August should be the month when the harbour earns its money. Last year June and July were good, but visitor numbers and revenue dipped in August. This year June and July were, if anything, even better. But this year the collapse in August (at least at the time of writing) is even steeper. Instead of the 80 visiting yachts on a typical night last August, there are barely 40.
Of course the harbour is heavily weather-dependent and poorer weather means fewer visitors. Although we continue to welcome visitors from France, the Netherlands and Germany, an increasing proportion come little further than Dartmouth or Plymouth. These more local visitors may take their sailing decisions on a very short-term basis. If on Wednesday the weekend is not looking good, they just don’t go anywhere.
But we have had a good year with sizeable dinghy fleets and plenty of exciting racing with quite strong winds. Unfortunately the winds, or whatever, have proved to be too much for some. Several yawls have become swamped (they don’t often capsize, just fill with water which is then quite difficult to clear). And there is an increasing number of collisions between craft and with moored vessels.
This is a problem. If someone moors their expensively-repainted pride and joy in the Bag, they aren’t best pleased to find a long scrape down the side. Bigger fleets produce fiercer competition and can cause people to take more risks in what may be more restricted water. Those who are out of practice, or are not used to strong tides, can then hit another boat. The number of reported collisions can run into three figures. The owners of damaged yachts call for more restrictions on where races are held and how races are managed.
Dartmouth has solved this by banning sailboat racing in the main part of the harbour, moving the racing marks either up river – to the equivalent of our Widegates, between Saltstone and Kingsbridge – or out to sea. But Salcombe is much more of a small-boat harbour, where dinghy racing runs as if on a railway timetable and it would be a pity to take that away. Hence the search is on for some other, probably more difficult and messy, solution.
August evening high tides also see the return of the speeders who seem quite unaware of the danger they present to smaller craft either by collision (which has happened) or by their wash often hundreds of metres behind. Each year a few more people are prosecuted, and this year is no exception: but collecting the necessary evidence to beyond-reasonable-doubt isn’t always easy. However, because a condition of a Harbour Licence is that you abide by the byelaws, it is possible, on a balance of probabilities, to ban a boat from being used in the harbour.
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