Airboat tours approved for Nags Head on one-year trial basis

By Rob Morris on June 3, 2015

After hearing a report this morning that noise would generally fall within the town’s standards, the Nags Head Board of Commissioners signed off on an airboat tour that will operate from the shore of the Roanoke Sound.

The request for a zoning text amendment to reinstate airboat operations as a permitted use in the area near the Outer Banks Event Site north of Whalebone Junction failed to win a required super majority last month.

On Wednesday, the board voted 4-1 to allow the zoning change for a year, after which it will be reassessed.

The only dissenter, Commissioner Marvin Demers, was not reassured by a report from Deputy Planning Director Kelly Wyatt that the boat, which is similar to the propeller-driven craft popular in the Florida Everglades, would operate within the town’s acceptable noise levels.

Wyatt said that readings taken from shore Tuesday showed decibels in the low 60s, which is described as the level of normal conversation, except two brief spikes slightly over 80. They were registered when the six-passenger boat accelerated from shore and again when power was applied to bring it up to cruising speed.

Jet skis register more than 65 decibels, and trucks on the Nags Head-Manteo causeway can exceed 70, the commissioners were told. Ambient noise, Wyatt said, created by primarily by wind, was from 57 to 67 decibels.

“So based upon that, staff feels comfortable to say that the noise produced by the airboat on this given day with those conditions would meet the requirements of the town’s noise ordinance,” Wyatt said.

But Demers questioned why ear protection would be an option for passengers. James Moore of Outer Banks Adventures said the option is suggested by the airboat industry. Wyatt said that Deputy Town Manager Andy Garman, who was riding on the boat, comfortably removed the ear protection.

The operation, which will include paddle board rentals, will be on the site where Dolphin boat tours operated. The tours have been shut down, and the 36 parking spaces are more than ample to accommodate the new business.

Moore will bring Outer Banks Adventure Tours to Causeway Watersports, where owners once ran a similar airboat business more than a decade ago before it was shut down for noise violations.

Since then, Moore has said, mufflers have significantly reduced noise.

Commissioners also approved a site plan after being assured that the boat would be refueled offsite.