aarpskier - good questions.

When we first launched the app we had an earlier check out time and a later check in time to try and accommodate for the lunch crowd. In theory this was a good idea but in reality it lead to a lot of the problems that we had early on with enforcement. Boats would come in for lunch and have one too many pain killers and then disappear for the day. So we decided to try noon to noon and we ended up having a lot less issues.

The behavior is definitely changing and it is not unusual to see the BB moorings empty at 3pm even though they have been reserved. We hope this means boaters are able to spend more time doing what they love and easing some of the pressure at the National Parks. With boaters staying on the water longer it also means that the restaurants are changing strategies. That being said, all of the bays have first come first serve moorings. Cooper has 15 FCFS that are maintained and another 5-10 on the south side of the bay that boaters can use if they want to go in for lunch.

There are some users of the app that will reserve and still show up around noon. I have spoken with several boaters that have done this and they say they like the convenience of the app and the security of knowing they are tied up to a maintained mooring. Others will reserve and show up early but they did it simply for the location. So we have some boaters using the app to spend more time on the water and others using it out of convenience. We continue to gather feedback and make changes so if you have suggestions we would love to hear them.