Guernsey Marina confusion

[doris]

Alderney

Oi! Less of this 'Will go to Alderney instead'!

Braye is one of my fave places and don't want it getting too crowded even if Mainbrayce does want to sell you a new 2 stroke!

Then again maybe it might get the powers that be enthusiastic about another breakwater to take out the swell....would make it perfect!.

 

[Appledore]

I started this thread because I had been on the receiving end of some disappointing service and sensed I was not alone but I had no idea the problems were so widespread. As someone has observed the thread amounts to virtual universal condemnation. That's a shame because Guernsey is an attractive destination and ought to be on the waypoint list of cruising yachts. The attitude of the authorities is sad. Not a single word of official response here. That tells us something.

The comments on this forum are not the ramblings of grumpy old yachties - the grievances are genuine and substantial. Guernsey ignores them at their peril.

I would like to suggest a five point plan to help St. Peter Port put things right.


1: Stop the dorys' excessive speed and eliminate wash

2: Scrap the 8am wake up call for fee collection

3: Ensure only suitable boats are rafted together

4: Plan in advance for rallies to eliminate unnecessary boat movements

5: Introduce a customer satisfaction questionnaire with the information pack given to visiting yachts and act upon the findings.



Unless these simple changes are made I fear lots of us will continue to give Guernsey a miss and be stopping off in Braye and St. Helier instead.

If there's broad support for this 5-point plan from forum members I'll formally propose it to the Harbour Authority.

Although I've only visited SPP a few times, and only twice in my own little yacht, I fully support your 5 point plan. And, what's more, it will cost the Harbour Authorities almost nothing - if anything - to implement.

All of the Channel Islands, like the Isles of Scilly, depend very heavily on tourism, and many arrive by boats and yachts. I would think that many tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands,of pounds and Euros too, are spent by visitors arriving by pleasure craft.

One wonders if the HM has been advised no make 'no comment' at this time, until the situation has been looked into. But, thanks to the OP, things will surely improve and for the benefit of everyone.

 

[fireball]

One wonders if the HM has been advised no make 'no comment' at this time, until the situation has been looked into. But, thanks to the OP, things will surely improve and for the benefit of everyone.

Part of Customer Service is communications - if the HM tells us it's being looked into then that's fine - I don't think any of us would expect an instant "it's all fixed" response - or believe it! ...

 

[Robin]

My own view as a true local is that we shouldn't pander to yacht type people. Guernsey is Guernsey, get over it. And as to complaining about people on benches around the marina, well, do you think this is Iran? Last time I looked people were allowed to go and sit on a public seat in a public place?

You'll still come as the lure of tax free cheap fuel is too big to ignore.

TTFN

If you think having a bunch of alcoholics drinking in groups and kicking cans around on the public benches around the marina is a good image for Guernsey it shows how low standards have fallen, it isn't Iran but it is very much like Skid Row.

The lure of cheap fuel is not a big deal at all to yachts but might be more so for motor boats, however tax free fuel is available in Alderney and St Helier, if that were the only reason to visit. As I said earlier, we stopped using the harbour and if we wanted fuel just nipped in on our way past from an anchorage, but no longer spending any of our hard earned money in town like we used to.

Guernsey has always had a take it or leave it attitude, like for example shutting up shop on Bank Holidays just when visitor numbers are highest. I once tried to buy around £1,000's worth of chart plotter cartridges on the Saturday of a Bank Holiday weekend and couldn't even get an answer from the company concerned, nor did they even bother to call me back to answer my voicemail after the weekend.

I just watched the Channel Islands BBC news report on this on I-player and the response from Mr Gill was typical of the shrug and forget it will go away attitude. Talk to Salcombe Harbour who tried that on twice over my 40 years of cruising and it cost them dearly both times to learn the hard way that the customer may be a PITA but is the one that matters.

So troll away donkey, it will be Guernsey's Ass that gets kicked.

