It is now nearly five years since the Harbour Board, which used to consist solely of local councillors, was reconstituted to have a majority of members appointed by open competition. It follows that the current Board’s opening Five-Year Plan is now drawing to a close. These pages have recorded some of the things which have been done over the last five years: but how should we approach the next five years?
At one level, much won’t change: the Harbour will still have to maintain pontoons, moorings and buoys, pay staff, and run offices and that accounts for most of the money. But it is important to be prepared for changes and it’s not obvious what the next five years will bring.
The recession has hit the Harbour’s finances a bit, but not hard – indeed, it is difficult to disentangle economic effects from the impact of three summers of indifferent weather: last summer was the best but August, the most important month for the Harbour’s revenue, was poor.
There are some trends. Increases in the cost of fuel seem to have reduced the number of big motor yachts going great distances, although fortunately Salcombe still gets many visitors from Plymouth and Dartmouth. The trend continues for bigger sailing yachts with lots of gizmos so that they can be handled by a crew of only two. This is good, for the Harbour charges by length of the vessel.
More uncertainty surrounds smaller boats. Salcombe has a large number of smaller, high powered, motor craft. It is easy to launch here, the open sea is only a short distance away and, at least in Starehole Bay, can be sheltered enough for waterskiing.
But these small high-powered craft use vast quantities of fuel. The same people who boast that their car can go over 60 miles to the gallon have a speedboat doing three miles a gallon going round in circles. Is that going to go on for ever? If so, or if not, what are the implications for the Harbour? These boats account for a lot of the Harbour’s (and Island Street’s) income.
It’s tempting to come all over romantic and say that the harbour could go back to smaller sailing yachts and fleets of beautiful dinghies. But the Harbour would have difficulty coping with many more of these, although there may be scope for more regattas and the like. These are the imponderables we will have to ponder as we set the next Five-Year Plan.
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