Posted on 10/16/2008 6:47:12 AM PDT by UCAL
WESTBROOK — - Harry Ruppenicker has seen the signs of a bad economy in and around his boatyard.
Boaters worried about rising fuel costs aren't joy riding. Sport fishermen are splitting the costs of sharing one boat. Cash-strapped owners are selling their beloved vessels for bargain prices.
Ruppenicker can also feel the financial strain. Increased costs of running his boatyard and a spike in health care prices kept Ruppenicker from replacing an employee who recently left to go to a boat-building school in Rhode Island.
"The marine industry is hurting, just like every other industry right now," said Ruppenicker, who at 70 is lean and fit. "But what's really going to hurt at a time like this is are all of these new regulations that are coming down the pike."
Ruppenicker has owned Harry's Marine Repair for 43 years and is considered a leader in the effort to make Connecticut marinas cleaner. His boatyard is the first full-service marina in the state designated a "Clean Marina" under a voluntary program.
But even so, new environmental regulations, already tacked on to a pretty lengthy list Ruppenicker strives to meet each year, could help sink the boating industry for middle-income boaters in Connecticut, he said.
Although the yachts of the wealthy will stay on the water, those with more modest crafts — the majority of Ruppenicker's clients — will have to find another and likely more expensive place to dock their boat if mom-and-pop marinas lose their financial struggle.
"[The government] keeps putting more things onto us, regulations to the point where they're going to kill this industry," Ruppenicker said.
Ruppenicker said he's planning to vote in November for Republican John McCain for president, in part because he believes McCain is "someone with experience, someone who has been at war, in the military and knows the consequences of going to war."
And McCain seems to want to help small businesses by "not putting more regulation on us," Ruppenicker said.
Until the election, Ruppenicker said he will try to keep boating affordable for his customers, some of whom have volunteered recently at the marina, doing such jobs as hauling and tying up masts.
"They can see that I am trying to hold prices down and yet keep the quality of our place up," Ruppenicker said. "We do not want to go down on that."
Killing the industry IS the goal. Born out of the "environmental movement", which, like the civil rights movements, has been taken over by marxists, they want more regulation and more control. In Florida, boat ramps on the ocean are disappearing, regulations are more restrictive (except for foreign commercial fishing) and fees are complex and expensive.
American commercial fisherman are getting squeezed, but the recreational guys are being forced to the shore.
Oh, and a lot of this occured during the Bush admin.
There is something new every time you turn around. Marina are no longer allowed to wash boats because fresh water is a pollutant.
They are now asking for catalytic converters to be installed on all marine engines.
You’re correct but a lot of it comes from the states. Also, you have a lot of lifers in the various regulatory agencies that keep coming up with these regulations. Business will continue to pay for an Obama presidency long after he is gone.
Obama sucks,but McCain is right there with him.McCain and Lieberman led the charge to regulate emissions from business' by making them buy emission permits.Carbon credits ring a bell?We give Gore hell for saying it,but McCain gets a pass I guess.
This is going to push people to the ‘Unintended Consequences’ level of response.
When there’s nothing left to lose...
The difference between the McCain and BO is that one will bring in sharia law and the other won’t.
I was talking to an individual in an airport a couple of months ago, who said he worked for the EPA. He actually admitted that they keep coming up with new rules as a method of job protection.
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