SHAB, harbormaster work on large vessel anchoring bylaw
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Aball and chain plaguing Nantucket Harbor is the anchoring of massive yachts in the vicinity of First Point and further east into the upper harbor.

When the Nantucket Boat Basin is full, and all of Nantucket Moorings rental moorings are occupied, these super-sized vessels have little recourse but to anchor away from the main mooring field and up into the harbor.

"When we're full, we say, 'Try Nantucket Moorings,' and when they're full, I tell them to call the harbormaster," said Nantucket Boat Basin Manager George Bassett. "Fortunately, we can fit eight or nine of them on the outside of Straight Wharf. It's a blessing for us and a blessing for the habitat. Every boat we have in here is one less boat anchored up harbor."

Although it is approximately five miles long, Nantucket Harbor is shallow, leaving little anchorage room for the estimated 50 to 75 larger vessels that Bassett said range in size from 100 to 170 feet visiting the island each summer. The issue is that their anchors are attached by heavy chain, which drags over the harbor bottom, scraping away eelgrass beds, the primary habitat for bay scallops.

The Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board (SHAB), fully aware of the damage mega-yacht and medium-size cruise ship anchoring chains do to eelgrass beds, decided at its Sept. 18 meeting to help Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto write a Town Meeting article to amend the town's mooring bylaw by setting length, size and anchor weight limits for yachts needing to anchor east of First Point.

"There's several Nantucket people that go up there and picnic or whatever, so it's going to have to be based on some kind of size, length, some kind of criteria to allow or disallow large vessels to anchor," said Fronzuto. "We need to revamp our whole anchoring scheme anyway, and this would be a good way to do it."

SHAB and Fronzuto's efforts are already outlined in the Harbor Operations, Safety, Navigation and Moorings section of Appendix 1 of the 2007 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan.

Objective II, Recommendation 8, states: "There should be no anchoring of vessels east of First Point. All large, commercial passenger vessels should anchor between the anchorage and First Point." Objective II, Recommendation 8, says that: "Cruise lines and other large, commercial passenger vessels that frequently visit Nantucket should be required to install, maintain and utilize their own ground tackle. The location of, and necessity for these moorings, should be determined by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources."

What SHAB will help Fronzuto do, he said, is define how they want to place limits on boat sizes and anchoring tackle in this part of the harbor. SHAB member Matt Herr suggested not allowing more than a 25-pound anchor for boats anchoring beyond a line between First and Pimney's Point, and no overnight anchoring in the upper harbor.

Although there is no specific date for discussion of the anchoring article idea, SHAB will likely discuss at future meetings how to refine the article's language. SHAB meets every first and third Tuesday of the month at 4:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Town Annex building at

37 Washington St. I