 

[Portland Bill]

As a local resident who works in the Marine sector I am very disappointed that anyone who has visited the Island on their boat has had a 'negative' experience and that any concerns have not been met with a satisfactory response (including remedial action or an assurance that action would be taken).

If I go to a hotel or a camp site I would expect (hope) to be able to enjoy the experience and that if any element of my stay was not enjoyable (other than circumstances beyond normal control - e.g. weather!) any comments made were taken very seriously - the experience of visiting yachtsmen (and women) using marina facilities should be no different.

I sincerely hope that all yacht crews will still consider visiting Guernsey despite any unfortunate experiences. The Island has so much to offer and hope that those genuinely aggrieved by recent stays would, on balance, consider all of the positive aspects of visiting the Island as a whole.

 

[Sailfree]

If you think having a bunch of alcoholics drinking in groups and kicking cans around on the public benches around the marina is a good image for Guernsey it shows how low standards have fallen, it isn't Iran but it is very much like Skid Row.

I think Guernsey does appear to have a youth/drink/employment problem with many foreign workers happy to do low paid jobs. I would add though that not as bad as Cork in ireland where we walked on a "sea" of spirit miniatures/small bottles left on the pavement where the youths had been getting tanked up.

I was surprised to see a sign on a SPP pub door "no tattoos allowed"

 

[doug748]

Quote:
"Some items here I have to disagree with, like the yobs on the quay. Never once during my visits have I felt scared. "

I have found them to be a better class of lush and never had a problem with them either. The standard of driving through the car parks is another matter.

I have spent a lot of time in SPP over the years and generally found things fine. The folks have a tricky job, though I did get cross when I was commanded to point the right way around on the waiting pontoon.

My biggest gripe is 38 foot boats on the finger pontoons, they were clearly designed for much smaller and there are bumps every day in high summer. One bloke hit me on the way in and narrowly missed doing the same on the way out.

 

[humbug716]

As a local resident who works in the Marine sector I am very disappointed that anyone who has visited the Island on their boat has had a 'negative' experience and that any concerns have not been met with a satisfactory response (including remedial action or an assurance that action would be taken).

If I go to a hotel or a camp site I would expect (hope) to be able to enjoy the experience and that if any element of my stay was not enjoyable (other than circumstances beyond normal control - e.g. weather!) any comments made were taken very seriously - the experience of visiting yachtsmen (and women) using marina facilities should be no different.

I sincerely hope that all yacht crews will still consider visiting Guernsey despite any unfortunate experiences. The Island has so much to offer and hope that those genuinely aggrieved by recent stays would, on balance, consider all of the positive aspects of visiting the Island as a whole.

Is that the Harbourmaster as it seems to be a very company style statement?

 

[Koeketiene]

Guernsey has always had a take it or leave it attitude, like for example shutting up shop on Bank Holidays just when visitor numbers are highest. I once tried to buy around £1,000's worth of chart plotter cartridges on the Saturday of a Bank Holiday weekend and couldn't even get an answer from the company concerned, nor did they even bother to call me back to answer my voicemail after the weekend.

This kind of attitude never ceases to amaze me.
Just because you're there and you happen to be waving some plastic or a wad of £££s around you expect everyone to drop whatever they are doing and jump to it?

Shop's shut - deal with it.

This Summer, for a change, why don't you try to buy something in France le Quatorze Juillet? Let us know how you get on

 

[Portland Bill]

Is that the Harbourmaster as it seems to be a very company style statement?

No, I think he might take a slightly different tack . However, when one works in the system and rely on tourist pennies one does have to couch one's responses carefully even though every word is meant most sincerely.

I'm sure HM will reply soon!

 

[Guernsey_Harbours]

Guernsey Harbours feedback

Apologies for the delay in response There are a number of misunderstandings and assumptions included within the thread, so it would be useful to be objective and try and clarify a few points.

Guernsey Harbours receives some 10,000 visiting yachts each year. In fact we have the largest reserved berthing capability for visiting yachts in Britain.

