Sailing
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ARKANSAS BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
Anchors Away The largest sailing clubs in Arkansas and around the northwest Arkansas tri-state region ranked by their number of members. Club City Members Commodore Founded Web Site 1 Windycrest Sailing Club Tulsa 460 Steve Snider 1966 windycrest.com 2 Grande Maumelle Sailing Club Little Rock 204 Mark Barton 1959 gmsc.org stocktonyachtclub.com 3 Lake Stockton Yacht Club Springfield, Mo. 135 Paul Nahon 1980 4 Grand Lake Sail Club Grove, Okla. 114 Bruce Berge 1974 glsc.net beaverlakesailclub.com 5 Beaver Lake Sailing Club Garfield 100 Jay Havens 1979 6 Greers Ferry Lake Yacht Club Heber Springs 50 Stewart Waugh 1978 gflyc.com ironmountainyachtclub.org 7 Iron Mountain Yacht Club Arkadelphia 30 Jeff Gibson 1978 Total 1,093 Note: Repeated attempts were made to contact the following smaller sailing clubs in the region for inclusion, although it is not certain any would have qualified for this listing: Loch Lomond Yacht Club in Bella Vista, Tablerock Sailing Club in Nika, Mo., Lake Eufaula Sailing Association in McAlester, Okla., Sunken Bridge Yacht Club in Lawton, Okla., Pine Island Yacht Club in Sand Springs, Okla., Kerr Lake Sailing Club in Broken Arrow, Okla., and in Tulsa, Okla., the Sequoyah Yacht Club, Spindrift Sailing Club and the Tulsa Corinthian Yacht Club.
IS YOUR BUSINESS IN THE
If you are a For-Profit business and are located within the Pulaski Empowerment Zone, your business may be eligible for valuable tax credits. Tax credits include: •
EZ Employment Wage Credit
•
Zero Percent Capitol Gain Credit
•
New Markets Tax Credit
•
Increased Section 179 Deduction
•
Brown Field Cleanup Cost Deduction
For more information, visit www.empowerpulaski.com Or contact Eyona Scott, Empowerment Zone Manager Phone 501.375.0121 Fax 501.375.1377 [email protected]
Unlock your potential online Sell it. Promote it. Brand it.
WEB DEVELOPMENT FOR BUSINESS
Sources: United States Sailing Association Inc., www.midwestsailing.com and the clubs
Sailing: Arkansans Jumping Aboard (Continued From Page 1)
The boats can cost from $3,500 to more than $200,000 each, although Green said the average sailboat on Beaver Lake was probably in the 27- to 30-foot range. Those typically sell from $10,000 to $25,000 used or $30,000 to $50,000 new, he said. The Grande Maumelle Sailing Club in Little Rock is the state’s oldest and largest sailing club at roughly twice BLSC’s size. Including the most organized and serious sailing clubs in a 250mile radius of northwest Arkansas, it’s easy to identify more than 1,000 sailing enthusiasts. But that doesn’t even begin to count the smatterings of independent sailboats clumped at public marinas across the region. Most clubs in the region were either founded or saw their greatest growth during the 1970s and early 1980s. Sally Helme, publisher of Cruising World and Sailing World magazines in Middletown, R.I., said that was no coincidence. “There was a big sailing boom in the 1970s because of the gas crisis in America,” Helme said. “The gas crunch was significant as fuel prices went through the roof. Consumers got freaked out. About the same time, sailboat manufacturers became able to mass-market high volumes of sailboats thanks to fiberglass, which brought costs down. “Boaters started looking at sailing as a different option, and companies like O’Day Corp., Pearson Yachts and Cal Sailboats came out with a lot of very attractive cruising sailboat models in the 25- to 30-foot ranges.” Green had an O’Day 30 back in the day. He got hooked on sailing in 1979 after a Florida excursion and has owned, bought and sold nine boats since then.
Sales of Sails Tracking sailing-related commerce locally or even regionally is virtually impossible. None of the large boat dealers in northwest Arkansas even carry sailboat parts, much less new or used vessels.
BLSC members said they usually traveled to Stockton, Mo., or Grand Lake, Okla., to buy new boats. There are often several used sailboats for sale at area marinas, but apparently the only place in all of Arkansas to buy a new sailboat is Claas Sailing Center in Little Rock. Claas is a certified J/Boats Inc. sailboat dealer, used-boat broker, and parts and servicing shop. Nicole Claas, the firm’s owner, said her father, Jon Claas, used to sell as many as 20 units per year in decades past. Those numbers have slowed down, but there’s surging interest in certain types of sailing craft. Claas said J/Boats in particular had targeted baby boomers with models that were “easier to handle with one sailor.” “That way a grandparent, for instance, can sail with grandkids and manage the boat [alone] and not have to expect the grandkids to do much,” Claas said. Most of her clients are interested in the 30- to 38-foot range, Claas said. J/Boats models range from $30,000 for the J22 to more than $1.5 million for the maker’s J65 flagship. Regardless of where big-ticket boats are purchased, be they sail or motorboats, there are some tax considerations. Any boat that contains both a galley (kitchen) and a head (toilet) can be declared a second residence, per the Internal Revenue Service tax code. Any interest expense on a second residence is deductible, even those on wheels or water. Also, according to the Arkansas Boating Laws & Responsibilities Handbook, boats may be registered with the U.S. Coast Guard instead of the state. The Coast Guard, which requires a boat length of 27.5 feet for registry, does not have any sales tax. The state of Arkansas does. Even if an Arkansas boat is Coast Guard registered, however, it’s still subject to personal property tax.
Racing Jay Havens, BLSC’s commodore, coowns Wind Charmer, a Catalina 30, with longtime girlfriend Lesa McKinnie.
