It was reported in Marine Business News recently, that rising boat sales in India means a need for marinas. This is good news for visiting yachts who currently have to “make do” in a country where marine leisure is just beginning.

India has 7,600km of coastline, warm weather, a booming economy and projections of a 50 per cent below-25 population by 2020. In the next five years, the leisure boating industry will be worth at least US$1 billion, but so far, demand outstrips supply as far as marinas go.

In yet another sign of the rich getting richer, an increasing number of people are buying pleasure boats, and according to a yachting association official, have spent Rs400 crore (AUD$10 million) since Mumbai hosted India’s first international boat exhibition last year.

The second boat exhibition was held from 28 February to 2 March, and a slew of new boats hit Indian waters. If the trend continues, there likely wouldn’t be adequate space to berth the new acquisitions at the docks of Mumbai, or for that matter, Goa, Kochi (Cochin) or Chennai.

The quayside off Mumbai’s Gateway of India is already clogged with boats of all sizes, uses and types, and people frequently jump from one vessel to another to reach their own. Prior to the boat show, there were around 20-30 pleasure boats here; post-event, there are more than 100.

“It’s the typical Indian mentality…first they buy Porsches, then they think of roads,” says Malav Shroff, publisher of India’s first trade magazine India Boating, and chief executive of Mumbai-based Ocean Blue Marinas and Boat Haven Pvt. Ltd, which also organizes the boat show.

“Now people are buying boats, they will think of building marinas later,” he adds.

Goa, Chennai and Kochi

Shroff senses a huge business opportunity in the anticipated shortage in docking facilities, and others agree; Goa, Chennai and Kochi provide the maximum ­opportunity.

Marinas in Goa, with proper infrastructure, can take the load off Mumbai’s shores. Mumbai doesn’t have “good water quality”: the sea is choppy and the tide strong, and dredging can prove prohibitively expensive. Owners of yachts and smaller pleasure boats can dock their vessels in Goa and plan their vacations around sailing.

Feroze Contractor, managing director of Mumbai-based Ava Marine Services Pvt. Ltd, a 25-year-old company that maintains 35 yachts for clients, says there’s no space at the Gateway of India’s yacht area for the influx of new vessels.

“All of a sudden, all these boats are being imported, we are overflowing, we have run out of space,” says Contractor, who also owns three boats. A proper marina will save space, more vessels can be accommodated, and docking made easier, reducing damage.

He lists other advantages: owners will not have to invest in dinghies to reach their yachts moored in deeper waters, supplies of fuel and water for cleaning boats will be easier, and spillage of oil—now carried in jerry cans—will be history.

New Marina Projects

Aquasail has completed a feasibility study for about six marina projects. The company, which has targeted Kochi, Chennai and Goa, is now waiting for official permission to build its first marina by the year-end at any of the three centres.

Ocean Blue Marinas, which has set up a modern marina for the Mumbai boat show, has 15 projects in Goa, Kochi, Chennai and along the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. It’s already in the process of building one in Goa, where Shroff says permission is the easiest to acquire.

Shroff is also looking at new business avenues through marinas; taking a cue from gated communities coming up around golf courses, he has signed a deal with a developer to build a marina in a real estate project in Goa. He declined to name the developer, saying a formal announcement would be made soon.

Shroff says marinas will mushroom all along India’s shoreline, stretching across 7,000km, provided the government relaxes rules on marine environment protection. “Permissions are the most difficult to get.”

Volvo Ocean Race

Yachting association secretary-general Ajay Narang says what was bound to pique further interest in sailing is the Volvo Ocean Race—the premier round-the-globe yachting event held every three years— that has now added India on its route for the next edition in 2009.

Kochi has been added as a stopover this year, and the Kerala government will build a “racing village” across more than 2.5 acres, complete with accommodation for sailors, officials and more than 700 back-up personnel for the seven teams, a food court, theatre for cultural shows, and a nearby guest house complex for an expected 20,000 domestic and international tourists.

About 2,500 diehard fans follow the racing yachts across the world, says yachting association’s Narang and local interest will be significant.

Goa is GO!

Another shot in the arm for boating in the region is the interest of business people, including one tycoon from Goa and keen water sports lover, Umaji V Chowgule, MD at Goa Yacht Haven Pvt Ltd.

Chowgule, whose family business interests range from mining to brewing the popular Arlem beer in Goa, is planning to build a 300-boat marina in Sancoale village, in Mormugao Taluka, at the mouth of the Zuari river in Goa with an investment of Rs 100 crore.

Dredging can be a prohibitively expensive affair and a controversial issue, just like Hotel Leela discovered when the government planned to dredge the river Sal in south Goa.

A sustained agitation by the surrounding villagers of Assolna, Cavelossim, Velim, Betul and Ambelim saw the casino ship, which was to operate on river Sal after the dredging of the river bed, was finally towed away to the state capital, Panjim, and the government was forced to drop the controversial plan to dredge the river.

Constructing a marina will involve dredging. And in the absence of marinas, parking can be a nightmare for yacht owners getting environmental and other related permission headaches.

The construction of the marina is set to give Goa’s aim to get high-spending foreign tourists a shot in the arm, which the tourism authorities and ministers have trying to push albeit unsuccessfully over the last few years.

Goa, as of now, as a tourist destination, has been a favourite haunt for backpackers and low and middle budget foreign tourists.

The berthing facility for marinas is also likely to create around 1,000 to 2,000 jobs directly or indirectly related to the industry.

E-mails received in response to this article

I read with great interest your article on marinas in India.

We are currently moored on a temporary pontoon on the Mandovi River at Panaji (Panjim). Permission is being sought to allow a more permanent structure here but the Captain of Ports is adamant that it will be removed when we all (11 boats as part of Vasco Da Gama rally) leave after the monsoon.

Further, the Captain of Ports has laid large mooring buoys in the only other anchorage in Verem Bay. There is now nowhere for yachts to safely go in Goa.

We have met the Minister for Sports and the Minister for Tourism who both “say” they are keen to develop marinas, but they did have an audience of yachtsmen. We often hear things in India reflecting what the speaker thinks we want to hear, not what they really mean.

If we do hear of any further developments we will let you know.

Tim Moore & Chris Brown

SY “Reckless of Hamble”

www.oceanyachting.co.uk

I have just read the article about India. I’m surprised that there was no mention of Marina India, one of India’s few notable marina companies. We have recently set up a small marina at Panjim in Goa with 16 yachts already occupying berths there. India’s first marina!

Regards,

Gautama Dutta

Managing Director

Marina India