New Wave for Marina : Supervisors Give Houseboat Owners 4 Months to Make Craft Seaworthy

Some look like rusted house trailers stacked along the water. Others are just homemade, flimsy rooms hammered onto the backs of rickety boats.

For years, well-heeled residents in Marina del Rey have complained about such unseaworthy houseboats, saying the growing numbers of “junkers” have turned the posh marina into a virtual haven of cheap housing.

That is about to change.

The County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted a law requiring all boats in the county-owned marina to be made seaworthy within 120 days.

For hundreds of boat owners, that means expensive repairs--buying new engines, installing electrical systems and patching leaks on vessels, some of which have not left their moorings for decades.

Those who live on the boats call the decision unfair, and say they are being pushed out of a marina they have called home for years. The law will affect about 600 boat owners--about 10% of the total in the marina.

“The county wants a pristine harbor for the elitists who live here and the investors,” said Renee Mandel, who has lived on her 25-foot houseboat in Tahiti Marina for 3 1/2 years. Mandel will have to add a motor to her home to meet the new standards. “I’m very angry,” she said.

Companies that own boat slips in the marina predicted that the new law would drive away many boat owners.

“Some people can’t afford to make repairs,” said Jona Goldrich, a partner in Dolphin Marina, which owns 450 slips. “People are going to move to Long Beach, Ventura, other places that don’t have such requirements. It’s going to hurt income for the marina and the county.”

County officials insist that the ordinance was necessary to ensure that the marina--the nation’s largest small-craft recreational harbor--would be used for its original purpose. They noted that a handful of “floating homes”--houseboats designed without motors--are exempt from the law and that such owners can remain indefinitely.

“We’re trying to get back in the business of operating a recreational boating harbor,” said Kenneth Foreman of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors.

However, officials conceded that they wanted to move forward with the new law in light of plans to redevelop the marina. The board also approved plans Tuesday to build high-rise hotels and more than 2,400 apartments in a move designed to generate millions in new revenues for the county.

The county’s action was welcome news for many yacht owners in the marina, who have long been angered by boat slips being occupied by such vessels. “It’s an assault on the senses,” said David P. Baker, an attorney who keeps a 48-foot yacht anchored outside his office. “Marina del Rey is advertised as a world-class destination. When people come here, they are surprised to see the place is full of house trailers.”

Even some longtime houseboat owners agreed that the arrival of so many derelict vessels in recent years has created problems.

“There’s so much garbage in here,” said 10-year marina resident Harold Tarlov, pointing to ramshackle boats just yards from his own. “This is the most exquisite place in the world to live. I don’t like the few older boats that are falling apart.”

As news of the law drifted through the anchorages, one owner who asked not to be identified said she was going to buy an engine and repair a leak in the back of her 1939 fishing boat, which she converted into a home. She estimated that she will spend about $1,000.

“It’s a pain in the rear end,” she said.