Good Afternoon all….On Tuesday we had the quarterly meeting with Captain of the Port.

We are now moving in the right direction to sorting out the problems of the Marina. We agreed on the following:

1.            DERELICT VESSELS would be categorised as follows

a)            Category A Boat starting to be unkempt and not attended to for a while. ACTION Association would write to the owner of the berth and advise him accordingly.

b)            Category A1 As above but No Engine. ACTION Owner would be advised that vessels in the Marina have to be propelled by an Engine. If not corrected, would be reported to the Port.

c)            Category A2. Boat with no means of propulsion. If not corrected, would be reported to the Port.

d)            Category B. Boat is now clearly not being taken care of and is becoming a derelict which will eventually cause a problem to the marina. ACTION Association would write to the owner of the berth and advise him accordingly and ask him to correct this ASAP.

e)            CATEGORY C. Vessel clearly a derelict which will eventually sink or cause problems to the Marina. ACTION. Will be reported to the Port for removal.

2.            EMPTY BERTHS. Owners are reminded that any berth which is empty or going to be empty (e.g. for winterisation) for a PROLONGED PERIOD, has to be reported to the Association and to the Port who will liaise to authorise its absence. Please note that any berth empty without the proper authorisation will be reported to the Port for action. E-mails should be sent to info@mhsbm.gi and Port which e-mail will shortly be advised.

3.            TRANSFER OF BERTHS. Authority has now been agreed for members wishing to come to an agreement between themselves to change their boat’s location between each other, can write to the Association and the Port. Please note that permissions will only be granted to boats that fall within the length limitations. 6.5 Meters is the breakoff point. 6.5m and above will be entitled to a large berth and 6.5 and below will be entitled to a small berth. The Port will shortly do an exercise to determine problems related to large boats (over 6.5 m) in small berths and small boats (less than 6.5m) in large berths. Pontoons A to E considered small berths and Pontoon F to L considered large berths. Any member can contact the above e-mail addresses in 3. Above, for any request and report any problem.

4.            REMOVAL OF BOATS. CoP advised that the law was being amended to ensure that the Port, having removed a boat which is  berthed illegally or whose member has had his license revoked, can then dispose of it. We will publish the changes once these have become law.

5.            EMPTY BERTHS.  CoP was advised that at the last count we had some 100 berths for which we had not collected the berth of Membership fees for. This equated to some £40,000 which the Association would be short of in its overall collection of fees. This would eventually create a problem in the accounts and in any case, this would be reported to the EGM which was scheduled for early November 2025.  CoP advised that this was not a Port decision but one taken by the Government and we should raise the matter with them. We have again written to the Minister responsible and shortly will write to the Patron of the Association, the Chief Minister. We are urging the Government to take a decision once and for all.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COMMITTEE IS AVAILABLE EVERY WEDNESDAY BETWEEN 10.30am AND 1pm IN CASE ANY MEMBER WANTS TO DISCUSS ANYTHING RELATED TO THE ABOVE. YOU CAN ALSO E-MAIL  info@mhsbm.gi TO PUT ANY RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COMMITTEE FOR DISCUSSION AND SUBSEQUENT PRESENTING TO THE CoP.     

 THE COMMITTEE