Sailing ahead

For a country whose Baltic sea coast is awash with sailors from Germany and Scandinavia, Poland has surprisingly few European-standard marinas. However, with the announcement that one such marina is to be developed in the port of Ustka, it may be that this neglected segment of development is now about to wake up

There are several existing marinas in Poland, such as at Kamień Pomorski, Hel and Władysławowo. But in terms of facilities few of these are up to the size and standards enjoyed by their counterparts in longer-established EU countries, such as Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Three of the largest and most modern marinas are to be found in Łeba, Gdynia and Gdańsk. Łeba has mooring places for 120 boats and Gdynia for 91. The development of the latter marina was 25 pct financed by local government and 75 pct by the Phare programme, which was set up by the EU. However, Gdańsk marina, in the very centre of the city, which will be celebrating its 10 birthday in June, was financed entirely by the city authorities.

Demand growing

According to Rafał Grad, the director of MOSIR, the municipal body responsible for public sports facilities in Gdańsk (and which also manages the marina), the demand for the services marinas provide is growing in Poland, and this has prompted Gdańsk council to consider expansion plans, increasing the number of mooring places from 60 to around 90. Mr Grad outlines the current proposals: “As with the original marina, the expansion project will be 100 pct financed from the city – app. PLN 1-1.5 mln, although this is difficult to estimate as construction costs are growing so fast. And this applies to everything – piers, underwater surveys and pontoons, amongst other things.” He goes on to add that: “Currently there are around 1,000 visitors a year. We must expand the marina into a neighbouring channel and open a nearby bridge, providing spaces for about 30 more boats, mainly motorboats and small yachts. The preparation of the plans is likely to take 1–1.5 years, and then the building work can start, to be finished around 3 years from now.”

The marina was built in 1997 to celebrate the millennium of Gdańsk, with guests from all over the world invited to its opening. This year, the 10th anniversary of the marina, there will be 2 days of concerts on 29th and 30th June, including a regatta, the Marina Gdańsk Cup, and an international jet-ski competition.

Following the football

According to Rafał Grad, the city authorities are currently extremely interested in promoting Gdańsk through the marina, especially after the recent decision to award the Euro 2012 football championships to Poland and Ukraine (Gdańsk is to be one of the venues). “For Euro 2012 we are expecting a lot of sailors from Germany, Sweden, Holland and other footballing nations,’ says Mr Grad. “Euro 2012 is a good advert for Poland, and we hope that Poland prepares well for this event, but we are 100 pct sure that the marina will benefit.”

In Ustka, the development of the marina may take a different form to those of Gdynia and Gdańsk. This project could be a public-private venture between the town council, Urząd Morski in Słupsk and the Dutch developer Van Den Herik, but the precise make-up of this relationship still has to be established – it could yet go ahead as a purely private or a wholly public project. At present the planning procedures still have to be finalized, and this is expected to take around 1 year. The plan then is to build over the next 5 years the biggest marina in Poland so far, with spaces for 500 yachts in an investment likely to cost EUR 30 mln. The marina itself could cover an area measuring 500 m by 500 m. On a 5-ha plot adjacent to the marina, there is the possibility to build apartments for the sailors and service points. The plan also includes proposals for a promenade and one to link the west and east sides of the town – currently divided by a canal – with a modern drawbridge. This is Van Der Herik’s first Polish project, but may not be the last, according to Theo Huysmann, who is the Van Der Herik’s engineer responsible for the project: “We will see how successful this project is, and how it is realized, before we consider similar ones elsewhere in Poland. You can’t do too much at once.” According to Mr Huysman, this company decided to consider a Polish marina project because of Poland’s EU membership and the prospects of increased tourism. The reason why there has been so little marina development in Poland so far, he believes, is down to the weakness of the domestic economy until recently.

Raising the profile

As for other potential locations for marinas in Poland, Rafał Grad of Mosir feels that: “As for the rest of the Polish coast, there are not enough facilities from sailors on the stretch between Szczecin and Łeba for sailors from more western countries. Most of these sailors are from Germany, who have to travel more than a day and a half to get to the first real marina.” Indeed, it is mainly German mariners who marina authorities are trying to entice along the coast from their homeland. According to Mr Grad: “The biggest problem faced by our marina is over its promotion. The city has very little money for this.”

However, the different marina authorities have been discussing between themselves a possible solution for this problem, as Mr Grad explains: “We are thinking about a single unified body responsible for the promotion of all the Polish marinas, but aimed mainly at German sailors, in order to let them know how well prepared our facilities are, how many places there are for guests, where it is possible to moor.”

And how about the prospects of a boom in marina use due to the increased prosperity of Poles themselves? Rafał Grad is not so certain of this: “Polish people know about the marinas, but our problem mainly lies with promoting them for the foreign sailors who currently make up half of our customers. I’m not sure if there will be more from Poland. People from this country rather than buying sailing boats mainly go for motorboats and ski-jets – maybe because they are easier to drive – so there will certainly be more of these.”