Waterfront properties with moorage

People buy waterfront homes in Gig Harbor and Puget Sound for a number of different reasons. Some just want a stunning view of Mt. Rainier or the Olympics. Some enjoy watching the abundant wildlife, including seals, sea lions, bald eagles, otters, or even whales. But for many, at least part of the dream of waterfront living involves direct access to the water; specifically by boat, canoe, kayak, or paddleboard. Many waterfront properties in Gig Harbor offer this, but not all. If this is something you want from your home, it’s important to understand the difference, so that you can focus your efforts on the areas and specific features that make this possible. In this post, I’m going to focus on saltwater watefront properties on the Gig Harbor peninsula with moorage for boats.

The first step to finding a property that will accommodate your boat is to consider the type of boat you have (or intend to purchase) and the type of activities you enjoy on the water. You will need to consider five key factors; the draft of your boat, the depth and/or run-out in front of the property, exposure to wind and storms, ease of access from the home, and distance by water to your favorite destinations.

If you want immediate and easy access to the boat, you will, of course, want a property with a dock. Although Gig Harbor offers more homes with private docks that nearly any other community on Puget Sound, they are still rare, accounting for less than 10% of waterfront properties. More importantly, adding a dock when one does not already exist is extremely difficult and expensive. Adding even a modest pier and float for a ski boat can run upwards of $250,000 and take years of permitting. Most permit applications for new docks are not granted, and regulations are always tightening. So, purchasing a home with a private dock already installed is, of course, preferred, even if that dock is in severe disrepair. Most repairs not involving the pilings require little or no permitting. But all docks are not created equal. The southern and western sides of the Gig Harbor peninsula experience up to 18’ of vertical tide change every day. It’s important to observe and measure the depth of the water. This should ideally be done at low tide, but you can also take a depth measurement and adjust to find out how much depth you will have, accounting for the draft of your boat. This is a simple task, but if you don’t have the relevant experience and understanding, you could end up buying something that won’t work for your needs, and not find out until your boat is high and dry during a beautiful June day when the tides reach their lowest. But as with anything, you may find that you need to make compromises. A property with a dock that goes dry at low tide is preferable to no dock at all, and with proper planning, may only marginally impact your ability to take advantage of it. If you don’t know how to calculate how many hours each day a dock will go dry, I’m happy to do it for you. Good places with deep water docks in Gig Harbor include the east side of Gig Harbor Bay, all but the most southern reaches of Horsehead Bay, certain areas of Rosedale, Warren Drive, Cromwell, and many areas along the north side of Fox Island.

If you don’t need a dock, or have simply decided it’s a bridge too far, the next best thing is a buoy. This is where it gets a LOT more complicated. Most waterfront homeowners in Gig Harbor opt to install a buoy if they can. They are relatively cheap and easy to install, and although there is a permitting process that I would of course encourage you to follow, many people simply drop an anchor with a chain and float attached, and are no worse off for it. But again, depth comes into play. Some areas, including the inner reaches of most inlets and bays, are shallow enough that they simply go dry at low tide all the way across to the other side, meaning you will never be able to put your buoy far enough out for it to be floating 24/7. It also becomes a tradeoff against your willingness to row, paddle, or swim out to the boat, as well as concerns over it becoming an obstruction to other boating traffic. Several waterfront homeowners (and in some cases, people who don’t even live nearby) over the years have installed buoys and moored their boats smack in the middle of waterways drawing the ire and frustration of neighbors (I won’t name names, but I could cite five or six specific examples). Not surprisingly, the same areas where we find private docks tend to make good spots for mooring buoys, but you will find them all over, including areas that don’t lend themselves to docks, like Point Fosdick, Forest Beach, and Allen Point. You will likely run into issues dropping a mooring buoy in Gig Harbor Bay due to tighter enforcement of codes and lots of boat traffic. In most cases, you will end up with a bouy that goes dry at least some of the time. This is ok, so long as your boat is able to rest on the beach without damage. In these situations, it’s important to place your buoy where the bottom is soft and not rocky, which would damage the boat as it comes to rest on the outgoing tide. Many people opt to use floating lifts. Sunstream is by far the preferred source for these, and they are becoming more and more common around here every year. These still cannot be placed on rocky beaches, however, as the plastic floats are themselves subject to puncture.

