So visiting yachts were down by 28% last year and Harbour Master Ian Gibson is "alarmed"....not sure why he is or why he would expect anything else when he introduces new policies such as charging for Whitestrand overnight rather than concentrating on the real issues such as; lack of facilities, nowhere to buy supplies ashore, nowhere to moor your boat very easily, increasingly less places to buy chandlery, overpriced shops and poor restaurants.
Supposedly the Harbour Board are going to introduce showers and WI-FI, just like they were supposedly going to do last year and the year before! It's not rocket science I don't see what the problem is.
If you are a visiting yachts person and come ashore dying for a decent coffee, your first port of call would probably be the Salcombe Coffee Company only to realise that it should have been the bank! Why they think they can charge more than Starbucks or Cafe Nero in Central London is beyond me. 2 Years ago they put their prices up 25p for a Grande Latte and the cups actually got smaller. If that isn't pure greed then what is? Also, don't expect any smiles or joviality form the owner, the miserable sod!
Your second thought is probably where can we eat tonight, only to find out that just about all Salcombe's restaurants were fully booked for August by June! So then you are left with the Kings Arm's, a lovely pub inside but a dive outside (minus the new balcony) with utterly stupid rules like you can only get pizza before 7pm, the rest of the menu is off limits...what about kids? Oh hang on there is Salcombe's new premier restaurant the Oyster Shack where you can get a seafood platter for £80 a head...the same price as the taster menu at one of Ramseys Michelin starred London restaurants.
If you want to stock up on supplies for the rest of your trip forget it, unless you want to go to Kingsbridge as there ins't anywhere to buy anything! If you need petrol you can forget that too unless you want to pay £8 a gallon at the fuel barge!
Salcombe is hard if not impossible to beat as an idyllic seaside town, but is quickly becoming a no go area for yachts people who can just go a few miles around the coast to Dartmouth for a far nicer experience.
But hey as long as the Harbour Board are getting their overnight mooring charges for Whitestrand and Salcombe traders can get people to pay their hugely inflated prices who cares, right!?
Monday 14 January 2008
Salcombe's BIG Problem...
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6 comments:
I really like your site, but i.m.h.o. your comments about the Salcombe Coffee Company are unfair, unlike ALL the other Salcombe caterers (except Pubs), The Salcombe Coffee Company is offering a year round service (its open this week when everyone else is closed). It is generally full, and out of season mainly with locals. We had a great meal in there in September at the same time as Cranch's end of season dinner, it doesn't get more local than that! The service is courteous and friendly, they even gave me extra Guacomole and Salsa the other day. I can only think that you had a bad experience, frankly I would rather be at the SCC than Starbucks or Neros regardless of the price.
Anyway if I were a visiting yachtsman my first port of call would be Morgan's for Breakfast and (probably) a cheaper cup of coffee.
Ref. Ian Gibson, I suspect that he is the best harbour master we have had in a long while, however he is operating in a world of risk assessment and blame culture, which makes his job much harder than the days of Laurie Prinn.
I believe the real bad guys are SHDC at Totnes (how about a rant on car park charges in the winter?), who milk Salcombe for all they can and give as little as they can (Ferry Pier, Shadycombe Toilets?), I understand that there have been several proposals for resolving the visitors showers issue which have been shamefully rejected. I would much prefer to enjoy the facilities at the yacht club without having to share them with a load of smelly visiting sailors.
Personally I think that the number of visiting yachtsman is a poor indicator, we should accept that Salcombe is best for small craft, mostly arriving on trailers, because these are families who rent houses, use our camp sites, drink in our pubs, shop in our shops and eat in our restaurants, and will come back year after year.
The reason why the restaurants are fully booked in the summer is because the holiday letting companies provide lists of restaurants with the confirmation of booking.
From a yachtsman's perspective Salcombe's charm is that it is different, it has swing moorings and you have to scramble over hundreds of inflatables to get back at night, if you wan't sanitised berthing go to Noss or QAB, though I suspect the facilities and prices won't be a lot different (except for showers!).
If you don't like the scramble, come out of season (just like don't book a skiing holiday at half term and expect not to queue at the lifts).
Topics for future Salcombe rants;
*Restaurants that you support in the winter who do double sittings in the summer
*Salcombe car park charges relative to Totnes
*The new pontoon at the Shadycombe slipway, chaos waiting to happen
I feel better now
David
Amazed at your views of Salcombe Coffee Company. As a year round coffee customer we have found the owner and staff smiley and always polite and eficient to deal with. Best coffee in Salcombe by a mile and whilst not cheap the ambience beats Starbucks any day. Compared to the s..t served in the wardroom it is worth giving up the estuary view. Love your blog - keep up the good work. Dick Tator.
What a bizzare interpretation of the coffee company, and frankly a very misleading one for anybody reading your blog! Coffee is supposed to be served in small amounts, (i actually find their large cups too big!), anymore milk or hot water in there and you ruin the whole experience, the ridiculously large coffees of starbucks and co destroy people's impressions of exactly what a decent coffee should be. greed, indeed, you should thank them for serving you coffee as it should be enjoyed!
As for the owner...? Perhaps you're thinking of the wrong person...? unless they're a tree frog.....
marxistmuppet... I think you miss my point. Making drinks smaller and then putting their prices up is akin to taking the p*ss and is an all too familiar problem in Salcombe these days, over priced everything. How can the Salcombe Coffee Company charge almost £5 for a bacon sandwhich?!I was comparing them to Nero and Starbucks only for price comparisons.
I happen to agree with you about coffee and at no point was I slagging of the quality of their coffee, it's far and away the best coffee in town! I never go anywhere else!
As for the owner, he just needs to smile more or does he only smile when he is counting his takings!!
I just stumbled across your post and am quite shocked. You do realise that these are normal people making a living for themself in a town overcome by gentrification.
If all the London lot would F off then maybe some of us locals could afford to live here and afford to eat in our own restuarants and drink in our own oubs.
Trust me it's a lot harder on the locals then all you bloody tourists think.
It's not suprising the business owners are misserable, you have no idea on the figures involved when it comes to rates for small businesses here. The reason your coffee costs so much is because we've had our rates continually put up to deal with the strain tourists put on our town and due to the effect of gentrification due to secodn home owner.
Do you realise this a ghost town in the winter. And why. because second home owners have driven everyone out. We have a window of a couple of months to make any money.
If you don't like Salcombe then don't come here. It's not about facilities, it's about unspoilt beauty (unlike Dartmouth or Plymouth). The only people who have ruined that are tourists.
Having spent two holidays in the last three years in Devon, one of them in Salcombe, I wonder if you've actually been in the Salcombe Coffee Company.
The owner didn't smile??? My wife and I love the place BECAUSE the owner and staff are friendly, outgoing, and actually relate to their customers as people. The food in the evening is superb, and the prices are very good. The breakfast menu beats the local pubs to death, and the coffee is worth the trip.
On our last holiday, we deliberately went out of the way to go there on our last evening for our final meal of the holiday. Jayne and Andrew remembered us from our holiday two years previous, as did their staff. We had the opportunity to talk personally with them before leaving that evening and went away thinking what lovely people they are.
I recommend the experience to anyone who wants good food, good prices for it, and good, FRIENDLY service.
And OO, just trying putting a smile on your face when you go in. The result might surprise you.
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