The Tisbury Harbor Department announced Friday the completion of a $66,000 project to extend the Lake Street dinghy docks to help alleviate overcrowding in the summer months.
Despite high winds, the project “went smoothly,” Michael Gately, Tisbury harbormaster, said in a press release, which included efforts by the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard and John Packer of R.M. Packer Co. The Shipyard delivered three new sections of dock float to Lake Street Landing Thursday, and Packer used his barge to drive in the three pilings, all of which were repurposed from the Owen Park Pier reconstruction. Gately called the reuse of those pilings as a “successful foresight” in the planning process.
The additions made “significant” room for more dinghies, Gately said, though he wasn’t sure exactly how many more boats could be stored there.
The project, funded by the Community Preservation Act and the Waterways Infrastructure account, started four years ago and spans across the work of three harbormasters: John Crocker, Gary Kovack, and Gately.
“Even small municipal waterside projects take time. This project took several years to complete, but it’s an example of what can be accomplished when the whole boating community works together,” Crocker said in the release. The project, first introduced in 2023 by Tashmoo boaters Lynne Fraker and Paul Munafo as well as mooring installer Ray Gale, went under review by the Tisbury Conservation Commission, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Lake Tashmoo has more than 350 moorings, many of which are in the Lake Street mooring field, and boaters heavily rely on the dinghy dock and beach strip to store dinghies.
“This is our second long planned pier project we have completed in 2026. We are thrilled that both Owen Park Pier and now Lake street can better serve our waterways,” Gately said in the release.
