An attempt to launch a Jet Ski tour operation in downtown Juneau suffered a wipeout last week when existing users of the targeted area told city officials the project didn’t have the support the operator implied.
Steven Moll, co-owner with his wife of Dangerous Water Adventures, is already selling bookings for what he said will be three-hour guided tours for groups of up to 10 guests. He told the Juneau Docks and Harbors Board at its meeting last Thursday an agreeable site to launch the tours existed at Norway Point near the Juneau Yacht Club, a location also used by Juneau Youth Sailing Inc.
“I’ve talked to the commodore of Juneau Yacht Club,” he told the board. “I’ve talked to the youth sailing program. We will not interfere with them. They’re on the channel side of Norway Point. We’d be on the inside where at low tide it’s only two or three feet. We can operate in two or three feet. Not a lot of vessels can. So we can generate income for docks and harbors that’s not otherwise being generated. And a denial of our permit is a denial of generating income for our community, which as a person in our community I don’t believe is what we should be doing.”
However, Steve Soenksen, commodore of the Juneau Yacht Club, offered the board a considerably different perspective of the situation.
“Some of our members just heard about this today,” he said. “I know in the backup (meeting agenda) material it’s referenced that the Yacht Club is in support of it, but I have to say that it hasn’t really been discussed formally, and many of them just learned about the proposal today. The tour operator really hasn’t approached the club about the use of facilities. We’re not likely to approve use of the restrooms because it would interfere with the business model for the whole club (since) others entering the building when it’s rented would interfere with renters.”
Furthermore, Carl Brodersen, a Juneau Youth Sailing leader, who arrived at the meeting while it was in progress, told the board “I think there was a miscommunication.”
“No one on the board has actually had an opportunity to discuss the plan,” he said. “We found out about it about half an hour ago and we would be interested in an opportunity to see what the schedule is like and to discuss cooperation before a decision is made, if possible. Because we can have kids in the water in there, that is what we’re probably going to have a concern about: fast-moving vessels in that area.”
After a lively board discussion — with a couple members suggesting a one-year trial and that the business should be supported since it was already booking tours — the proposal was put on hold pending further evaluation.
“I have some grave concerns because I think it was a little bit misunderstanding what was presented at the get-go from the operator,” said board member Deborah Hart. “It sounded as if he had already made those communications. And maybe that’s not the case.”
Moll, in an interview Monday, said his intent was not to mislead the harbor board, and there may have been some misunderstandings in his discussions with yacht and sailing club officials. He also said at this point he is looking at a different privately owned site away from downtown, although he declined to give a specific location, stating final arrangements should be known later this week.
“The way that went down at CBJ was very disturbing, knowing that we all just voted for the cruise ships to continue to come in on Saturdays, which kind of shows the community is pro tourism,” he said, adding there should be additional opportunities for smaller commercial tourism operators in the downtown harbor area.
Moll said his day tours would be an extension of weeklong Jet Ski tours from Seattle to Juneau his company has offered for the past several years, with two guides supervising day tour guests along a predetermined route.
“I do think that because of the preconceived notion of what people think a Jet Ski is and how it operates, and people being not responsible, that we have a little bias against us, even though we run responsibly,” he said. “We’re not going to have people doing donuts out there, jumping wakes. That’s not what we do. We’re very responsible mariners and we pass that on to the guests that come with us.”
While his company is taking bookings — and payments — for tours that don’t yet have an approved site, Moll said customers’ money isn’t at risk.
“The deposits that we take go into an account that we do not touch,” he said. “The reason for that is a couple things. Number one, if we have weather conditions and we have to cancel we have to provide a refund, so it’s not a part of our general operations…So we would never take someone’s money and not provide a service. That’s just not how we operate.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
