Eight marinas – three British and five French – announced their partnership today at the London Boat Show. Formed to promote cross-Channel sailing and improve marina standards, the ports of Dover, Eastbourne and Ramsgate in the UK, and Boulogne-sur-mer, Calais, Dunkerque, Etaples-sur-mer and Gravelines in Northern France will be working together for three years.

French director Sylvie Logie said that despite the importance placed on boating tourism by all the member marinas, cross-Channel voyages between them were surprisingly low: ‘When you consider the sailing time between any two member marinas is less than a day you might expect a lot of interaction? We believe there is significant scope to increase traffic both ways.’

To make foreign marinas more appealing to visitors, a staff exchange initiative will enable marina staff to learn from and compare operations on opposite sides of the Channel. So too will managers exchange knowledge gained from experience dealing with what are often the same problems: dredging operations and environmental policies to name just two.

Transmanche’s aim is to raise cross-Channel movement by 5%: initially most of this movement will be during summer months, but they hope to extend this to an increased number of exchanges all year-round.