110 By the Dart • Noss on Dart


When does the application get submitted? Hopefully it will have gone in by the time this article is published. It will be a detailed planning application for the marina, boatyard, commercial and administrative units, parking and storage and the waterfront hotel but for the moment just outline permission for most of the residential development. We’ve consulted widely with many stakeholders and the general public. With all its history, I think we’ve seen a desire from stakeholders that something must happen to this site and if something is going to happen, what’s the best we can do with it. How will the marina develop? We try to make our marinas fit the location. For Noss, we plan a new marina


“With all its history, I think we’ve seen a


desire from stakeholders that something must happen to this site; and if something is going to happen, what’s the best we can do with it.”


configuration for around 232 berths in addition to dry stack storage for 100 or so smaller motor craft. The wet berths will be easy to use with plenty of space for longer and wider yachts – there’ll be berths for boats of 9m – 25m with a likely average length of 12.5m. We’d like more berths but this is as many as we can


fit comfortably or is considered safe for navigation. The expansion of the marina itself will be less extensive than envisaged by the previous owners and this is because we are not planning to do significant amounts of dredging. Dry stacks are relatively new to the UK market and


are cheaper than wet berthing. We have 3 of them across our marina portfolio and they are proving a more affordable and easy way for people to get into boating. Maintenance costs for owners are also very low as the boats are kept out of the water and dry stacks are very secure. They are really ideal for small motor boats and RIBs – but not suitable for jet skis. We’ll have the capacity for approx 70 spaces for


want customers to be able to get everything done on their boats by the people they want to do it. We don’t run closed sites – we allow third party contractors to work on our sites albeit we do regulate and monitor them insofar as they must meet the appropriate health & safety standards and register with us when they’re on site. We also put a lot of effort into providing commercial space for local marine services – we work hard to find the right partners that best service our berth-holders. We’re planning, therefore, to build 21 commercial units and a new home for South Devon College. We may see some relocation of existing marine services from elsewhere but we also hope to encourage new start-ups


“A hotel is an important part of the development. The hotel makes it


more of a destination and adds a buzz to the place.“


onshore storage in the summer and over 100 in the winter. Land is always in great demand but the capacity at Noss is good for a marina of its size. But it’s important for us that these storage facilities are financially sustainable. One of the ways it works for us is making sure there is a constant flow of boats through the yard and alongside that, keeping our marine services tenants busy year round. There will also be a self-storage facility on site


for those owners wanting to store their boating equipment ashore – this is something that’s proved very popular at our other marinas. What about the boatyard facilities? We actually love boatyards! Marinas are unique micro economies – the businesses on a marina all depend on each other. We have a full service boatyard on all our sites – we


as well as businesses in their infancy (e.g currently operating out of a van). Our experience shows that by supporting tenants we can encourage their businesses to grow - especially as they’ll have a large part of their client base accessible on the site. Together with the South Devon College, we’re keen on developing a centre of excellence for marine services in and around Dartmouth. We’re planning to house a new 75 tonne boat hoist and build a new dock facility for craning boats out. This hoist will be larger than anything else on the river and will be convenient for private and commercial craft across most of South Devon. It will especially provide a convenient facility for local commercial vessels such as fishing trawlers who require a quick lift out and re-launch to carry out their essential maintenance work. Why build a hotel? Marinas are increasingly seen as leisure destinations so a hotel is an important


part of the development – if it was just a marina, it would suffer somewhat from being geographically rather isolated. The hotel makes it more of a destination and adds a buzz to the place. It also has important employment benefits. We’ll create a passenger ferry link with Dartmouth


and we are in the final stages of negotiation about this with the Dart Harbour Authority. It’s obviously an expensive service to start up and because of this we may end up running it ourselves – although we would much prefer that an experienced local operator took it on. The hotel will have 50 rooms, two restaurants, a spa and some adjoining apartments that are likely to be run by the hotel. It’s been one of the more challenging bits of the


design and we need to find the right operator to run it – we’re presently in dialogue with 3 or 4 experienced


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