PORT ANGELES — San Francisco Bay is more than 800 miles away, but that should not deter wealthy boaters from visiting the North Olympic Peninsula during the America’s Cup World Series next year, a business audience was told Monday.
The regatta features preliminary races today and in October and July, and will hold race finals in September 2013, the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon audience was told.
Peter Schrappen, director of government affairs for the Northwest Marine Trade Association, said Port Angeles is in “an ideal situation” to capture the market for the kind of mega-yacht owners who will attend the races and whose vessels, he quipped, are like ATM machines.
“How do we get these ATM machines into our area?” Schrappen said. “Port Angeles is in an ideal situation to capture a great share of the market.”
As the first city with extensive amenities that boaters reach when they enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles is “the first exit off the freeway,” he said.
The America’s Cup “is something that will not only directly affect the marine trade side but will have a wider impact in Puget Sound,” Doug Sandau, Port of Port Angeles airport and marinas manager, told the audience.
Companies such as Platypus Marine Inc., Washington Marine and Strait Marine can do repairs on mega-yachts whose owners typically have their boats piloted for long distances, then meet up with their yachts by flying corporate or personal jets to where the vessels are located, Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb said in a later interview.
“If you can attract them in there, they are looking for cruise destinations,” he said.
Schrappen said Clallam County has almost 4,000 registered boats of the approximately 260,000 registered statewide.
But Washington state has some of the least friendly tax policies, he said, unlike Florida, which has less restrictive sales tax laws.
Schrappen, whose trade association has 700 members, said boating-related retail expenditures were $32.3 billion in the U.S. in 2011, up from the previous two years but off the $39.5 million spent in 2006, an 11-year high.
In Washington state, boating is a $4 billion industry that has generated 28,000 marine-related jobs with an average annual salary of $56,000, according to an April 2011 report by Hebert Research Inc. of Bellevue.
The average business size is 11.5 employees, 40 percent of whom are highly trained.
“The bigger the boat, the more money they spend,” Schrappen said.
Visiting boats spent $17 million in 2010 in Washington state, he said.
The state made $16 million in revenue on recreational boaters when fees are subtracted from services provided by the state, Schrappen said.
Annual expenses for a $55 million yacht include $1.4 million in crew salaries, $1 million for maintenance and repair and $110,000 in food and beverages, he said.
“Can our area handle these bigger boats? The short answer is yes,” Schrappen said.
Charlie Crane, sales and marketing director for Platypus Marine, noted Port Angeles has a deepwater harbor.
“Quite a few big yachts come in here already,” he said, adding that as the America’s Cup progresses, “we really think there will be a lot of mega-yachts coming to town.”
One such vessel “passed right by us to Vancouver to get fuel,” Crane said. “That happens all the time.
“Somehow, we’ve got to get them to stop here in Port Angeles to get food and supplies.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@
peninsuladailynews.com.