We welcome feedback from all. In that vein, comments freely given and regularly received from boat shows has overwhelmingly been along the lines of 'We enjoy the personal welcome service, the loos are second to none, see you next season'. It's a fact that in the last two years, harbour management have had no adverse feedback or formal direct complaints about customer service from visiting yachts. Interpret that how you will.

So it is of concern that an indirect blog appears to be the sole conduit for the comments being made.

Yes the port is busy. It has been full most summers for as long as most can remember. As a first principle we pride ourselves on doing our level best to provide a safe berth and protection from the weather and in welcoming all visitors alike. If that means double banking or rafting at the height of the season, so be it. Have a thought for the yacht still outside. The far greater crime is to send the tired crew of a yacht back out to sea, late at night, using the 'full up' sign as an excuse. That is certainly not our style.

We start the daily round of dues collection at 8.30 local time, (which for 40% of our visitors on EU time, is an hour later.) With several hundred yachts to visit, this takes quite a long time and can use up the whole morning. We prefer not to use the afternoon when large numbers have a siesta. Whilst we are sure that none of your correspondents would ever dream of leaving without paying, it's a sad fact that many do.

St. Peter Port does not reserve berths for anybody, regattas and rallies included, and the larger of these are discouraged during the high season. In any event, we do try to moor clubs and rallies together if at all possible for their convenience and to least inconvenience others. One man's joyful reunion or safe arrival party is sometimes annoying to others. That's life.

It is not acceptable, in our view, to tell a visitor that the empty berth he is looking at, is paid for and therefore unavailable. Where's the customer relations in that? Far sooner welcome a real arrival than take a deposit from a possible only.

The use of young temporary summer staff has been in place for a very long time. Maybe they don't have the communication skills, subtlety or experience of older hands and yes it is accepted that three recent retirements of the old hands has led to a marked reduction in that overall quantum of knowledge. We accept and understand that experience does take time to develop.

Speed limits within the harbours apply to all, staff and visitors alike. Occasionally, as one might expect, the enthusiasm to hurry and get on with the job has led to a reprimand. Unfortunately, with 30 foot rise and fall, time and tide wait for no man. On a lighter note, that, by the way, is why the ladders are so high. Any shorter and they would not reach the jetty top.

As suggested earlier, all feedback is welcomed, hard copy, email or personal. The office is open. Of course we take on board the comments made and will look to ways for improvement. However, scuttlebutt is scuttlebutt, Don't listen to rumour, come and judge us for yourself.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

Eeyore was 100% archetypical then?

Could this be the long awaited forum response from the Guernsey Harbour Master?

I'm just going down the pub to check with the stable 'lads'(mostly of the two bow fender gender) to be sure, but I thought you crossed a donkey with a horse to get a mule, not a Troll.

Thank goodness the Guernseymen we are friends with and do business with understand the value of the steady flow of the holiday yotty spend; someone worked it out for the mainland economies as worth a min £150.00 per head per 24hr- that's why the French town councils build marinas!

It is good news that the senior rates in GH are now aware of our concerns, inappropriate rafting is a failure of basic seamanship, AND dangerous in high winds, as rafts swing about due to not enough shore lines out .

'Like to Like Raft, Little 'un outside Big 'Un,' was hammered into me at about 11yo on the Thames and it's Estuary.

Presumably the young GH 'gentlemen' are far better educated about scantlings, seamanship, etc via RYA 0-? Courses than I was at their age?( cue Toad at this point?)

As a Retd RYA PBI, my maxim was "if I see wash, you are a wash out'-
high revs and wash in anything other than a genuine emergency are a sign of poor foresight and self discipline, usually among the young or inadequately trained.
Whereas a true harbour boatman positions well, is aware of the overall TRAFFIC pattern and wafts alongside before you realise it, so smooth and silent is their approach.
The 'old SPP Constables' were all adepts, as are the senior Yarmouth, IoW, HM dorymen.

The diesel in Braye is only 10p or so dearer, and just as tidal to get to.

