Availability of berths is becoming an ever greater problem – particularly in the South – and cost and weather considerations have caused ever increasing numbers of Brits to base their yachts abroad. This shortfall needs to be addressed.

One solution has been to rearrange marina layouts to increase berth numbers, but with average vessel sizes increasing significantly, handling and mooring such craft within older already cramped facilities creates practical problems, and potential litigation risk.

Unlike other shore based operations, marinas and yards have complex obligations to berth holders and the public under Statute and health and safety regulations, but are also often bound by local acts, byelaws, harbour legislation and the more esoteric - and often feudal- obligations of common law.

Add to this the increasingly stringent environmental and planning restrictions, and the sheer cost of new construction, and one can well see why so few facilities can significantly extend, or new ‘green site’ marinas are constructed.

That said, the decline of coastal commercial shipping, and the defence cuts, have already freed up suitable commercial waterside ‘brown sites’, many ideally placed for marina development. Some have been shortsightedly sold off for short term gain, and subsequently developed for housing or retail use, with minimal restricted berthing, but many still remain.

If the industry and the BMF can get these local authorities to take note of this study, and the very real contributions that such marinas can make to these often deprived areas, and they in turn seize the economic potential by prioritising, if not undertaking commercial marina developments, then the future looks bright.