Lust for bigger yachts leads California port to tap bond market

Long Beach, California

LONG Beach, a blue-collar town known for cargo freighters, is selling US$112 million of bonds to make itself a beacon for another kind of ship: the yachts of the prosperous Pacific coast.

Catering to the tiny-vessel owner has been a struggling business since the recession, as money-minded sailors left marinas to store their boats on land, said Rick DuRee, chairman of Long Beach's Marine Advisory Commission. That costs about half as much as parking at the docks.

So the city of 469,000 is replacing hundreds of small slips to make way for US$2 million pleasure craft, just as nearby wharves have done.

"This is an offshoot of the way the economy was going a few years ago," Mr DuRee explained. "Boating is an expensive activity, no way around it. The big boats are getting bigger, while the idea of…