Providing safe mooring for the growing number of floating toys is almost a by-product of Lebanese marinas. More important, even for the showpiece Beirut marina, is the added value they give to the surrounding area. In Dbayeh, the Joseph Khoury Marina cost $70 million to build and provides a much smaller return on the investment than stashing the money in a bank, even at today’s low interest rates. The 700 berths are less than one third occupied. Downtown, the numbers look better – Beirut marina is 60 percent taken up – but the project is seen less as a commercial venture in its own right than as a mega magnet for the rich and the not-so-rich to spend their money in the immediate surrounding areas.

Just as the establishment of the Jbeil campus of the Lebanese American University had the subsidiary purpose of seeking to increase the attractiveness and value of the adjacent hilltop land, so in their own slightly different ways marina operators are trying to follow the same principle.

The Khoury marina is the sexy starlet to attract interest and massive investment in the construction of what virtually amounts to a mini city, immediately to the east and south of the site. Plans include the almost inevitable five-star hotel, three major shopping malls, restaurants and a mass of apartment and bungalow complexes that can be marketed as “overlooking the marina”.

If strolling along the seafront and eating in the waterside restaurants of Cannes or Nice brings with it the bonus of viewing with envy the sleek millions of dollars worth of floating luxury, so Lebanon has adopted the principle with enthusiasm.

Added value

Even the smaller marinas are seen as being commercially more important for enticing customers to the adjoining beach resorts than for generating significant income of their own. If all 35 berths are occupied for the season, the slots at the marina at the Riviera Hotel on the Corniche bring in gross revenue of $75,000 a year. Since the entire coastline is owned by the state, nearly half of this goes straight to the government for leasing the requisites amount of seafront. When another $20,000-$25,000 is deducted for staff and maintenance costs, the bottom line comes in only marginally above break even.

Yet it is viewed as contributing as much to filling the restaurants, bars, pool and sunbathing area as that other prized Riviera asset, its reputation for having more examples of bikini-clad beauty per square meter than most other places in the country.

First down the slipway

Among the first people to appreciate the sex appeal of boats were the operators of Holiday Beach nearly 20 years ago. As part of its progression and conversion from a hotel to a chalet and beach resort complex, the owners, Dog River Holiday and Tourist Center, decided to plow back part of the proceeds from selling chalets and apartments to constructing the marina. It cost LL15 million but that was in the days when the value of all those zeros added up to around $5 million. Some 75% of its capacity of 150 boats is taken up with mainly Lebanese-owned and domestically registered craft. Even so, it attracts some foreign vessels and last month (for lack of space) diverted to Aquamarina a few miles higher up the coast at Tabarja a dozen visiting sailboats that had crossed to the Eastern Mediterranean from Canada, the US, England and Belgium.

Part of the deal for boat owners is the option for an extra $350 a year of five passes into the resort. Although Holiday Beach marina charges are much lower than those further south, this sum is still a relatively insignificant item on the total bill. A ten-meter boat costs around $2,500 a year, just over half what it would cost in Joseph Khoury, Beirut or the Riviera. The rule of thumb is that moorings north of the Nahr El Kalb tunnel are much cheaper than those nearer to the capital.

Follow my leader

A decade later the Riviera followed suit and spent the same amount as Holiday Beach. Cost increases over the years ensured that the Riviera received only 25 percent as much marina for their $5 million. Its more easily accessible location – for Beirutis anyway – allows it to charge $400 a meter, almost the same rates as the much larger Beirut and Joseph Khoury marinas.

In common with most other operators, the Riviera offers free daytime mooring for visitors. In any case, whatever few dollars might be charged pale into insignificance compared with the potential spending power of a boatload of people intent on eating, drinking and enjoying themselves in the resort.

The marina, like the hotel, is owned by developer George Zakhem and his brothers and Nizar Alouf. Although there is potential for some expansion, there are no plans to do so. A bigger space may slightly increase the number of boats but the investment wouldn’t add anything extra to the current glamour quotient.

Aquamarina, another product of the post-war era, cheerfully admits that it doesn’t make a penny out of parking boats. The two-phase chalet and cabina complex was a product of wartime and was built as shells rained down in 1978 and 1984. Construction of the marina brought its own problems too, especially as the choice of following the line of a natural sheltered site incorporated sea depths of up to 15 meters, several times the figure actually needed. Dealing with such deep water increased the costs of developing the adjacent jetties. And in the realm of ‘it’s a small world’ whatever the depth, Aquamarina was built by Joseph Khoury, the contractor who owns the marina that bears his name in Dbayeh.

In at the launch

Seeing the established examples and success as a marketing tool for their companion resorts, the Mővenpick Hotel and Resort in Raouche had the complex designed to include a marina from the outset. When it opened in July 2002, it did, however, reintroduce a different concept of how it gets an income from the moorings. They are sold on 99-year leases rather than being made subject to yearly rental charges. The smallest, 2.5 meters wide by nine meters costs $32,000. The largest is five meters by 20 meters with a price tag of $105,000. In addition, maintenance charges starting at $800 a year for smaller boats cover electricity and water charges, as well as security and assistance from the marina staff in mooring. Before that, Aquamarina had been marketing “berths for life” and succeeded in ensuring that around 60 percent of the marina occupants also have either a chalet or a cabina in the complex.

