By Ted Hayes

Anyone looking to get a new private mooring permit will be out of luck next year, as members of the Westport Select Board on Monday approved the harbormaster’s request for a one-year mooring permit moratorium for 2026.

Harbormaster Bill Chace told board members that he and his staff need time to “get a handle” on the town’s private mooring situation, which includes identifying what’s out there, where everything is, and putting a plan in place to ensure that moorings are regularly inspected by a third party.

Right now, “we just don’t have a reliable database of all these private moorings,” said Chace, who estimated earlier this year that there are nearly 800. “We want some integrity as to the condition of them ... I think we kind of need to take a break in order to get our h

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