Harbour Authority Cortes Island (HACI) started taking applications for summer moorage spots at 9 AM on April 1st.
Harbour Master Jenny Hartwick explained, “What’s happened over the last few years on Cortes, especially after Covid, is we’ve seen a steady increase in summer visitors and local residents getting out on the water. That puts additional pressure on the available moorage that we have at the docks.”
“The one point that I want to make really clear is we have ample space available for anyone who is looking for moorage at the docks. What we do not necessarily have available is moorage at your first choice dock. We have some areas of higher population density and the docks that are in those areas tend to be the most popular. For safety reasons, we cannot accommodate every single boat that puts in a request for moorage at those docks. If we tried, there would be too many security issues: be it vessels getting damaged or the possibility of people getting hurt and, literally, the facilities themselves wouldn’t be able to support the weight of all of the boats that we have asking to stay there.”
“Again, just making it clear for the community, absolutely we have the space and we will accommodate you. We just need your understanding in working with us to make sure that our docks are both accessible and safe to everybody.”
Cortes Currents: Do you have any docks that are already fully booked for the summer?
Jenny Hartwick: “I’m still working my way through numbers and applications. People give us the dates that they’d like to be there and we really try our best to fit everybody in. We say, ‘okay, this person only wants three weeks, we can partner them with this person.’”
“Typically the Cortes Bay and the Whaletown docks are full. That’s been the pattern for the last number of years. Those two tend to be the most popular, again, simply because of their geographical location.”
“I have mockups of every single dock down to the exact footage. We plot out whose boat and then who we can raft together. We try to get everybody their first choice, but I would suspect this year, like last year and the previous years, that Cortes Bay and Whaletown will be full.”
Cortes Currents: My next question was going to be about waiting times, but you mean there’s just no chance of getting to those two?
Jenny Hartwick: “Most likely but, again, that’s not always true.”
“We encourage everybody to reach out and communicate with us because stuff happens. Your boat breaks down. You go on an extended three week sailing trip. If people communicate that and they let us know, we’re down on the docks every single day. We monitor and we watch.”
“If we notice that something’s going on, we keep a wait list. If we can move somebody into their first choice dock, we’ll do that.”
“One of the important things to remember in this, our Small Craft Harbours docks give priority to commercial and CFB moorage. That is the mandate that we’re given from the federal government, we are to support those users first.”
“The Gorge Dock, for example, is primarily commercial users only. We actually don’t solicit recreational moorages at that dock because we really don’t have room with the number of commercial users that we have.”
“So there’s multiple factors in play, but it’s an ongoing process for us and we keep waiting lists. We’ll get you in if we can.”
Cortes Currents: Are there restrictions when it comes to rafting boats together?
Jenny Hartwick: “Rafting is a requirement at our docks, you look surprised?”
Cortes Currents: Yes, I’m just thinking, okay, I have my boat. I’m the number two in the whole raft to the dock. I have boats ahead of me, boats behind me. That’s a requirement?
Jenny Hartwick: “Rafting is a requirement at the docks on Cortes, and a situation exactly like you’ve explained happens occasionally, for example, we might have boats rafted two deep and someone has to move a boat off of them to get out and suddenly we end up three deep. But we do not encourage, and we will not assign vessels rafted more than too deep.”
“What we try to do is raft people up with a rafting partner and that will be their partner for the entire season. Oftentimes people come to us and they say, ‘Hey, my next door neighbour, or my very good friend has a boat also at the Cortes Bay dock, could I be assigned to them? ‘ Then they already have a clear chain of communication and they will let their friend know, ‘Hey, we’re going out tomorrow, I’m going to move my boat to the outside. Please keep me on the outside.’”
“So it’ll only be one other boat rafted to you and then we do our best to connect those individuals, so there’s some communication between them. It helps. We’re a great community. Boaters are absolutely lovely people 99% of the time, absolutely lovely people. If you have a rafting partner, you’re also helping keep an eye on their boat and making sure everything’s safe.”
“The one cog in the wheel sometimes can be transient boaters that come in and grab whatever available space is at the dock. Suddenly the rafting system is out the window or they may show up and raft three deep, but typically they’re lovely people. They’re here on holiday. All it takes is a knock on their boat, and they’re generally super helpful to help us move boats around or shift forward or backward as needed to accommodate people coming and going.”
“One thing that we don’t do is assign reserved spots at the dock. We have five docks on the island and there’s too many variables at play. So when we look at the available dock space, we look at how many boat feet, for example, have applied to be at the dock. We don’t give people an assigned spot. We say we encourage you wherever possible to raft up to your rafting partner, but there is the understanding that there is always going to be a cog in the wheel that’s going to throw this plan out the window.”
“When we tell people that they have a spot at the Cortes Bay Dock, it means that we have factored in the length of their boat in our moorage calculations. They have a 20 foot boat And we’ve allocated 22 to 24 feet for that boat in our picture, but we can’t tell them where on the dock that spot is going to be because it’s going to be in flux sometimes on a daily basis.
Cortes Currents: How much time in advance should they be notifying you that they want to come to Cortes Island?
Jenny Hartwick: “That’s a twofold question. Are they looking for long-term moorage, or are they just a transient boater that’s coming in?
If they’re looking for long-term moorage, applications started on April 1st. Ideally the more notice you give me, the better. I’m hoping by the end of this weekend I’ll have finished the allocations that we’ve received. I would expect Whaletown and Cortes Bay will be fully booked for the summer. So, for example, if you haven’t told me by April 1st you may not get moorage at Cortes Bay. Can we accommodate you at another dock?”
“When it comes to transient boaters coming in, that’s a harder question because oftentimes , if they’re out sailing, they don’t know where they’re going to be 100% until they get to that place in the evening. They’re on holiday, they’re going all over.”
“So the more notice they can give me the better, but again if you call and request a moorage spot three days before, I don’t know what that dock is going to look like in three days.”
“One thing that we have as a benefit to the boating community around Cortes is fabulous anchorage. So if you’re looking for moorage in Cortes Bay or Mansons, and you’re not factored into our long-term moorage calculations, if we can’t accommodate them at the dock we do encourage them to find suitable anchorage. They’re always welcome to bring a dinghy. And we have dedicated dinghy spots at the dock. So it doesn’t mean that there’s no access to them. It just means that we may not be able to accommodate a 40 or 50 foot sailboat suddenly with one hour notice.”
“Again, I just encourage all of our dock users the earlier you can communicate with the Harbor Authority, the better it is for us and the more effectively we can manage the space that we have at the docks. Remember there are people waiting for their first choice docks. So if we can sneak them in, even if it’s for a couple of weeks, and they get a couple of weeks in the summertime running out of Cortes Bay instead of Manson’s, It’s a win-win for everybody.”
“So please do communicate to the Harbor Authority when you have a known plan. It’ll help everybody in our community.”
Links of Interest:
- Harbour Authority of Cortes Island
- HACI: Recreational Moorage and Winch usage on Cortes Island – Cortes Currents (2024)
- May 2023: Long term moorage in Whaletown and Cortes Bay fully booked for the summer – Cortes Currents (2023)
- Articles about, or mentioning, HACI
All undesignated photos by Roy L Hales
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