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At Christmas, I reported that Kingsbridge, Lincombe and Batson were about to be dredged. Now they are all done, and very successfully too. The water-injection dredging turned out to be fully as clean as hoped: the mud from Kingsbridge dropped dutifully just outside Kingsbridge basin on the inside of the curves of the channel, and the mud from Lincombe and Batson swept outside the harbour, probably to Bolt Head. Natural England now use our harbour as an exemplar of environmental…

Whilst harbour dues and mooring charges for residents obviously provide the major part of the harbour’s income, an important third comes from fees and charges to visiting yachts. What is more, as there is no real possibility of increasing the number of resident moorings, that element of revenue can be boosted only by general increases in charges. However, as far as visitors are concerned, there should be some possibility of increased revenue as the number of visitors has dropped consistently…

Kingsbridge was dredged in February. The dredger worked for two hours either side of the spring high tides and it all went well. The silt has been reduced to just above the gravel bed of the basin, which is as far as one can safely go. Our spring high tides are always around 6 or 7 o’clock, so the dredger sometimes had to work at night or early morning, but that was the only way to get the job done.…

It is now nearly five years since the Harbour Board, which used to consist solely of local councillors, was reconstituted to have a majority of members appointed by open competition. It follows that the current Board’s opening Five-Year Plan is now drawing to a close. These pages have recorded some of the things which have been done over the last five years: but how should we approach the next five years? At one level, much won’t change: the Harbour will…

I got into terrible trouble when I recently said sweetly that speeding down the creek was a particular issue on summer evening high tides at the weekends. A reader ʾphoned to say that I was ignoring the serious speeding which took place at other times. Heaven forbid. This season no fewer than 48 written warnings for speeding have been issued by the Harbour Master, and there has also been one successful prosecution for anti-social behaviour. Sadly, speeding still goes on…

By November’s Harbour Board you know how well the harbour did over the summer. The answer is very well until July but as soon as the school holidays started the number of visitors dropped off steeply. There weren’t as many visiting yachts around in August, which is normally the peak month and, it seems, other ports had the same experience. But some things held up, like the water taxi income, so it wasn’t all bad. The Board has now taken…

After the sleepy days of summer, the October Harbour Board meeting always has a back-to-school, back to hard work, quality about it. The budget and fees for the next year are set – to allow for South Hams District Council’s lengthy procedures – and there was also the issue of improving enforcement of the rule that only SHDC Council Tax payers can retain a harbour mooring (you don’t, of course, have to be a local resident to have a commercial…

We refer to “Salcombe Harbour” but Salcombe is not, of course, the largest town on the water. Kingsbridge is over twice the size of Salcombe, if not so close to the sea or so accessible at all states of the tide. Much has been done in recent years to encourage visitors to the harbour to include a trip to Kingsbridge. There are lots of reasons for this: Kingsbridge is an interesting market town in its own right; it provides plenty…

August saw the launch of two phosphate-free initiatives for the harbour. First, the Harbour Authority began offering sample bottles of phosphate-free washing up detergent to visiting yachts. As the effluent from these yachts often goes straight into the harbour, this is a very direct way of reducing phosphates in the harbour water. Secondly, August also saw the launch of a phosphate free initiative in South Pool. The effluent from all South Pool houses must eventually end up in the harbour,…

This month I have seven updates on stories which have been running in this column. First, the Rivermaid is now based in Salcombe so that she can be used for estuary cruises when there is not enough water to run to Kingsbridge. This will help keep her financially viable. The Dartmouth to Salcombe ferries have been disrupted by poor weather but have proved popular on the days they have managed it. Second, water quality. The Environment Agency considers that the…