When it comes to maximizing income from Waikiki\u2019s catamaran operations, the administrative rules for the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) would have to be amended to allow them to be issued via a public auction, according to division administrator Ed Underwood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The catamarans have the potential to make a lot of money. The six permitted operations that have a DOBOR permit to load and unload passengers and set anchor on Waikiki beach can carry dozens of passengers at a time. The Mana Kai can carry 26 people, while the Makani can carry nearly 80. A daytime tour can cost $20\/hour to more than $40\/hour a head, while a Friday fireworks sail goes for $50 to $100 a head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Permittees currently pay DOBOR a monthly rent of $200 or three percent of gross receipts, whichever is greater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When DOBOR sought board approval\nlast September to renew the permits, Land\nBoard member Keone Downing said the\nthree percent of gross revenues seemed\nlow and questioned why the permits aren\u2019t\nauctioned off.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Underwood conceded that \u201cthere would be\na huge interest in these permits\u201d if they were\nput up for auction. However, his report to\nthe board explained that no other parties are\neligible to receive a similar permit \u201cbecause it\nis concurrent with the issuance of a Waikiki\nCatamaran Registration from the department\nto operate catamarans on Waikiki Beach. The\npermittees listed herein are the only companies\npossessing such a registration.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even so, Downing suggested that the\ndivision audit each permittee\u2019s account and\nif and when the board takes up the matter\nof auctioning off the permits, it could also\naddress the percentage rent.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike permits for thrill craft and parasail operations, which can be auctioned off,\nUnderwood said DOBOR would need\nto amend its rules to auction the Waikiki\ncatamaran permits.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something to look at,\u201d Downing\nsaid.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt does seem to fly in the face of other commercial activities on the beach. [If there is] interest beyond the six, it does strike me as inequitable,\u201d board member Sam Gon said, expressing surprise that no one from the public\nhad shown up to testify on the matter.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Underwood said that his division has an auditor that could carry out Downing\u2019s request. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Teresa Dawson <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to maximizing income from Waikiki’s catamaran operations, the administrative rules for the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) would have to be amended to allow them to be issued via … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-11040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2019","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}