Saul Kaplan, Rhode Island’s director of economic development, calls Rhode Island’s marine-trades sector its “crown jewel.” The Davisville site being eyed for a repair and shipbuilding facility for mega-yachts could be a major part of this jewel.

But does it make sense to commit the site to a yacht project, which, among other things, would be limited by the New England winter, with much smaller economic impact than a container port? No!

The explanation for the state’s alacrity in welcoming a mega-yacht center: Governor Carcieri, who entered public life by opposing a container port, and some of his followers in the summer yacht-club crowd (some of whom only live in Rhode Island in the summer), will do just about anything to keep out a real port — in this case, by filling the site with the yacht center, or at least the promise of it.

The Island Global Yachting project could, it is said, handle private yachts up to 600 feet long. The Florida-based company would pay the Quonset Development Corporation $120 million to $150 million for the property and hopes to employ 390 to 450 with average salaries around $50,000. It is also negotiating the purchase of an additional 32 acres. That’s not peanuts, and we’d welcome the project if it were located anywhere else. (How about elsewhere at Quonset?)

But it would be a terrific disservice to Rhode Islanders if the Carcieri adminstration were to permanently foreclose the possibility of building a container port, with its promise of broad-based, bottom-to-the-top economic development. Opposition to the port proposal has been ferocious in North Kingstown, where Quonset and Mr. Carcieri’s summer house are.

Still, as economic development continues to stagnate in Rhode Island, and other states quickly build or expand container ports to grab chunks of this growing and lucrative business, there is renewed interest in a container port at Quonset.

William Coffey, a consultant specializing in marine and shipping issues, believes that a small container port, with a footprint of about 100 acres, would greatly strengthen the Ocean State’s economic base. Similar facilities have direct employment in the 1,000 to 1,200 range, paying up to $100,000 a year per worker, per year, thanks to the International Longshoremen’s Association. And the economic spinoffs — in service- and manufacturing-company creation and expansion, and lower regional materials costs — would mean far more jobs.