Yacht’s parking spot of bother

DOZENS of people have been fined while partying on one of the Gold Coast’s newest boat cruises.

The YOT Club is now trying to negotiate parking spaces after fines were slapped on 21 vehicles by city council parking inspectors for illegally parking where the boat docks at Main Beach.

The parking area is for vehicles with boat trailers.

The owner of each vehicle copped a $163 fine – netting the council more than $3400 – for parking in the Muriel Henchman Dve boat ramp park just after 3pm on Sunday, March 30. There are more than 110 spaces in the parking area, mainly for vehicles with trailers.

Hundreds of people are believed to have attended the second event on the cruiser, which left the jetty at 3pm.

A partygoer was fined by the council 22 minutes after boarding the boat, and told the Bulletin he believed parking inspectors waited for the boat to leave before issuing the fines.

He said he would pay the fine, but was “disappointed”.

“If you can’t park there, and that’s the only place you can, that’s really going to affect their business,” he said.

“I’m going to pay the fine, I have no choice. It bugs me as a ratepayer that the council don’t really care and don’t appear to be on the side of private enterprise.”

The YOT Club is a new, multi-million-dollar super yacht that accommodates 400 people.

Originally The YOT Club

was going to be docked at Marina Mirage, but due to its width, 23m, an alternative had to be found – about 2km and a 25-minute walk from the car park at Marina Mirage.

Another person, who was hit with a $163 fine at 3.17pm, said there was not a sign warning vehicles without trailers could not park in the bays.

But the council said there were “numerous, clear regulatory” signs in the parking area.

“All 21 infringements were issued for ‘No Stopping Anytime – Vehicles with Boat Trailers Excepted’,” a council spokesperson said.

YOT Club part-owner David Fisher said he would be talking to the council about where people could park.

“The number of trailer car parks to single car parks seems to be disproportionate,” he said.

“I think it needs to be weighted a bit differently.

“It is a public jetty and we are grateful we can use it.”

The council did not respond to Bulletin questions about where partygoers could park, other than to say YOT Club

passengers should get advice from the event organiser on parking.