Comment—Too many marinas

Published: Wednesday, 09 March 2011

IT WAS way back in 2004 that, with a boom in boat building, the shortage of marina berths was critical, with not a single marina berth constructed during that year.

It was estimated that at least 750 narrowboats had been built in 2004, but no new marinas to accommodate them, with many believing that gridlock was around the corner, with the waterways chocked full of linear moored boats.

Self financing

But then James Froomberg, the new Commercial Director at British Waterways, one of those who were going to make British Waterways self financing by 2012, thought he could increase the number of boats, and thus income by a remarkable 40%.

So the New Marinas Unit was born, which was very successful indeed, with prospective marina owners being convinced of the lucrative income to be had, and it resulted in around 5,000 new marina berths being created.

Subsidised

At that time the government's policy on development in open countryside was just changing to allow for tourism activities, and farmers were being subsidised to diversify out of agriculture, with farmers even receiving cash payments for diversifying into building marinas.

As Victor Swift once called it, Marina Mania started in earnest, and in addition to the 5,000 marina berths already built, there are still 2,000 under construction—and still marinas accounting for around 2,500 more berths with planning permission. Nearly 10,000 new berths in all.

Bubble burst

But the bubble has burst.  Last year, boat builder after boat builder either went into liquidation or stopped building narrowboats, with even the cheap imported boats having virtually ceased. Sales jetties are now crammed full of boats whose owners can longer afford the ever increasing costs, with buyers very thin on the ground.

Many of those marinas already built are less than half full, and even the boats in those are being taken from the old established ones.  Our own Sawley Marina, with a long waiting list for berths in the boom years of not so long ago, at our count in late November had 151 of its 544 berths empty, many going to the newly opened Mercia Marina, in addition to those boaters leaving the waterways.

Breaking ranks

Everywhere there are empty berths, with an estimated  2,500 over the network, with marinas, as reported in narrowboatworld breaking ranks and cutting fees to attract boaters.

All the signs are that this year the numbers of boaters are going to continue to fall, with sales at an all-time low, and very few new narrowboats being built.

There is now a complete disparity between berths and boats, and it has been stated that it will take 10 years to fill all the  present vacant berths, let alone another 4,500 coming on line.

One of these is the giant 600 berth Onley Marina  that is being built on the Braunston pound, that would mean there would be five marinas in just six miles—how ridiculous is that?

Packed with marinas

The eastern end of the  Trent & Mersey Canal is also packed with new marinas, Barton Marina and Kings Bromley marinas taking advantage of the boom, followed by Mercia and Aston marinas that are suffering the downturn, and even another being built between Aston and King's Bromley marinas, that surely will fail.

British Waterways is ignoring the issue, getting of course a sizeable annual rent from these marinas, and seems to be impervious to the lament of the new marina owners, who are suffering from what is little more than a gravy train for British Waterways.

But the end is definitely near, for new marinas need finance, and the banks and finance houses will now surely see that the bubble has burst, and such lending very much a thing of the past.

Tom Crossley