If you are looking for a spot to park your 100-foot boat, Erika Ross at The Moorings Realty Sales Co. has a deal for you.
Ross, who mostly sells high-end condos and houses, just listed a slip in Spyglass Harbor in The Moorings Yacht & Country Club that can accommodate your prize possession and has the added advantage of being in a famous “hurricane hole,” where boats have stayed safe through all the big storms this century.
“We call those our million-dollar docks because of the expensive boats that came into Spyglass to moor ahead of the storms in 2004 and 2005,” says Moorings Realty Sales Co. broker Marsha Sherry. “None of them were damaged.”
Listed for $650,000, the slip is a rare find, one of only two for sale in Florida that can handle a 100-foot vessel with a 25-foot beam – which technically is classified as a ship.
“The other is down in the Keys, listed for $995,000 – which makes ours seem like a bargain,” says Ross.
The Moorings slip, which is actually two adjoining 50-foot slips being sold together, has other virtues besides its size and picturesque, sheltered location.
“It is a deepwater port and there are not many of those around,” says island resident Terry Bieker, a retired medical sciences CEO and veteran boater, who owns the slip. “The water is deep at the approach and at the dock. The shallowest I have seen on the approach at a low, low tide is 8 feet. Our boat draws about 5 ½ feet, so we had plenty of water below us. Half of the moorings on the Treasure Coast, we can’t get our boat in.”
Bieker notes that the slip is only 7 nautical miles, a half-hour cruise, from the wide, straight, well-marked Fort Pierce Inlet channel, making it a breeze to reach the Atlantic Ocean.
“Something else really special about Spyglass are the condominiums that overlook the harbor,” he added. “For $1,150,000 you can have the dock and a nice little condo just a few steps away. It’s a great setup.”
“The Harborview condos are very convenient for boat owners,” says Ross. “They are 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1100-square-foot, and you can rent them on a weekly basis if you have crew getting your boat ready for a trip. Or you can purchase them in the $500s.”
“We have a boat owner in Spyglass whose captain stays in one of the Harborview condos,” says Sherry. “You see him walking back and forth in his uniform.”
Bieker and his wife, Jeanne-Marie, bought the first 50-foot slip in 2001, when they decided to move to Vero Beach. They bought the second 50-foot section in 2013, when they were planning to buy an 80 or 90-foot boat.
They ended up buying a 60-foot Grand Banks Aleutian and a 60-foot slip in Marsh Harbor near their home in Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club, but held onto the Moorings slip as a storm haven, a weekend getaway spot and a place for boating friends to tie up when visiting.
The Biekers aren’t just weekend cruisers. Grand Aleutian 60s are more like small ships than typical pleasure boats, spacious, ocean-going vessels with powerful engines and multiple decks, staterooms and berths that are fully equipped for serious voyages.
“We travel all over the place, “said Bieker, who has put 35,000 nautical miles on his boat, operating it with the help of his wife, who doubles as his boson mate. “I am only 79 and she is a little younger, so we have no trouble handling it.
“We used to spend four or five months a year cruising, but we are down to three or four months, now. We go to the Bahamas, the Turks and Cacaos, over to Naples on the West Coast, to Dry Tortugas and New Orleans. There are no issues. We are members of the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo and we like to cruise down and spend holidays there.”
Boat sales went through the roof during the pandemic and a dock for sale at the Ocean Reef Club illustrates the hot market for luxury boat moorings in prime locations. Big enough for a 70-foot boat with a 20-foot beam, the slip is listed for $1,950,000.
Slips for large boats in Indian River County aren’t quite that pricey, but they are selling fast, over ask, with multiple offers, according to Ross.
“Our last two sales had multiple offers within hours of listing, and both of them sold for over ask,” says Ross. “One came on at $125,000 and sold for $161,500. The other came on at $165,000 and sold for $187,000.” Both slips, which were sold this summer, are big enough to handle a 45-foot vessel.
“Before the pandemic, 45-foot Spyglass slips were selling for $70,000 to $80,000,” says Ross.
“I think this crazy market for docks is a good sign for the general economy,” says Sherry. “I have seen some dives in the economy over the years, and when that happens, people sell their boats.
That is not happening now.”
The Mooring Yacht & Country Club is a boating community par excellence, with eight miles of deepwater bulkhead and 675 docks. Included in that number are 52 slips in Spyglass Harbor and 49 in Harbour Side Yacht Club that can be purchased or leased without having to live in The Moorings.
“In Harbour Side, you are, actually purchasing the assignment of a 99-year lease [that runs through 2081],” Ross says. “Those slips, which are for smaller, 30- or 32-foot boats, used to sell for $20,000 or $30,000. Our last sale was $90,000. The sale before that was $115,000.
“There is nothing for sale or rent in either marina right now, except for Mr. Bieker’s slip.”
That scarcity is general in the post-pandemic market, especially for larger boats. Neither the Vero Beach City Marina nor Loggerhead Marina in Grand Harbor has slips for sale and neither has long-term lease availability for a 100-foot boat. The same is true in the Fort Pierce marinas.
According to Docksearch.com, there are only 20 slips big enough for a 100-foot boat with a 25-foot beam available for rent in the state and they can be pricey, with lease rates up to $10,500 a month.
Whoever buys the Biekers’ spacious slip will be buying real estate, much like buying a home.
“You write up the sale on a traditional contract you would use to sell a condo or house, using an association disclosure form that accompanies a contract,” says Ross.
Slip owners in Spyglass marina belong to an association that provides a small clubhouse and takes care of dock maintenance and repair.
“The dues are $280 a quarter,” Sherry says.
“We just redid the dock in 2015, and it is in great shape,” says Bieker.
Spyglass is not a party marina. There is no fuel available, no sleep aboard allowed, and no major repairs permitted.
“You can’t lift the boat and start repairing the bottom,” says Sherry. “The rules were well thought out to protect the integrity of a residential boating community.”
The Biekers are selling their Spyglass slip now to take advantage of the hot market for docks.
“Where we bought it, we were planning to buy a bigger boat that would have required that space, and we don’t need it now with our slip in Marsh Island harbor,” says Terry Bieker, who has no plans to sell his ocean-going boat or curtail the voyages he takes with his wife. “Boating helps keep us young,” he says.
