The area's first pay-by-the-hour public boat dock opens tomorrow at Station Square, a 47-slip marina that will help feed a boating community hungry for transient docking opportunities.

The $2.5 million marina includes a 200-by-35-foot barge landing for large boats and water taxis, said Abe Naparstek of Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland company that owns most of Station Square. Half the money comes from a state grant.

Future projects may include a pedestrian bridge to connect the Mon Incline to the Freight House Shops, Naparstek said.

Most marinas charge by the season, but this one will cater to boaters much like a parking lot, at $5 an hour, he said. "We're trying to get people who are coming out for dinner."

Forest City already had built an elevator tower and walking bridge over the tracks to connect the marina to Station Square, he said.

The 11 a.m. grand opening festivities will feature special guests Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells -- the Professor and Mary Ann from the '60s TV show "Gilligan's Island."

Calling the marina "awesome," and state-of-the-art, pontoon owner Mari Murphy, of Carnegie, said boaters in the area have longed for places to dock for an afternoon or an evening out, and this one has electrical hook-ups.

"Now," she said, "you take friends out on your boat and they say, 'Wow, Pittsburgh's so beautiful,' but you can't stop anywhere. How cool it will be to bring people from out of town for dinner and dock at a place that shows the city."

It isn't the only place you can stop for docking-and-dinner options. The North Shore between PNC Park and Heinz Field provides 89 cleats at no charge, and there is no hourly limit. Boaters just have to walk a little more to get to North Shore restaurants.

But the need is so great, boaters say, that 47 more slips is something to celebrate -- and long overdue, considering the number of boats registered in Allegheny County. In 2004, the county led the state with 27,100 registered boats, said Dan Tredinnick of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Bucks County was next with 16,320.

"We've been pushing for years for transient docking in the city," said Andy Talento, who owns a house boat, a motorboat and a jet ski and lives in Penn Hills. General manager of the Tri-River Marine Trade Association, he takes issue with the $5-an-hour rate at Station Square because cars can park for $3 during lunch hours and $5 all day in the east lot.

"They should not be charging boaters more," he said. "There's a desperate need for transient docks and that price appears to be taking advantage."

Otherwise, he said, "it'll be great for Station Square and for boaters because it's another thing you can do with your boat."

A boater's wish list for public docking, preferably free, he said, would include the South Side and Strip District, two top destinations with limited or no transient docking spaces, and the shoreline under the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, "where there's a nice little park, a concrete wall with no tie-up cleats and shrubbery so that if you could get out of your boat, you'd step into a tree."

A plan is in the preliminary design phase for a riverfront park to accommodate watercraft at the convention center, between the Ninth Street Bridge and the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge, said Doug Straley, development manager for the Sports & Exhibition Authority.

As for existing marinas, space is down because of the storms spawned by Hurricane Ivan in September. The Sharpsburg Boat Dock was destroyed and has not come back. Others devastated have rebuilt but with less space.

Tredinnick said transient docking may be a great need but that people have to get into the river first and that, with just one public launch site on the South Side, Pittsburgh has "a great unmet need." The commission recently set up matching-fund grants to help municipalities create public boat ramps. A $200,000 grant helped Pittsburgh improve its South Side ramp. Last week, Sharpsburg was granted $150,000 to build a public boat launch.

James McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, said he wouldn't be surprised if the Station Square marina inspires more development of transient docking spaces in the area.

"The Bassmaster Classic was an outstanding example of what the rivers can mean to the community," he said. "The mentality of Pittsburgh turning its back on the rivers is coming to an end."