Just because you CAN install a dock or buoy, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD. There are certain areas where the weather or chop conditions can make it problematic. The prevailing winds in the spring and summer are out of the southwest, and while they are usually relatively mild, strong winds can whip up with little warning, especially later in the summer. Areas of high boat traffic such as Point Fosdick can also be constantly under assault from passing boat wakes. Since buoys generally have only a single link between the bottom and the boat, with multiple potential failure points in-between, breaking loose is always a concern. If the wind or current are blowing towards shore, you will have only a few minutes before your boat is on the beach, being battered by the waves. If it’s blowing away from shore, it’s drifting off into the distance, likely faster than you can paddle or row to get to it. Protected bays are best. Additionally, boats on buoys isolated from potential predators, often become favored resting or lunch spots for wildlife, including birds, otters, and occasionally sea lions. Otters in particular can do enough damage to render a boat worthless in a single day. Precautions MUST be taken to deter wildlife…especially seagulls and otters. Pine-sol and upside-down office chair mats are good deterrents for otters, and there is an entire industry devoted to scaring off birds, but I’ve found rubber snakes to be the most effective by far. Keeping batteries charged while on a buoy is also a consideration. A small solar charging array is money well spent.

So, you’ve found the perfect house. It’s got the dock or buoy you want and it’s well protected from wind as well as the wakes of passing boats. It’s even got a spectacular view. But how easy is it to get from the house to the boat? Even if you’re lucky enough to get a short, deepwater dock in a protected anchorage, if the access from the home to the dock is difficult, you may find yourself not using it. There are houses on bluffs that are, in many cases, well over 200’ above the water, and yet they are still considered waterfront. One thing I’ve observed over the years is that children are far more willing to go up and down steps than children. If you’re over the age of, say 40, you should give this strong consideration. I once toured a beautiful home with a beautiful dock, in an absolutely perfect location. Of all the agents attending the broker’s open, I was the only one who opted to walk down and actually see the dock up-close. By the time I was back up to the house, I had to make a stealthy exit. I was already drenched in sweat from the hot summer sun. Ask yourself if whatever challenges to access the property may have are acceptable to you. Don’t forget to consider that you will likely be wanting to carry food, beverages, life jackets, clothes, watersports gear, and whatever else you may want for a day on the water with you, and it will often take multiple trips. In many cases, a view property not on the water paired with a marina slip in downtown is a better option than a waterfront home with a steep set of stairs, especially if you then need to paddle out to the boat once you’re down them.

Finally, you will want to consider where you will want to go in our boat, and how you will use it. If you primarily like watersports, you will want to be on the west side of the peninsula where the water is up to ten degrees warmer, and there are more protected areas for waterskiing and wakeboarding. Additionally, if you are into the “Cutts Island scene”, you will find these properties to be much more convenient. If you are a sailor, you will generally want to avoid being in Hale Passage, due to strong currents as well as the Fox Island bridge, which most sailboats cannot fit under. If you are more of a cruiser and like to take your boat to popular destinations up north like Blake Island, Seattle, Poulsbo, or the San Juan Islands, you will ideally want to be in Gig Harbor bay, but Wollochet Bay and the eastern end of Hale Passage are suitable as well, especially if your boat can overcome the 5-8 knot currents in the Tacoma Narrows.

There are a few waterfront neighborhoods in Gig Harbor that simply aren’t for boaters, unless you plan to keep your boat in a marina nearby. Those include Reid road along the Narrows, the east side and southern tip of Fox Island, as well as Burley lagoon in Purdy. The towering banks and strong current in the narrows make it completely incompatible with moorage, and Burley Lagoon is simply too shallow and covered in shellfish farms to offer any moorage.

If you are looking for a waterfront home in Gig Harbor, and you are hoping to make boating a part of that lifestyle, you need to be working with a realtor who understands your needs, and has the local knowledge necessary to help you find the right spot to live out that dream. Having grown up here, running around in boats from the age of five, there isn’t an inch of this shoreline I haven’t explored, so I hope that I can have the opportunity to help you.

-Peter Glein