Marina Live-Aboards Flee High Housing Costs

Prompted by a recent increase in slip vacancies, more people are choosing to live on boats in Marina del Rey to escape the high cost of housing, according to marina operators.

The number of owners living on their boats rose 10% in 1986 in Marina del Rey, which is made up of 19 marinas leased from the county, despite a sharp increase in slip fees caused by county deregulation last year.

The charge for living aboard a boat runs as high as 55% of the slip fee, which is based on the size of the slip or length of the boat. The county gets 7 1/2% of the surcharge.

According to the records of the 19 marinas, there are more than 300 people legally living on board their boats. But, according to Jerry Rowley, president-elect of the Pioneer Skippers Boat Owners Assn., there may be twice that many illegal live-aboards. There are 5,265 boat slips in Marina del Rey, according to county reports.

“It’s economics,” Tahiti Marina dock master Chase Ramsgate said. “Where else can you find two bedrooms, two baths, a living room and a sun deck for $1,200 a month?” Marina apartments average $1,600 a month, he said.

Beverly Hills attorney Elie J. Gindi moved to his 51-foot power yacht last July. The boat, which cost about $250,000, features three staterooms, three baths and amenities that include a kayak and diving gear. “It has everything . . . an E-ticket ride,” Gindi said.

A house in Beverly Hills would cost twice as much as his boat, said Gindi, a 37-year-old bachelor.

Margaret Conway, Villa del Mar assistant dock master, said the need to live on a boat is usually economic, especially for owners of small boats.

Corrine Kennon, 53, lives with her husband, Ken, on their 26-foot sailboat in Villa del Mar Marina. Their boat is paid for, she said, and it costs them $400 a month in fees to live on it. The couple lived ashore for a year, Kennon said, “but we couldn’t afford to live the way we wanted to live.”

Kennon, an administrative assistant for a Los Angeles candy manufacturer, and her 63-year-old husband, a cosmetology instructor, earn a combined salary of $600 a week.

“We had hoped to buy a larger boat,” she said, but her husband’s impending retirement will probably preclude that move.

Despite the vessel’s close quarters--the couple share a living space that measures about 8 by 11 feet--Corinne Kennon said “life is peaceful.”

At Mariner’s Bay Marina and Bar Harbor Marina in Marina del Rey, dock masters said there has been a noticeable increase in requests for live-aboard slips over the past few months. Mariner’s Bay allows eight live-aboard owners in its 408 slips, but owners at Bar Harbor are not allowed to live aboard their boats.

“There has been a distinct shift in the mix of live-aboards and recreational boat owners over the last four or five months,” said Gerald Winston, Marina boat owner.