I came over here, having never heard of BE, from the old forum when it closed down about the same time you did, judging from the member "RO" numbers. Someone had posted a link. I think part of the issue is that the old forum was easy to find when someone did a search on the Delta, and it benefitted by its ties to the Chamber and Hal.
This forum is dominated by the east coast, particularly northeast (not that I mind now that we live and boat out here). Being a "closed" forum that discourages external commercial links or associations, it has become less and less relevant in this age of internet sharing, so in general BE is slowly dying overall. It does generally cater to the types of boats and boating that are prevalent in the Bay and Delta. Perhpas someone local could make a suggestion to the Chamber to promote this forum via a link, but they may not want to promote BoatFix for free at the expense of member businesses. Or, maybe, start a local forum again. Isn't the fishing forum (Fishdeltabuzz) still alive? Hmm, just checked, no posts there since the 7th, but it is kinfa off season.