The job of harbormaster has been transformed in many towns from very part-time to very full-time.
“I do a little bit of everything,” said Kathy Messier, harbormaster in Belfast. In 11 years on the job, things have gotten busier and busier. “I do slip rentals, mooring rentals, emergency work, mooring permits, cruise ships,” she said. She keeps track of both pleasure and commercial vessels in Belfast. The former are replacing the fishing boats as the fisheries decline. Still, there are 25 lobstermen fishing out of Belfast, a port that is also home to tugs and an “influx of bigger pleasure boats.”
Messier estimates her duties require 50-60 hours weekly, during the peak summer season, and more than 40 hours in the off season. A more recent responsibility has been coordinating what she calls mini cruise ships – about 180 feet long – that regularly discharge 50 tourists in Belfast during the summer. Another task is supervising a renovated boathouse, given to Belfast by MBNA, the credit card giant that is the city’s major employer. Tessier patrols the harbor with a 22-foot Pacific aluminum center-console power boat.
She is concerned about the loss of working waterfront, and public access to the sea. “It’s hard to find that balance. I’m a strong believer in a diverse waterfront.” She is trying to build support in Belfast for a harbor management plan. Planning is key to preserving access, she said.
In St. George, David Schmanska became the town’s first full-time harbormaster five years ago, after he worked three years as part-time harbormaster for Islesboro. He is seeing intense development pressure alongshore, he said, and this means less and less access for fishermen. “Sixty-five percent of St. George is owned by non-residents,” he said. On Horse Point in the village of Port Clyde, trophy houses have replaced most of the fishing shacks and docks piled with lobster traps. Schmanska serves on the state Working Waterfront Coalition, which reports 25 miles of the Maine coast is working waterfront; some 3,000 miles of coast is not. In both cases, the shore is mostly in private hands.
Schmanska said in 1990, there were 500 registered moorings in town, most of them in Tenants Harbor. By 2,000, that number had climbed to 1,200, many of those moorings used by non-resident yachtsmen. He said fishermen tend to know their business and abide by the rules. Yachtsmen follow the rules, but sometimes don’t understand that that you can’t moor “a $1 million Hinckley yacht on a 150-pound mushroom (anchor).”
Both Schmanska and Messier say their jobs are made easier by membership in the Maine Harbormasters Association, which is offering a training session at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, April 15-16.
Falmouth harbormaster John Dalton, association president, said there are some 100 harbormasters in the group, plus 100 others associated with harbor management. Dalton and Messier attended the recent Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport, where they hoped to widen understanding of harbormasters’ work. The 19-year-old association, he said, “is trying to increase membership and professionalize it and get some uniformity. We want to be fair and equal. We’re trying to get some recognition from all concerned.”
In Falmouth, Dalton has seen the number of moorings increase from 700 to 1,200 in the 11 years he has been harbormaster, at first a part-time position. About 25 or 30 of the boats in Falmouth belong to commercial fishermen, said Dalton, himself a former lobsterman. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard and is a Falmouth police officer.
The state statute establishing the right of towns and cities to appoint harbormasters was enacted 50 years ago. In less populous places and on islands, managing harbors remains a part-time proposition. But in all cases, the job demands tact and a friendly approach. “Ninety-nine percent of people are good,” said Dalton, and being a good harbormaster involves being good at public relations.
Schmanska agreed, commenting that “People who don’t get along with people need not apply – everybody has to live here.” He likes the fact he meets sailors from all over the world, and he is not tied to a desk, or a suit and tie.
