Welcome to the Mancester by the Sea Police Department Harbor Divsion.
Current Operations
Although the Harbor Division is comprised of some selected full time police personnel, all police personnel are subjected to familiarization sessions and training efforts enabling us to deploy any police personnel during an emergency.
The boat yards, marina facilities, and yacht and boating clubs have been good neighbors cooperating and assisting our Harbor Division efforts.
Our relationship with area harbormasters, the Environmental Police and the U.S. Coast Guard (Station Gloucester) is unparalleled. A close working relationship, fostered by several years of cooperation and assistance, results in our ability today to muster an unprecedented response to nearly any water emergency or situation.
We maintain liaisons with the Massachusetts State Police Dive and Underwater Recovery Unit as well as the Beverly Fire Department Dive Team. At least twice seasonally we host a Diving & Recovery exercise with these units. This effort
allows us to familiarize ourselves with the requirements of these dive teams during an emergency while affording the team’s knowledge of our procedures, what we can offer and the terrain of our coast.
In addition to compliance and enforcement patrols, and search and rescue efforts, our Harbor Division enforces dock regulations, and maintains the five (5) ramps and twenty-nine floats that make up the Town’s public docks.
Our patrol boats are placed in service annually between April 1st and 15th, and taken out of service about the end November, depending on existing weather conditions. During those months our vessels are at “standdown” (out-of-service), while few if any private boats are still in the water. Often during the winter months much of the harbor experiences some degree of icing conditions making navigation nearly impossible. In the event a boating emergency occurs during this time the U. S. Coast Guard at Station Gloucester maintains a winter response. Nearly all the North Shore harbormasters’ units practice a winter standown.
During a typical season our patrols include, but are not limited to, weekend day and night patrols, random weekday and weeknight patrols, all emergency responses either directly or through another agency, special patrols for events (fireworks, boat races, regattas, etc.,) training situations, and reactive patrols for when vandalism, boat breaks, etc., occur.
We hold office hours most Thursday evenings throughout the year except during November, December and January. During these Office Hours (6-8 P.M.) Associate Harbormaster Peter Mains and Administrative Assistant Gloria L. Talbot are present to meet with the public and address any concerns boaters, or others, may have. During these hours people inquire as to their location on the waiting list, review Harbor policy and regulations, file applications, provide proof of ownership, dispute violation notices, discuss problems with existing moorings, and review other issues. Although Thursday evenings are the only established time the office is open, staff members are in and out throughout the week checking telephone messages and returning calls promptly. Close to one hundred (100) telephone calls are received weekly.
Beginning with the 2000 season we required boaters to submit a copy of their boat registration proving ownership. This request is not made every year as it can be a hardship for boaters as their registration is often kept on the boat under “shrink wrap” when requested. Our office also maintains the authority to request proof of ownership at any time when we question ownership. Boaters readily submit the required documents with many expressing pleasure in our taking steps to ensure compliance.
We also review, seasonally, eligibility of dock permits. We discovered several boaters who were no longer eligible due to moving out of Town or no longer owning property in Town and we requested they relinquish their spot.
Revenue for late fees are turned over to the towns’ general fund annually. Boaters are sending back their forms in a timelier manner each year enabling our office to assign new moorings or temporary spots in a timelier manner. The late fee was imposed in 1995 and seems to be serving its purpose.
Approximately 1,000 permits are issued seasonally, including moorings, tenders, slips and user fee permits.
Magnolia Harbor, which is under the Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea’s jurisdiction, is now at full capacity with a small but separate waiting listing for moorings.
We continue to work with the Treasurer’s Office regarding outstanding boat Excise Bills. No permit is issued to anyone owing boat excise. The outstanding list is smaller than several years ago indicating compliance by boaters.
Seasonally, in coordination with the Animal Control Officer, we added to our permits a statement reminding boaters that dogs taken across public property to public floats must be on a leach with any feces left by the dog removed.
Our Boating Safety Course held each spring is becoming more and more popular with attendance last spring at sixty (60) tripling the number of students from the first course. We also provide Harbor Unit personnel for Boating Safety lectures several times throughout the season, and play a significant role each year in the D.A.R.E. Harbor Day program.
We also participate in the North Shore Regional Water Safety Task Force and the Massachusetts Waterfront Watch Program.
We also conduct training exercises annually with units from the Massachusetts State Police Dive/Recovery Team, Massachusetts State Police Marine Unit, Beverly Fire Department Dive Team, Massachusetts Environmental Police Marine Units and Station Gloucester, U.S.C.G.
We also issue periodic and timely news releases pertaining to boating safety tips and advisory articles.
Each year the Harbor Rules and Regulations and Dock Regulations are reviewed in detail. This year no substantial changes were made but several items were reworded for clarity.
The ordering of mooring stickers is coordinated with the Town Clerk’s officer in order to maintain the same color code for stickers used by her office for Residence Parking and to assure the cheapest price.
We also coordinate efforts with the Assessor’s Office in mailing out, along with our applications, their forms for boat excise. We also supply their office with a list of current mooring holders and boat size changes to aid them in issuing accurate boat excise bills.
We continue to work with the marinas in town to assure an accurate listing of their customers. User fee permits, issued for those boats without moorings but at private slips, are monitored annually.
Waiting List procedures remain the same. Five assignments were made from the waiting list this year and nine were assigned last season. The wait for a mooring is approximately ten (10) years. This is due to the fact that there are fewer boaters relinquishing their moorings and in some cases their spot has been passed to a direct family member, which is allowable under the regulations. We continue to remove names of boaters who neglect to renew their request each calendar year. Approximately sixty (60) names are removed annually for this reason. We do everything within our authority and within reason to ensure all boats within our harbor are legally here and permitted. Likewise we make every attempt to move the list along as rapidly as possible. There are just so many boats that can be accommodated within our harbor, and with more individuals seeking moorings for their boats then there are spots, the problem is obvious. The problem is exacerbated as the list of those seeking moorings increase. Our personnel are constantly in contact with other seashore communities and this problem is inherent in every harbor, without exception. It has been suggested that the waiting list may be eliminated simply by accommodating each boater seeking a mooring. However, it is our belief the Manchester-by-the-Sea harbor is currently at its maximum capacity in terms of moorings and dock space. We must be able to adequately police the harbor and, safely and properly accommodate those moorings issued, while administering the entire process. We simply cannot increase the number of moorings now authorized within our harbor without compromising our ability to provide the service we do now.
It should be noted that funding for the Harbor Division is maintained as a separate and distinct budget from the police department. Although its budget is appropriated each year at the annual Town Meeting, the funds are derived from the harbor fees generated and a portion of the excise taxes assessed. Essentially, the Harbor Division is self-supporting.
Manchester-by-the-Sea Harbor continues to be a very popular harbor due to its protective qualities and the services provided by our Harbor Division. We continue to strive to serve the boaters to the best of our abilities and are always open to new ideas that will assure that we operate in the most efficient manner possible.
Manchester-by-the-Sea can be truly proud of its Harbor Division and the devoted efforts put forth by its staff. We know of no other such unit that exceeds the efforts put forth by these dedicated professionals.