YARMOUTH — Motorists whizzing across the Interstate 295 bridge over the Royal River at this time of year are accustomed to glancing at a harbinger of summer on the Maine coast – the daily progression of recreational boats being moored in the anchorage and docked at the three marinas lining the tidal shores.

But in this pandemic spring, the scene is strikingly different.

Few more than a handful of vessels were dockside early this week, an indicator of how the state’s 40 or so major marinas have been forced to back off the throttle as they try to navigate uncharted waters.

They all want to know: When can we open for the season, and under what guidelines?

And they can’t really wait for a definitive answer.

Maine’s coastal marinas need to ramp up quickly in April, propelled by a rising tide of demand for bottom painting, system checking and vessel launching. Facing a short season that peaks on Independence Day and starts a slow ebb as school begins, marina managers know that every boat owner wants to be in the water yesterday. So even in this unprecedented spring, the frantic shuffle of moving ready boats out of the yard to make way for parking, and for other boats to come out of storage, is well underway.

It’s just all happening against a backdrop of uncertainty.

“My biggest fear,” said Steve Arnold, owner of Yarmouth Boat Yard, “is having everything shut down for an extended period of time, into July or August. I don’t see that happening, but I’m taking it one day at a time.”

Arnold was encouraged by news last weekend that the governors in the epicenter of the pandemic – New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – had jointly announced that marinas and boatyards in their states could reopen for personal use. Charter operations and rental fleets will remain shut down, for the time being.

That gave Arnold, who also owns Moose Landing Marina on Brandy Pond in Naples and three Freedom Boat Club locations, some hope. It makes it more likely that Maine also will be able to relax some restrictions before the boating season begins in earnest.

Because for now, Yarmouth Boat Yard is largely off limits to boaters, primarily to keep the public at a safe distance from workers.

Marinas and boatyards are an essential part of Maine’s recreational boating industry, which generates $2.9 billion a year in spending that includes supplies, sales and services. Boating is an economic engine that supports 593 businesses and more than 14,000 jobs, according to the Maine Marine Trades Association.

But this spring, marinas and boaters are trying to make out the shape of pandemic-inspired rules that in certain cases seem to be shrouded in fog. Read more:

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/04/24/docks-quiet-for-now-marinas-make-plans-to-stay-afloat/#