Inward looking or outward looking?
There isn't much chance that the Wash is about to replace the Solent as the hub of UK yachting and it's a long sail from other centres of yachting activity. Because the Wash constitutes a relatively difficult environment for yachtsmen, the opportunities for charter or instructional sailing are very limited.
On the freshwater side Kings Lynn could be the northern terminal of the Fenland network of inland waterways, connecting into the rest of the canal system via the Middle Level. The flat countryside allows very easy cruising with only occasional locks and the navigation extends to Bedford, Cambridge, Brandon and Stoke Ferry, including Ely, Huntingdon and St Neots. The system has a thriving community of boaters and opportunities might well exist for hire boats to operate out of Lynn on an inland marina.
A major factor in this decision is: how many other boats are there in the area?
This should give a good feel for how popular boating is and from what constituency Kings Lynn could
populate a marina.
Looking at
freshwater and saltwater marina berths gives us the following table:
| Coastal | Inland | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marina | berths | Marina | berths | |
| Wisbech | 128 | Ely | 200 | |
| Fosdyke | 60* | Littleport | 60 | |
| Wilburton | 60 | |||
| Earith | ? | |||
| St Ives | 120 | |||
| Huntingdon | 80 | |||
| Hartford | 200 | |||
| St Neots R. Mill | 100 | |||
| Buckden | 275 | |||
| Crosshall | 100 | |||
| St Neots | 100 | |||
| Total | 188* | Total | 1295 | |
(figures mostly from www.sail-the-net.com) (* may be an obsolete number.)
From the table (which doesn't represent anything like the total number of freshwater berths) it's obvious
that there is a very much larger constituency of freshwater boats and boating. It would be really perverse for
anyone contemplating a marina start-up to ignore the majority of the potential market.
In addition, it's true that the Kings Lynn lacks many of the features that sea-going boat owners are looking for when selecting a base. The average sailing family isn't looking for long, demanding passages. What's required are:
- A range of close and secure marina destinations (30 miles max) so that weekend cruises (outward on Saturday, night in port with a nice meal ashore, return on Sunday in good time to pack up, go home and get a good night's sleep before work on Monday) are a doddle.
- Picturesque anchorage really close (say 5 miles): sail down, anchor, take the kids ashore on the nice sandy beach. Have lunch, sail home.
- For longer passages, 'stepping-stone' marinas so that night passages aren't essential. For the average family/amateur crew there aren't enough competent/confident navigators and boat handlers to allow the skipper any off-watch time, so more than 12 hours at sea and the efficiency of the crew starts to droop.
- The possibility of 'popping out for a quick sail': especially early and late season, owners like to take their boats out for short sails. It's too chilly to spend nights aboard, but two or three hours sailing blows away the cobwebs and lets them feel they are getting some use out of the boat.
Kings Lynn doesn't satisfy many of those desires: only weekender destinations, and these aren't actually ideal: Wisbech involves organising passage through the swing bridge at Sutton Bridge. Fosdyke (pleasant though it is) is fairly short of entertaining facilities, although it has a few more than Wainfleet. Brancaster and Wells are a long haul for a day sail, with difficult harbour bars (particularly Wells) if there's any sea running. Grimsby is way too far. There really isn't anywhere to go for a day sail and the 'popping out for a sail' scenario doesn't work very easily: if it was possible to lock out on the flood, sail up river till high tide and then back to the marina to lock back in while there is still enough water, it would be fine, but the Cut Bridges mean that there's nowhere to go in the up river direction.
This isn't to say that a seaward-facing marina in Kings Lynnn isn't going to find some takers, but its natural disadvantages as a base mean it will always suffer compared to more scenic, more convenient and better located havens.
The conclusion has to be that if a marina serving both sea-going and inland boaters isn't feasible, then an inland marina makes a lot more sense than a seaward facing one.
Photo: freefoto.com