Up to last month, 85 of Movenpick’s 140 berths have been sold, with the vast majority being bought by clients who similarly have also taken a chalet or a cabina in the resort. Ownership of berths adds to the place’s exclusivity but it also puts restrictions on allowing external boats to visit the marina. They are allowed in only by invitation of an existing owner and do not gain access to the resorts facilities. At Aquamarina, visitors are welcome to moor during the daytime and gain access to dining facilities but like Movenpick the pool and the other facilities are off limits.

Unusually the marina entrance faces south, which makes a part of the anchorage more vulnerable to the ravages of winter weather from the prevailing southwesterly winds. It does, however, have the advantage of keeping the approaching boats well away from the beach area on the opposite side of the complex. Even so, the operators say the innermost sheltered areas are suitable for boats to be left there in the winter.

Although most marinas of all sizes advertise themselves as all-year-round, the unpredictability of winter storms, especially in the past two years, has reduced the only winter moorages confidently deemed safe to Beirut Marina, where $150 million was spent on sea defenses, and Joseph Khoury at Dbayeh.

License to spend money

Winter or summer, the bottom line for the owners is that buying a boat is the same as acquiring a license to spend money. Calculating the first expense – the cost of a berth – does not depend solely on the boat’s length. There has been a military debate for years about the respective merits of having short, fat warships or long thin ones, with each having staunch defenders. In leisure boating that doesn’t apply. Although it doesn’t take a technical expert to figure out that as boat get longer they also get wider, marinas have their own methods of calculating how much space in total a boat occupies. At Aquamarina, it’s the beam, or width of a vessel, that determines the cost of moorage, not the length.

At the downtown marina, every boat over 10 meters long is charged on the number of square meters the vessel occupies. This is calculated by multiplying the length by the width at its widest point. Thus everything afloat is assumed to be a rectangle.

Joseph Khoury operates a slightly different system. Its price range for mooring runs from $350 per meter of length for small boats all the way up to $750 for the super-yachts. In round terms that translates into around $4,000 (including VAT) per annum for a ten meter boat and just under $50,000 for a 65-meter ocean going vessel.

Getting big and bigger

It is those big, big boats that are increasingly concentrating the mind at both Beirut and Joseph Khoury, the only two marinas in the country capable of handling them. Beirut has completely recast its internal mooring layout to cater for these big boats and the guys at Dbayeh, while already capable of receiving vessels up to 90 meters, also have contingency plans for redesigning their interior. Removal of some of the wooden pontoons currently dedicated for smaller craft would increase the capacity for vessels of 25m-30m. Beirut’s capacity was more than halved as far as the number of vessels was concerned, although the surface area covered by boat remained the same.

Still, many mariners take convincing. At Beirut, the Greek captain of a Saudi-owned 65-meter boat was lying outside the marina entrance, determined not to enter because he said there was not enough room. No amount of persuasion from marina officials could convince him. Eventually the owner ordered him to dock the boat despite his reservations. It has since returned more than a dozen times and on one remarkable occasion Beirut hosted four boats of this size at the same time.

The millions flow in

The principle of allying a land home to a mooring spot is operated at Beirut, Holiday Beach and Movenpick and, when the land is developed, will also underpin the Joseph Khoury strategy. Downtown many of the berths have been leased by Gulf Arabs who are awaiting delivery of a luxury apartment in one of the blocks currently under construction facing the marina. Some of them do not even have boats yet but want to make sure they have somewhere to put it.

Joseph Khoury denies access to the public because it wants to maintain the exclusivity of the place for the day when it, too, will be able to offer luxury homes overlooking a guaranteed berth. The management in Dbayeh sees the market for marina use expanding by around 70 percent in the next five years but also reckon that there is neither need nor room for further expansion to accommodate the increased numbers. Current slack will absorb foreseeable demand.

The same view comes from Beirut. A second marina, around half the size of the current 65,000 square meters, is scheduled to be built irrespective of demand. It is part of the overall Master Plan. However, the current operators foresee a demand anyway.

Both marina operators base this optimism on the premise of stability in both Lebanon and the region, as well as the continued switch in spending of Arab wealth from the West. The aftermath of Arab unpopularity in the West following the attacks of September 11, 2001, continues to bring their money back to the region.

Conclusion

The big money that comes along with the big boats is well on course for Lebanon – provided, as ever, there are no major political or security problems. The current slack represented by Joseph Khoury’s 30 percent occupancy and Solidere’s impending new marina will meet foreseeable demand at the high end. Lesser mortals with lesser boats are also well catered for on the northern half of the coast. The South has no marinas and, with ever-possible interference in all forms of shipping by the Israeli Navy, is unlikely to have any time soon. The South also, because of occupation among other things, is still underdeveloped. The emergence of beach resorts in the past few years may well be followed by adjoining hotels and other facilities, such as ‘glamour’ small marinas along the lines of the one that contributes to the success of the Riviera in Beirut. But like every other idea for enhancing the country’s resources and prosperity, it depends on the ‘situation’ being as calm as the sea.

Formality footnote

There may be a good reason why some sizeable floating gin palaces around these shores carry exotic ports of registration far away from Lebanon. If, as Shakespeare maintained, the evil that men do lives after them, the Lebanese have retained a wartime reputation for using boats to smuggle weapons, drugs and people. According to experts in Beirut, this almost guarantees extra checks and time-consuming searches in foreign ports.

However, entering Lebanon with a boat registered abroad is not without its problems. Having completed the formalities to enter, say, Beirut, a vessel must undergo the whole process of leaving the country and re-entering, even if its passengers wants only to go off for lunch in Batroun.