happy ending: permits are in hand, 

 new boat slips are rented and full, and 

 word is getting out about the place. 

 But in the early going, there were 

 several chapters of adversity. 



Elaborate tie-ups with construction 

 crews kept work stalled until the 

 Wolfenbargers decided to finish 

 building the place themselves, they 

 say. There was also a disagreement 

 with a country club that wanted to put 

 a pier into the channel serving the 

 marina. The question was resolved, 

 Keith says, when he offered the club a 

 boat ramp in place of the pier. And, 

 getting the permits they needed took 

 twice as long as they had expected. 



"We really did have constant inter- 

 ference the first six months here," 

 Judy recalls. Their problems getting 

 permits were not insurmountable, 

 though, partly because their site was 

 well-suited to the marina. The basin 

 was surrounded by high ground, there 

 was good access to the Neuse River, 

 and some of the necessary dredging 

 had already been done by previous 

 owners. They say that most of the 

 regulations they faced made sense to 

 them. They cite the required pumpout 

 station as an example. 



"I don't see that a pumpout is that 

 much of a problem," Keith says. "If 

 this marina had two hundred boats in 

 it, each one dumping, you'd be sitting 

 in a cesspool. We make 'em pump. But 

 they don't seem to mind; after all, 

 their kids swim here." 



Like other sailboat marinas, the 

 Wolfenbarger's trade is built on the 

 rental of slips, wet-storage spaces 

 where boats are moored. The average 

 rental fee for a slip is about $50 a 

 month. But most sailing families spend 

 much more at the marina in boat 

 maintenance, for goods in the ship's 

 store, and for use of the laundromat 

 and pumpout station. 



"You can do a little mental calcula- 

 tion with those figures, multiplying 

 them by the two hundred boats we'll 

 eventually have here, and come up 

 with some impressive numbers," Keith 

 says. "But you plow most of that right 

 back into the business. You have to." 



"After all those years playing super- 

 mom back in Kansas, this is quite a 

 change," Judy says. "We love it, but 

 you give up some things. The pile 

 driver and the truck were my 

 Christmas presents last year." 



Their marina is built, but Jerry and 

 Kathy Macon's workdays still outlast 

 the sun. Like the Wolfenbargers, and 

 many other North Carolina marina 

 operators, theirs is a family business. 



"I get dirty and she does the 

 paperwork," Jerry says. 



The Macons are the operators and 

 part-owners of a large dry-stack 

 marina at Atlantic Beach. The marina 

 caters to power-boat enthusiasts and 

 fishermen, and its storage building 

 holds 136 boats in racks. An $80,000 

 lift truck shuttles boats between 

 storage and the water. Rates for 

 storage run from about $500 to $700 a 

 year, depending on the size of the boat. 



Their racks have been full for four 

 years, and the Macons say demand for 

 boat storage is so great that "for every 

 customer we have at least one 

 waiting." But he adds that storage fees 

 alone would not pay the bills. Fuel 

 sales, merchandise sales, a used-boat 

 brokerage and repairs help make the 

 business profitable. 



"Repair work means the difference 

 between going a shade in the red and 

 going into the black," Macon says. "If 

 you don't do service work, you'd have 

 a hard time making it. The whole 

 business falters when you have a boat 

 not running, because you're not selling 

 gas or supplies, and the customer is not 

 satisfied." 



The repair work was something 

 Jerry already knew something about 

 when, in 1976, he and Kathy left their 

 jobs in Raleigh for the chance at a life 

 near the water. 



"I came down here because I wanted 

 to be around boats and the water," 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



Jerry and Kathy Macon 



Jerry says. "Now I never have the 

 time to get out in a boat the way I used 

 to. But I still enjoy the business." 



Their business is in good shape, but 

 as Jerry says, "you never have it 

 knocked." Supplies of repair parts dry 

 up and leave him with angry 

 customers. Costs are rising at a dizzy- 

 ing rate. And, being near salt water 

 doubles the maintenance around the 

 business. 



Despite their success, the Macons 

 hesitate to offer much hope to anyone 

 planning to build a marina, even 

 though they say there's enough de- 

 mand to support many more such 

 businesses in North Carolina. "The 

 market just won't bear the cost of a 

 new facility," he says. "The interest 

 rates are too high now, and the cost of 

 waterfront property is astronomical." 



The Macons are members of the 

 North Carolina Marina Association, 

 and they say the group will help im- 

 prove the image of marinas in the 

 state. "A lot of people, when they 

 think of marinas, they think of an old 

 railway for hauling out boats. They 

 think of old paint cans and piles of 

 engine parts lying around. But this is a 

 different kind of business. It's a good 

 use of land because in less than three 

 acres we're giving a hundred and 

 seventy families access to the water." 



Neil Barnaby has given up trying to 

 build his marina. Barnaby arrived on 

 Cedar Island in 1978 with his savings, 

 his family and a notion. He wanted to 

 create, on the water, a small village 

 suited to fishermen. 



He planned to build some multi- 

 family housing, heated mostly by the 

 sun, clustered around docks and a 

 marina for the community's boats — a 

 mixture of pleasure craft and commer- 

 cial fishing vessels. He says he wanted 

 the housing to be priced within reach 

 of the islanders. By his account, the 

 community liked the idea, and he says 

 local and state officials encouraged him. 



Barnaby bought 33 acres, including 

 a house and a saltwater basin known as 

 Great Pond. The pond, he was told, 

 had only recently been opened to 

 Bogue Sound by a channel dredged by 

 previous owners. Local fishing boats 

 had been using the pond for a harbor, 

 tying up at makeshift docks. 



Barnaby says he planned to improve 

 water circulation in the pond, which 



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