After decades of relative inactivity Falmouth Harbour is injecting new business life into to their prime waterfront site at the Boatpark at Grove Place by creating a marine hub for all boat owners.
One of the UK's most renowned yacht rigging and spar fabrication experts has become the first boating and marine-related business to relocate to Falmouth Harbour's new Marine Hub.
Allspars have added workshops and office units at the Falmouth Harbour Marine Hub in Grove Place to their to their marine bases in Plymouth and the Solent, supplying state of the art services to leisure and racing yachts in local waters and across the globe.
"Falmouth Harbour is responsible for a huge body of water and a variety of stakeholders and we are very excited to be offering opportunities for marine businesses to work alongside us right in the heart of our historic town," says Falmouth Harbour's Head of Commercial Operations Holly Manvell.
"For centuries our harbour has been a centre for building, servicing and teaching just about everything 'marine', so to help provide facilities, skills and opportunities to continue this legacy is both a privilege and a responsibility for our team. Allspars are renowned for their quality and team spirit, and we are delighted to welcome them as our Marine Hub's inaugural tenants."
Falmouth Harbour's Marine Hub of related operations, working alongside traditional boat storage on the Harbour's Grove Park waterfront site, aims to make a variety of marine services readily accessible to the wider Falmouth boating community as well as visitors throughout the year.
"Accessibility to key services like rigging and boat repairs is a major component for getting out and enjoying the water in the season ahead - and as a Harbour Authority it's a major component of safety in our waters," says Holly. "Our Marine Hub of "pods" will become a colony of expertise for our boating community to easily tap into."
Formed more than 25 years ago, the award-winning Allspars has evolved into one of the world's largest rigging companies with a reputation for excellence in the industry. Their team is made up of sailors who combine their love of the water with both extensive experience in sailing vessels of all shapes and sizes and technical and engineering knowledge.
"The opportunity to relocate our Falmouth operations to the new Marine Hub in Falmouth Harbour was too good to turn down," says Matt Pullen from Allspars. "The quayside access will be a huge asset to the business and the services we can offer onsite and this move is a mark of our commitment to provide Falmouth and the wider sailing community with our masts and rigging services. It's a pleasure to be working alongside a great team at the Harbour and we look forward to strengthening our relationship."
When asked if Falmouth Harbour intended adding more pods to the area thus reducing boat places and lay up berths for local boat owners Holly said: "As you know, we've the grey pods in place for a while now and these are being opened up to marine businesses to help service boats, local and visiting, and in doing so, will help drive greater activity in our local waters, more short-stays and town-access, and easy access to services that help maintain the safety of vessels in Falmouth Harbour.
This is alongside boat storage, tender storage and a personal water-craft storage, which we are looking at making much more of - better and smarter for storage for those who genuinely want to use their vessels and get on the water."
One of the new pods is a large meeting space, which will be opened in the New Year to marine businesses, agents, organisations to rent for meetings / teaching and workshops.
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