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They’ve got one hull of a problem.
Residents of the Upper West Side’s famous houseboat village say they’re holding on for dear life as ritzy yachts take over their once-thriving marina.
The 79th Street Boat Basin has dwindled from 40 to just a dozen permanent dwellers in recent years — a hard-ship some residents blame on their landlord, the city Parks Department.
“They keep coming up with schemes to get rid of everyone,” charged Jim Spencer, 59, an anesthesiologist who has lived on the edge of Riverside Park on his 1972 Sea Rover for 30 years.
“It used to be houseboat after houseboat. Now it’s over.”
Longtime residents say the city has tried to shove them overboard since retaking control of the marina from a concessionaire in 1989 — first by requiring high-cost insurance and later seaworthy boats.
Next spring, the marina will raise the yearly rent from $196 to $225 per linear foot of boat. For a 40-foot vessel, that’s a jump from $653 to $750 a month.
Nate Grove, senior manager of the Parks Department’s marinas, claims the rent hike is necessary to maintain and repair the piers. The city wants to expand the marina’s seasonal use and plans to reconstruct one dock for $2 million.
Of the basin’s 110 slips, only 52 are available for year-round use. There’s a waiting list of 500 people.
Robert Moses had the basin built as a public summer dock in 1937. By the late 1960s, it had turned into a floating village, a place once dubbed “one of New York’s goofiest ghettos.”
At its height, there were 100 residents, a cross-section of haves and have-knots that critics slammed as squatters.
There were artists, doctors, teachers, a former Studio 54 manager and high-rolling executives. Malcolm Forbes was neighbors with “Godfather” novelist Mario Puzo, and Aristotle Onassis tied up there, too.
Together the shipmates battled frigid winters, fires, filthy waters and rotting docks. They organized rent strikes when private management allowed the basin to rot.
Today the boats have running water, electricity, cable and a pipe for sewage.
It may be difficult to lure newcomers because the mucky basin needs dredging — a project that would cost millions of dollars.
Former resident Leslie Day said that many of the old-timers left because it’s too rough living on a rocking boat.
“The community there has really decreased, which is what [the city] wanted overall,” said Day, 67, who left the basin last August after 36 years. “Now you really have to have money to survive there.”