All four coastal awards of the Towergate’s Marina of the Year 2019 in addition to Marina Employee of the Year, scooped up by TransEurope members.
29/09/2019
The TransEurope Marinas AGM coincided this month with the prize-giving event for The Yacht Harbour Association’s Towergate’s Marina of the Year 2019, where a large crowd gathered on the Which Marina stand during the Southampton boat show to await the results.
Now in its seventh edition, the awards recognise the best of more than 160 Gold Anchor-accredited marinas from around the world. The winning marinas are voted for by their berth holders in the UK Coastal, UK Inland, International and Superyacht categories.
Winning their category for the first time, for a UK coastal marina with more than 250 berths, manager Matt Simms declared:
We are immensely proud to have been voted ‘Marina of the Year 2019’. We have been runner-up in 2015 and again in 2018, so to win really puts the icing on the cake! All the staff work really hard to provide a marina which we can be proud of, with service to match. It is great not only to have this effort recognised, but also to be able to put the North East coast on the boating map. We have a fantastic marina, but what really makes it is the people: those who work here, and our loyal berth holders, visitors and other users all of whom combine to create a wonderful marina community. It is really satisfying to know that people enjoy using the marina and want to vote, so our thanks to all who supported us.
Poole Quay Yacht Harbour, with a young and vibrant team managed by Kerrie Gray, reclaimed their top position as coastal marina under 250 berths.
Runner-up in this category was family-run Emsworth Yacht Harbour in pretty Chichester Harbour. Manager Alison Wakelin said:
We are delighted to have been awarded Runner Up in the Marina of the Year, Coastal marinas under 250 berths category. We are lucky to have a loyal and engaged community of boaters based here at Emsworth and our thanks to all those who voted for us. We also extend a warm welcome to all TransEurope member customers, so please pay us a visit and enjoy the Emsworth experience.
With another win for Quay Marinas, Jon Mellors at Conwy Quays Marina in north Wales was voted marina employee of the year.
Completing the podium as runner-up in the over 250-berth category, Charles Bush, manager of Mayflower Marina, congratulated the winners and expressed the significance of the results for TransEurope Marinas:
One of the criteria for membership of TransEurope Marinas is that any marina wishing to join should maintain high quality facilities and commensurate standards of customer service. That TransEurope Marina’s should have won both coastal categories, both runners-up awards and the employee of the year, is not only a tremendous achievement for the individual marinas and employee concerned but also, independent affirmation that the quality criteria within the group is being met.
This is a tremendous result for TransEurope Marinas, many of which proudly bear their 4 or 5 gold anchors as a symbol of sound management. These awards however are decided by the marina berth-holders rather than professional assessors, and as such comprise the most rewarding type of feedback for managers and their staff.
