On the west side, Marine park has a public boat ramp used by trailered boats of all sizes. Kayaks up to nearly 100 foot vessels are launched thanks to the 10 tidal range. It's set up so long trailered boats can circle, back down to launch, and drive straight out in minutes. It's amazing how efficient it is.

We have some new docks on that end for launched boats to tie up to. You can sit in Marine park and watch boats launched all day long this time of year. Here's a Rhode Reliant that's stored and cared for in town at Rocnaks Yacht. In minutes it's picked up on a hydraulic trailer, driven a few miles to the harbor,and launched. It gets it's spars stepped across the harbor at Rockport Marine then is rigged on the public docks.

Much of this side of the harbor was sold years ago for condominiums. Some local philanthropists quickly bought it and gave it to the town(if my history is accurate). Now it's our public water access, a museum to the old lyme kilns and a public park with beaches, barbeques, tables and benches and walking trails. Today we all own and use it. This could have become a much different situation today...

Nice boat, the Rhodes Reliant. Glass hull and wood cabin, this one was built at Cheoy Lee I think. Across the way, a bait truck unloads a pungent cargo at the fishermens docks. The Rockport Boat club, to the left, is also on town owned land.

Another new addition in our harbor. Lines were trenched from the docks to the sewer system for a new, real no nonsense, holding tank pump. That's great news! Like any harbor that has a public beach, we get fluctuating fecal coliform counts in our regular testing for beach safety. Rather than get mired in that old tired debate of boats dumping overboard vs; town sewer systems overflowing, fertilizer runoff, birds, etc, if we make it easy(it isn't in most harbors) for boaters to use their holding tanks, we can remove ourselves from the debate.