Boat club cuts moorings: Humberside sailing group fights tide of rising costs with its own marina

THE HUGE increase in the number of people buying boats in the late 1980s created long waiting lists for mooring space and forced up costs.

One boat club that is providing a cheaper solution to the shortage of mooring space is the Humber Cruising Association, which with the help and advice of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is building its own marina at surprisingly little cost to its 80 members.

In the first year of its operation, the club asked members for a returnable loan of pounds 2,000, which was used to start building the marina. As well as the loan, members pay a mooring fee of up to pounds 420.

The combined costs still work out considerably cheaper than using other moorings, where annual fees run into thousands of pounds.

John Greenwood, who runs the Humber association, said: 'We already have 120 more applicants this year. We started by asking members for a loan bond of pounds 2,000; this year it has gone up to pounds 2,500. If you leave the association you get that sum back, but without interest, but you get very cheap moorings in the meantime.'

A year ago, Mr Greenwood and a group of dissatisfied yachtsmen were paying high annual mooring charges at Grimbsy fish docks. They decided the time had come to form an association to build their own marina, and approached the Association of British Ports.

The ABP was quite interested but wanted financial forecasts and more concrete evidence that the project could be viable. The Royal Yacht Association then became involved.

Peter Waring, RYA marina and mooring co-ordinator, said: 'We did quite a bit of work in the encouragement stakes and provided them with a model constitution. The problem is making sure you have good management.'

The Humber Cruising Association priced the installation of pontoons and fingers (beside which the boats are moored), and made financial projections to 1999. Mr Greenwood said: 'We based our finances on the minimum number of members (40) and discounted any grant aid which might be available.'

One year later the association has just over double that membership and is about to attract aid from the EU, sports and arts funds and a land reclamation grant. This money may be used to expand further and build a clubhouse - as an affiliate of the RYA, the association must be non-profit.

'People said we couldn't do it, but we enlisted the help of accountants and employed professional labour to build the pontoons,' Mr Greenwood said. 'It is very satisfying to build something from nothing at all.'

He said the association had managed to keep costs down because it had only one part-time dock manager. The nearest marina has capacity for 180 boats and employs 28 full-time staff.

'We supply the best-quality pontoons, electricity, water, showers and toilets,' Mr Greenwood added. He said his previous mooring cost more than pounds 1,000 a year.

The association pays the ABP an escalating annual rent. It is pounds 10,000 now, rising to pounds 120,000 in 2000, and then it will be linked to the retail price index. If it attracts 300 boats by that time, paying pounds 600 a year, it will easily cover that cost.

Matthew Kennerley, who looks after all new projects in the area for the ABP, said: 'They have got our full support. We had to rationalise our fish docks, so No 2 fish dock became redundant. The association offered us an attractive package, and from a business point of view it was ideal.

'We see it as good for boating, plus it attracts people from other areas. It creates an interest in the town and therefore benefits the community, and is also good for the ABP.

'With quite a bit of water up and down the country which is redundant or becoming so, it should be possible for other clubs and associations to do the same.' Mr Waring is to see Liverpool Marina, which is considering something similar.

(Photograph omitted)