has sold the downtown boat basin to the Washington Marine Group, and is kicking all the fishboats out, to make way for Mega Yachts. That is the same Washington Marine Group who own the downtown docks in Sidney BC. When someone anchored out there, and asked if they could leave their dinghy there for an hour or two, they were told
“Sure, for $5 an hour.”
Thrifty’s downtown Nanaimo store has made several million dollars a year from boaters passing thru, for many years.
I guess they can kiss that goodby.
Cruisers should know that, if they plan to visit Nanaimo, they wont be allowed ashore, without coughing up a large amount of cash for the priveledge.