 

[Robin]

This kind of attitude never ceases to amaze me.
Just because you're there and you happen to be waving some plastic or a wad of £££s around you expect everyone to drop whatever they are doing and jump to it?

Shop's shut - deal with it.

This Summer, for a change, why don't you try to buy something in France le Quatorze Juillet? Let us know how you get on

There speaks someone who is paid from government coffers and doesn't have to grovel for his shillings.

I can tell you the good shopmeisters in Poole and Bournemouth would be open over Bank Holidays including the supermarkets. At the very least the chandlers would be open on the Saturday, even if not on the Sunday or the Monday and they would certainly have the courtesy to call back after a voicemail.

We knew full well not to bother going to St Peter Port on Bank Holidays and learned to factor it into our route planning over the years. That meant that Cherbourg, Treguier, Perros Guirec and even St Helier gained at St Peter Port's expense. These days the cruise liners stop off Guernsey and boatloads of tourist are ferried ashore clutching their purses, better not bother on a holiday weekend though because it is like a wet weekend in Wigan. They should sell car stickers, 'Went to Guernsey once and it was shut', they might well sell those... in St Helier.

 

[Yacht Breeze]

Training

Speaking on BBC Radio Guernsey in response to the comments on this forum St. Peter Port's Harbour Master says that "Summer staff are given a week's training before being unleashed on the general public.".

Can novice young lads really be trained in boat handling, seamanship, berthing skills etc. in a week? I doubt it.

The skill and experience shown by the staff who recently retired demonstrate that it takes more than a week to acquire the ability to operate as 'berthing masters'.

There's obviously a problem. It will not take money to solve this problem, simply common sense.

Listen to those of us who love Guernsey but who are being driven away by the issues we have outlined.

Get those skilled and much-loved guys back to train the youngsters.

Scrap the 8am wake-up calls and implement a modern system of monitoring what your customers think and want.

Simples.

 

[Joker]

It's interesting to read the comments about the shops being closed.

In Germany, the chandlers may be on the quayside, as at Rostock, but being Germany, they shut at midday Saturday and are closed all day Sunday. Hmm - now when are most people likely to come down to their boats?

 

[humbug716]

As I remember it the summer staff used to do the majority of collecting leaving the marina attendants free to organise the yachts ready for the shuttle. Everthing done by temps was supervised. I feel sorry for Peter Gill as this probably is'nt his fault but he ultimately is responsible.

 

[sailorman]

As I remember it the summer staff used to do the majority of collecting leaving the marina attendants free to organise the yachts ready for the shuttle. Everthing done by temps was supervised. I feel sorry for Peter Gill as this probably is'nt his fault but he ultimately is responsible.

The boss is always responsible for what happens down the chain of command.
how many employees does he actually have, under 40 i guess

 

[mainbrayce]

It's interesting to read the comments about the shops being closed.

In Germany, the chandlers may be on the quayside, as at Rostock, but being Germany, they shut at midday Saturday and are closed all day Sunday. Hmm - now when are most people likely to come down to their boats?

Mainbrayce on Alderney is open from 8am until 6 pm seven days a week from 1st April until 30th September. I struggle to understand hy other local businesses aren't. It may be slow and boring at times but at the end of the day we are there to offer a service to as many or few yachts are in the harbour.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Mainbrayce on Alderney is open from 8am until 6 pm seven days a week from 1st April until 30th September. I struggle to understand hy other local businesses aren't. It may be slow and boring at times but at the end of the day we are there to offer a service to as many or few yachts are in the harbour.

And very helpful you were last August when I needed a new rubber hose for my generator. You scavenged one from the tip and didn't charge me a penny. Much appreciated, thanks.

I look forward to returning again this year, I do love Alderney.

 

[mainbrayce]

And very helpful you were last August when I needed a new rubber hose for my generator. You scavenged one from the tip and didn't charge me a penny. Much appreciated, thanks.

I look forward to returning again this year, I do love Alderney.

We look forward to seeing you!