ARKANSAS BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
Anchors Away The largest sailing clubs in Arkansas and around the northwest Arkansas tri-state region ranked by their number of members. Club City Members Commodore Founded Web Site 1 Windycrest Sailing Club Tulsa 460 Steve Snider 1966 windycrest.com 2 Grande Maumelle Sailing Club Little Rock 204 Mark Barton 1959 gmsc.org stocktonyachtclub.com 3 Lake Stockton Yacht Club Springfield, Mo. 135 Paul Nahon 1980 4 Grand Lake Sail Club Grove, Okla. 114 Bruce Berge 1974 glsc.net beaverlakesailclub.com 5 Beaver Lake Sailing Club Garfield 100 Jay Havens 1979 6 Greers Ferry Lake Yacht Club Heber Springs 50 Stewart Waugh 1978 gflyc.com ironmountainyachtclub.org 7 Iron Mountain Yacht Club Arkadelphia 30 Jeff Gibson 1978 Total 1,093 Note: Repeated attempts were made to contact the following smaller sailing clubs in the region for inclusion, although it is not certain any would have qualified for this listing: Loch Lomond Yacht Club in Bella Vista, Tablerock Sailing Club in Nika, Mo., Lake Eufaula Sailing Association in McAlester, Okla., Sunken Bridge Yacht Club in Lawton, Okla., Pine Island Yacht Club in Sand Springs, Okla., Kerr Lake Sailing Club in Broken Arrow, Okla., and in Tulsa, Okla., the Sequoyah Yacht Club, Spindrift Sailing Club and the Tulsa Corinthian Yacht Club.
IS YOUR BUSINESS IN THE
If you are a For-Profit business and are located within the Pulaski Empowerment Zone, your business may be eligible for valuable tax credits. Tax credits include: •
EZ Employment Wage Credit
•
Zero Percent Capitol Gain Credit
•
New Markets Tax Credit
•
Increased Section 179 Deduction
•
Brown Field Cleanup Cost Deduction
For more information, visit www.empowerpulaski.com Or contact Eyona Scott, Empowerment Zone Manager Phone 501.375.0121 Fax 501.375.1377 [email protected]
Unlock your potential online Sell it. Promote it. Brand it.
WEB DEVELOPMENT FOR BUSINESS
Sources: United States Sailing Association Inc., www.midwestsailing.com and the clubs
Sailing: Arkansans Jumping Aboard (Continued From Page 1)
The boats can cost from $3,500 to more than $200,000 each, although Green said the average sailboat on Beaver Lake was probably in the 27- to 30-foot range. Those typically sell from $10,000 to $25,000 used or $30,000 to $50,000 new, he said. The Grande Maumelle Sailing Club in Little Rock is the state’s oldest and largest sailing club at roughly twice BLSC’s size. Including the most organized and serious sailing clubs in a 250mile radius of northwest Arkansas, it’s easy to identify more than 1,000 sailing enthusiasts. But that doesn’t even begin to count the smatterings of independent sailboats clumped at public marinas across the region. Most clubs in the region were either founded or saw their greatest growth during the 1970s and early 1980s. Sally Helme, publisher of Cruising World and Sailing World magazines in Middletown, R.I., said that was no coincidence. “There was a big sailing boom in the 1970s because of the gas crisis in America,” Helme said. “The gas crunch was significant as fuel prices went through the roof. Consumers got freaked out. About the same time, sailboat manufacturers became able to mass-market high volumes of sailboats thanks to fiberglass, which brought costs down. “Boaters started looking at sailing as a different option, and companies like O’Day Corp., Pearson Yachts and Cal Sailboats came out with a lot of very attractive cruising sailboat models in the 25- to 30-foot ranges.” Green had an O’Day 30 back in the day. He got hooked on sailing in 1979 after a Florida excursion and has owned, bought and sold nine boats since then.
Sales of Sails Tracking sailing-related commerce locally or even regionally is virtually impossible. None of the large boat dealers in northwest Arkansas even carry sailboat parts, much less new or used vessels.
BLSC members said they usually traveled to Stockton, Mo., or Grand Lake, Okla., to buy new boats. There are often several used sailboats for sale at area marinas, but apparently the only place in all of Arkansas to buy a new sailboat is Claas Sailing Center in Little Rock. Claas is a certified J/Boats Inc. sailboat dealer, used-boat broker, and parts and servicing shop. Nicole Claas, the firm’s owner, said her father, Jon Claas, used to sell as many as 20 units per year in decades past. Those numbers have slowed down, but there’s surging interest in certain types of sailing craft. Claas said J/Boats in particular had targeted baby boomers with models that were “easier to handle with one sailor.” “That way a grandparent, for instance, can sail with grandkids and manage the boat [alone] and not have to expect the grandkids to do much,” Claas said. Most of her clients are interested in the 30- to 38-foot range, Claas said. J/Boats models range from $30,000 for the J22 to more than $1.5 million for the maker’s J65 flagship. Regardless of where big-ticket boats are purchased, be they sail or motorboats, there are some tax considerations. Any boat that contains both a galley (kitchen) and a head (toilet) can be declared a second residence, per the Internal Revenue Service tax code. Any interest expense on a second residence is deductible, even those on wheels or water. Also, according to the Arkansas Boating Laws & Responsibilities Handbook, boats may be registered with the U.S. Coast Guard instead of the state. The Coast Guard, which requires a boat length of 27.5 feet for registry, does not have any sales tax. The state of Arkansas does. Even if an Arkansas boat is Coast Guard registered, however, it’s still subject to personal property tax.
Racing Jay Havens, BLSC’s commodore, coowns Wind Charmer, a Catalina 30, with longtime girlfriend Lesa McKinnie.
