Scarborough Boat Harbour QLD: call for input to govt

[Alan Mighty]

The QLD govt is keen to learn what you as a cruiser think about the future of the Scarborough Boat Harbour, on the northern end of the Redcliffe Peninsula.

QLD has just 6,572 registered sailing boats and 250,000 recreational speedboats and motor boats. Facilities for recreational boaters are biased towards the bigger number: plenty of launch ramps for tinnies and jet skis, fewer boat yards for yacht maintenance, few outlets for sewage pump-out, not many berths for transient live-aboards or long term live-aboards, not many choices for CIQ entry to Aus, and so on.

A few members of CF use or have used Scarborough Boat Harbour and its facilities, including Scarborough Marina and its boatyard, Redcliffe Marina, the Moreton Bay Boat Club with its marina, restaurant/club house, and its regular organised races (including the Garnet Rock course), and VMR 403 Coast Guard Redcliffe.

I've stood beside Fore and Aft, chatting idly while we watched a hull being hauled out for F&A to survey, for example.

Scarborough Marina has in the past been an international port of entry/exit for cruisers. Before Covid, Scarborough Marina actively promoted itself to international cruisers in New Caledonia, Vanuatu, etc as a destination for those heading W (even though ScarbMarina lost its occasional designation as a port of entry).

Scarborough Boat Harbour is well placed for exit from/entry to N Moreton Bay, either via the shoal draft passage via 'Gilligans Island' (skirting Bribie Island) or any of Pearl Channel, Main Channel, or East Channel. A perfect base for cruising in and from N Moreton Bay. A perfect base from which to participate in weekly races on the Garnet Rock course to improve sailing and crewing skills.

If you do not give input, then govt will feel entitled to pour more money into launching ramps for jet skis and tinnies, cafe dining, facilities for the 2032 Olympics, or hand wringing about whether to continue the decorative plantings of the African 'society garlic' plant.

You have today Friday 22 October and tomorrow Saturday 23 October to tell the QLD govt what you might prefer in Scarborough Boat Harbour, whether it be to push the QLD govt:

* to encourage continued leases for a diesel mechanic, chandlery, and boat maintenance at Scarborough Marina;
* to guarantee allocation of transient and longer term live-aboard berths at Redcliffe Marina, Scarborough Marina, and MBBC; or
* to maintain or consider exceeding the minimum depth of 1.8 m (if not more) in fairways in the Boat Harbour and prompting the marina lessees to follow suit; or
* you could just give an empty tick to more waterside dining facilities than the economy can sustain, even more jet skis, or the middle class obsession with society garlic in garden beds.

Two ways for you to get the QLD govt to read what you write:

* drop a pin on the relevant location in the interactive map and rattle on about your feelings on jet skis and society garlic at:

https://www.yoursay-projects.tmr.qld...gic_tabs__gix3

* spend a few minutes on the survey, giving your say on the importance of live-aboard berths and live-aboard facilities, plus the economic benefits of a chandlery and a boat maintenance company that has a track record of training apprentice boat builders in a diverse range of maintenance jobs, and the benefits of a squadron of the Aus Volunteer Coast Guard and its transceiver, at:

https://www.yoursay-projects.tmr.qld...gic_tabs__gix2

And if you're interested:
https://www.thespruce.com/society-ga...rofile-5180171

[Arafura II]

Was keen to berth there however as liveaboards the marina wasn't competitive with other options further south. it was double what I was paying at the GCCM and I had a single car garage with mezzanine floor 15 meters from the boat.

[Dave_S]

I did have my say, as a 15m cat it is becoming very difficult to find a long term spot at a marina. I am sure it is not just 15tm cats but I don't research other sizes. 3years ago Scarborough were offering huge discounts for 15tm cats now you have no hope. It's time to catch up.

With investors ready to build marinas but finding red tape too onerous. Something has to change.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I did have my say, as a 15m cat it is becoming very difficult to find a long term spot at a marina. I am sure it is not just 15tm cats but I don't research other sizes. 3years ago Scarborough were offering huge discounts for 15tm cats now you have no hope.

Thanks for responding to the QLD govt survey, Dave_S.

Have you asked, at the ScarbMarina office, about buying a berth to suit your cat?

Like many others, I've not been in the office lately (I think the manager was a close contact of someone with the dreaded lurgi the other day), but I had the idea that there were a few double berths, on K row, that would suit a 15 m cat listed for sale. By which I mean that in its early years, ScarbMarina had sold sub-leases of many of its berths. Those sub-leases end in about 2031 - so to work out how much to pay you just multiply the annual rent by the number of years to the end of the sub-lease (and then let someone do the more complex calculations of taking into account rent rises, maintenance fees etc). The office always has a list of berths for sale. Just ask.