Like many yacht captains, Capt. Keith Moore of the 190-foot M/Y Lady Sheridan lives in Ft. Lauderdale. Whenever he can, he docks the yacht here. Last month, he told they city’s marine advisory board why.
“I live locally,” he said. “I prefer to spend my money here, and to have my crew here.”
A peek at what the yacht spends here: $1,400 a night for dockage (not including electricity); $140,000-$160,000 for fuel, twice over the winter; $55,000 in catering for a weekend event onboard for more than 100 guests, more than the chef can handle solo; $1,700 a month for a rental car, times three (two Toyota Corollas and a minivan); provisions for his crew of 15, three meals a day, every day, not to mention all the other things they need to live — from shampoo to toilet paper.
His crew are, as he says, paid very well, and with no living expenses they tend to shop and frequent nice restaurants, hotels, and clubs.
“Yachties spend money foolishly,” he said simply. “They eat out, they buy nice clothes, fancy purses.”
He can’t haul out in Ft. Lauderdale but prefers support a Ft. Lauderdale company, so he sails to Bradford Marine’s facility in Freeport and where he’ll spend $40,000 for a bottom job. At the end of March, he’ll head there again to drop his stabilizers. Ft. Lauderdale’s Quantum Marine will fly over to do the work.
Between September and early February, the yacht has spent more than $300,000 on shipyard work, most if not all to Ft. Lauderdale companies. And all the yacht’s supplies come from Ft. Lauderdale-based chandleries.
All told, he’ll spend more than a million dollars in the six months Lady Sheridan is here.
Why does he do it? We certainly don’t make it easy for him.
The slip he docks at is so badly silted in that he needs a tow boat to pull him off. Power is so inadequate that the yacht runs its generators when it’s here.
And still, he comes.
He’s been in yachting since 1986, when Ft. Lauderdale was one of the few places to find everything you needed. The yachts came here for the craftsmen and labor who knew how to take care of yachts.
And they still do.
What’s been lagging is a city with the vision to keep up, and with officials who understand the value of this industry here.
“Ft. Lauderdale wants to proclaim ourselves the yachting capital of the world but we’re falling way behind,” Moore told the members of the marine advisory board. “I drive a 190-footer, and I’m small when I go to the Med. I tie up in the Med and I only see the sun at noon because of the huge yachts on either side of me.”.. (http://www.the-triton.com, 12 March 2013)