Grand Traverse Bay has long been the region’s premier boating destination. But if you want a boat slip on this big blue playground, you’ll need to get in line.

Wait lists for places like Duncan L. Clinch Marina in Traverse City, Grace Memorial Harbor in Elk Rapids, the Suttons Bay Marina and several private harbors are in the five-to-15-year range, with many people adding themselves to all lists in an effort to improve their chances. All of these places are open to anyone, regardless of residency.

“I've been with the marina for 15 years, and I felt like I used to tell boaters five years, but now it's definitely probably a 10-year wait,” says Edie Aylsworth, Suttons Bay harbormaster.

In Suttons Bay, there are now about 150 people on the waiting list for one of 134 seasonal slips. Down in Traverse City, there are 416 people on the wait list for one of the 71 seasonal Clinch Marina slips, city public services director Frank Dituri says.

While officials never know how many people will relinquish their slips each year, it’s usually less than a dozen in most marinas. What’s more, almost every marina adds more people to its wait list each year than the number of people who release a slip, meaning the lists are just getting longer.

While Traverse City staffers shy away from estimating wait times when asked by prospective slip holders, they still try to set realistic expectations.

“If you say seven years and eight or nine years go by and they’re still a couple of years out, you’d just disappoint them,” Dituri says. “So we just let them know where they are on the current wait list. We tell them how many people are in front of them, and we tell them there’s only a couple that turn over every year.”

The situation is even more eye-popping in Elk Rapids, where a full 800 people are on the list for one of about 160 seasonal slips, up from about 740 people just last year.

“Number one on the list has been on it since 2014,” Harbormaster Mike Singleton says. “I would say it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to 12 years for our harbor.”

Getting to make the call to a person that has finally arrived at the top of the list is always fun, Singleton says.

“They’re ecstatic, of course. It’s like they won the lottery,” he says. “It’s a great feeling for them for sure, and it's a good feeling for us too, because we want people that want to be here.”

There are a handful of private marinas on the bay, probably the most prominent being CenterPointe Marina in Elmwood Township, which has almost 70 slips. There’s about 100 people sitting on that list, administrative manager Kelly Renshaw says. 

Whether or not more capacity on the bay will ever be added is a big question. Elk Rapids has expansion plans, and at least some in the boating world think the case could easily be made for a new harbor somewhere on the bay. 

"One thing that the (Department of Natural Resources) is very sensitive of for the people of the state of Michigan is to provide access to our waterways," says Dan Jenuwine, Elmwood Township's harbormaster. "So I think that for the right township or city with the right plan, there's a probably a lot of money available from the state to go ahead and do a major development."

While it is indeed municipalities that own and operate most large-scale marinas, Jenuwine is not sure it’s the best use of civic resources.

“Do we really belong in the marina business? Back when we started there was a little itty bitty marina with some mooring balls and one dock, and it probably was mostly township residents. Now it’s less than three percent (township residents)," he says. "If you sold the marina for 20 or 25 million dollars and used that money for a recreation center with a built-in pool and pickleball courts and everything else for the residents of Elmwood township, does that better serve the township needs?”

Editor’s Note: This story is an excerpt from a larger story included in the upcoming March edition of the Traverse City Business News (The Ticker’s sister publication) that takes an in-depth look at the forecast for the region’s boating economy. Click here to subscribe to the TCBN, and click here to find out where to get a copy on newsstands.