Newport weighs fee increase for visiting mega-boats

Newport Harbor officials are studying an anchorage fee increase for extra-large visiting vessels. The basis, in a word: Invictus.

Currently, Newport Beach Harbor Management staff charges visiting yachts the annual mooring permit fee pro-rated on a daily basis. Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller said there’s been some question whether that is appropriate, given the administrative work of hosting large boats.

The current fee for a typical annual permit is $35.43 per foot. For a vessel like the 216-foot super-yacht Invictus, which stayed in Newport Harbor off and on for about two controversial months in 2013, that would mean a mooring fee of about $21 a day, according to the calculations of Harbor Commissioner Dave Girling. That could be considered nominal compared with other harbors.

At Wednesday’s Harbor Commission meeting, Girling said commissioners should research what other harbors do and find a consistent, fair price, given city staff preparation time and the amenities Newport Harbor provides.

“I certainly think it’s something more than $21 a day,” he said.

Commissioner Paul Blank noted that Avalon, on Catalina Island, charges visiting vessels $1.25 per foot per night to moor there. That would give Invictus a $270 nightly bill.

Commissioner John Drayton said a yacht like that would be charged hundreds if not thousands of dollars a day to dock in a commercial marina.

“There’s a very finite number of 200-foot vessels that we can fit in our harbor,” Drayton said.

Newport Harbor has an area for large vessels just east of the summer anchorage area in the turning basin west of Lido Isle.

A subcommittee of commissioners will draw up a recommendation for a new extra-large-vessel fee and take it to the commission in September. Miller suggested that deadline so the city Finance Committee can incorporate any new fees into the full city fee schedule review it plans to make in the fall. The timeline would put the proposed fee before the City Council in early 2018.

Miller said the process could move on a parallel path with the formalization of the summer anchorage, currently in its third trial year, as an annual seasonal feature.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD