To the editor:

After a recent trip to Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor, I enthusiastically support the proposed marina! Anyone who doubts the potential economic impact of an enlarged marina should take a trip up there, too.

Full disclosure: I keep a small sailboat in Langley Harbor which serves my needs just fine in its current configuration. I am not, however, a millionaire with money to burn; just someone who, like many others, enjoys a boat instead of golf or motorcycling in my leisure time.

I sailed up to the San Juans for the first time recently. Both Roche Harbor and Friday Harbor marinas were completely packed, so much so that they had to jam visiting boats in by rafting them in every available spot or using a stern-in Mediterranean tie. It was hard to get a word in with the Friday Harbor harbormaster on the VHF radio because of the constant stream of incoming boats requesting space. The shoreside facilities were swamped with visitors; lines out the door of restaurants, bars jammed with revelers.

It is easy to envisage the same in Langley. We have a lovely downtown with great restaurants and shopping an easy walk from the harbor, and would make a great destination for the yacht clubs in the Seattle and Eastside areas looking for a rendezvous, boaters from Everett on a day out and boaters from everywhere looking for a stopover on their way to the San Juans. I know we are currently losing that business every summer weekend — I see boats turning away due to lack of space whenever I take my boat out on a Saturday (and I invariably have to wait to get back in)— and many boaters probably never set out for Langley because they know it has no capacity.

The proposed marina would also allow for tour boats to bring even more visitors; Langley would be a great tour destination from downtown Seattle in terms of both distance and attractions.

There are many other benefits for the community of an improved marina area (click here), but the main issue in many voters’ minds is weighing the local economic return, which benefits all of us, against the out-of-pocket cost less than $3 per month in additional tax on an average South Whidbey home.

Take a trip up to the San Juans and I am sure you will be convinced that the economic benefit far outweighs the cost!

Chris Jerome

Langley