The decision to hold payments in the association's account until the issue finally reaches a conclusion was made unanimously at the association's AGM this week.
It follows a similar decision, made 12 months ago, that mooring dues - which are coll
ected by the PBMA from its members on the Crown Estate's behalf - would not be passed on to the Crown Estate Commissioners without evidence that action was being taken against holders of unlicensed mooring equipment.
Members agreed that their annual fees of £40 per mooring should be kept by the association until the Court of Session considers an application by the Crown Estate for a court order to permit it to remove unlicensed moorings in Kames Bay.
That application has been challenged by Harry Ellis, who owns a mooring in the bay but is not a PBMA member, on the grounds that two royal charters, granted to the burgh of Rothesay in 1400 and 1584, allow free use of the sea bed around Bute.
The Crown Estate's application will be heard by the court at a hearing in Edinburgh from November 3-6.
"Another year, another AGM," association chairman John McMillan told the meeting at the Port Inn on Monday evening, "and still no decision on the big question of whether we pay or whether we do not pay for moorings.
"Let's just hope we get a satisfactory result at the court hearing in November, and put an end to this long-running debate.
"Last year we decided to withhold mooring dues from the Crown Estate, and we've had quite a few calls from them since - but to date the money is still in the bank.
"We can only wait and see what this year will bring. In the meantime we just carry on as usual."
Mr Ellis was invited to attend Monday's meeting to explain the current situation to PBMA members, but was unable to attend.
The association's secretary, Tim Saul, told the meeting there had been a "considerable volume" of correspondence with the Crown Estate's agents on the subject during the year.
"They have pestered the life out of me," Mr Saul said, "and they are becoming increasingly distressed - because I would imagine they get a commission on the fees.
"We do have a useful and cordial relationship with the Crown Estate's agents - they are just doing their job, and we have always dealt with them in a courteous and professional way - but at the moment they're not very happy because we are sitting on some money.
"They have been arguing with me that we have a lease with them and that we should therefore be paying them money, but I had to point out to them that the whole basis of our lease is now in question.
"If the court finds that they don't have the legal right to charge us, that lease becomes invalid.
"It's not just going to affect moorings here - it will affect thousands of moorings throughout the Clyde area."
