Hugh Marriage Posts

Well, it did not turn out to be a barbeque summer. Visiting yachts, which account for about a third of the harbour’s income, are probably slightly up on the last two years but still around 50% down from about seven years ago. This underlines how dependent the harbour is on the weather. We do face some difficulties in marketing the harbour. It is generally choc-a-block in July and August. If we promote the harbour, more people turn up in the…

Harbour Board members are encouraged to spend one day a year in peak season with the harbour staff . This year I chose the first Saturday in August. This is an excellent way of finding out how the harbour works on the water. And water was my first stop: I saw the new facility which makes drinking water available to yachts on the visitors’ pontoon in the Bag. Trying to connect the pontoon to the water mains would have involved…

Sitting in the Harbour Office is a little device known as an Opinion Meter. People visiting the Office can use it to record what they think of the harbour and its facilities. Some results for this year have just become available and they make encouraging reading. So far, the weather this year has been better than either of the last two. Visitor yacht numbers are keeping up and may even stem the year-on-year decline which has been going on for…

The Harbour Board recently had two items of note. By far the most important was the go-ahead for the replacement of Batson pontoons this winter. This should greatly improve the facilities for small boat owners and also, with luck, free up a pontoon for Frogmore. But the item which caused controversy was water-skiing. The problem lies outside the harbour in Starehole Bay, in the lee of Bolt Head. It is beyond the harbour limits and with no speed limit. Its…

You often hear people saying that they think the harbour is silting up, but is there any way of checking this? Well, yes, there is: I did it without leaving my armchair and so can you. My grandfather was a Master Mariner, a First World War naval captain, Commodore of his local yacht club, a lifeboat crew member and a keen yachtsman. He used to sail the Fastnet race in his 2½ ton Hilliard (yes, 2½ ton: it would not…

A special feature of Salcombe Harbour is the opportunity for bathing. Neighbouring harbours do not have anything to compare with the golden sands which stretch from East Portlemouth to the bar on the east, and NEaster 2009: pontoons and dredging Although things sometimes seem to move slowly, there have been a number of improvements around the harbour over the last year or so, most noticeably the residents’ pontoons with their white-capped piles and the new visitor pontoon in Kingsbridge, which…

Although things sometimes seem to move slowly, there have been a number of improvements around the harbour over the last year or so, most noticeably the residents’ pontoons with their white-capped piles and the new visitor pontoon in Kingsbridge, which makes an easy place to stop for shopping or a meal. More is planned: work to replace Batson creek pontoons should start in the autumn, but probably without white-capped piles which may look less conspicuous at least until the gulls…

The new season sees a 6 knot speed limit for powered boats in the centre of harbour. Up to now, the limit has been 8 knots. Why this change? In a word, wash. Drivers of vessels and vehicles alike tend to ignore wash. The 50mph restrictions around motorway roadworks are at least partly because, above that speed, the turbulence from passing vehicles makes it difficult and dangerous for the workforce. Equally, it may be safe enough – in terms of…

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