Portavadie Getting indoor and outdoor pools
- Thread starter Spyro
- Start date
JClarkes
Well-Known Member
Some marina that. Would love to visit someday.
Rick_A
Well-Known Member
Owned by the owners of either Grants or Glens whisky/vodka, can't remember which, so probably just a big tax dodge funding it.
But as regular visitors to it, it is a place that just gets better each year. As does their accommodation.
But as regular visitors to it, it is a place that just gets better each year. As does their accommodation.
TSB240
Well-Known Member
Only recently visited and I have to say it gets my vote as the Carlsberg of Marinas. Visiting charges were very reasonable and the facilities put our home marina to shame.
LittleShip
Well-Known Member
Shhhsh.... Keep quiet..... Don't tell everybody, they'll all be turning up.
Tom.
Tom.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
I think that Portavadie decided a long time ago to aim themselves mainly at day visitors. Hence free berthing for lunch, excellent food and so on. It seems to be working, as the Kyles of Bute on nice days are a constant stream of motorboats heading from the mainland marinas to Portavadie for lunch.
PeteCooper
Well-Known Member
Portavadie started going downhill when the hair straighteners disappeared from the gents toilets.
Aja
Well-Known Member
Well. Where do i start with this place. The money came from you and me as tax payers. There would not be a marina there without Tony Wedgewood Benn investing lots and lots of tax £'s in a huge hole in the ground. Apparently it was a perfect place to build oil rigs in the mid seventies. He even built a beautiful fully contained village for the workers to live in whilst they built rig after rig after rig. Only one or two problems. No rig orders. Oh and did they check who owned the land and access that the the village was built on? Ooops.
The village is still there. Never lived in and slowly but surely decaying. Wonder what happened to all the cookers; washing machines etc that were once there.
As for the current marina - paid for by the profit from a fairly industrial distillery down by the river Leven in Alexandria. Next time you neck a bottle of Coop voddy....
Regards
Donald
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Some entertaining details at http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1981/feb/03/portavadie-public-inquiry
I think the fundamental problem is that by the time Scottish yards had been built to make concrete platforms, the technology had moved on and their products were effectively obsolete. I spent childhood holidays watch the two built at Ardyne grow. Did the Hunterston yard ever build any?
Gordonmc
Well-Known Member
A bit negative Aja?
True, the debacle of the rig yard and Polphail will go down in the annals as a disaster.
If, however, Sir Monty Finneston's plan to create a market for Ravenscraig steel and a jobs-base for Argyll had worked we might have a different opinion.
Leaving that aside the area was left with a huge swimming pool with no future.
All credit to Sandy Bulloch, then, for having the vision to exploit the site and develop it with daughter and son-in law.
I suspect the money to make it happen came from the sale of Lomond distilleries although the Bulloch family has been into whisky blending and bottling for decades and there are plans, I gather, for a distillery at Portavadie.
Lets leave it with thought that a top end tourist attraction generating hundreds of jobs (and built by a Dunoon company) is slightly preferable to a piece of post-industrial dereliction.
I have no connection with Portavadie or its owners.
Aja
Well-Known Member
Sorry if I'm being negative. The OP asked where the money came from. Not ifs or buts what might have happened if.....
Regards
Donald
Regards
Donald
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Well in that case, some of the initial cost, many years ago, came from the taxpayer. We paid for Polphail village, but i think Trafalgar House paid for the Big Hole In the Ground. However, all that's in the distant past. The marina is all private money, as far as I am aware.
Railbob
Well-Known Member
SWMBO and I have just moved into Portavadie at the weekend. Even allowing for the extra travel time and fuel We'll be saving quite a few bob. The staff are first class and the facilities are second to none.
Spyro
Well-Known Member
I knew it was private money, what I was getting at is it can't be a business venture as the building costs must far out way the income from the marina and facilities. maybe there is just someone wanting to give a bit back to the local community and would rather have a beautiful marina with excellent facilities rather than a big hole in the ground. Not been there this year but on my numerous previous visits I was always amazed at how over staffed it was and how under efficient they all were.
TSB240
Well-Known Member
I am sure that if it was just a marina it would have folded some time ago! I declined to purchase a mug in the swindlery and souvenir shop . The 16.95 price tag was over 10 times the price I bought the same mug back at home port. The venue is superb for weddings,visiting competiitive fleets, conferences etc. The marina must be subsidised by the alternative business models. Swimming pools spa golf course, clay pigeon shooting and other pastimes will surely be added to attract more free spending customers rather than tight fisted yachties like me.
Billjratt
Well-Known Member
Yes - Chicago Bridge and Iron co. built one. I think it was for phillips petroleum. Rumours of a second build were unfounded.