Jersey Harbours have never listened to owners of small boats

From Mike Price.

ALTHOUGH I have only a small boat in the Old Harbour, I would hope that Jersey Harbours’ chief executive, Howard Le Cornu, will listen to me.

I take his recent statement that we, his customers in the Old Harbour, are a mere percentage of the Islandwide boat owners and are not to be listened to, as an insult. In fact, Jersey Harbours have never listened to the owners of small boats. They prefer to dream of superyachts and gin palaces.

The Old Harbour is the last remaining natural harbour where we can moor at an affordable price, with the advantage of half-tide access with drying out facilities throughout the month. Turning it into two walled marinas will not only cost us considerably more, but will irreversibly change the face of boating in St Helier, and quite possibly berth fewer boats as well.

Mr Le Cornu’s statistics are questionable, to say the least, but the views of those with boats in the Old Harbour are surely as important, possibly more important, as the views of the gin palace owners in the marinas who will remain unaffected by the loss of the drying harbour.

I ask all St Helier boat owners to protest publicly, politically and through your columns, to save this last affordable home to more than 400 boats.