Waterways tourism – final sign-off near for new port management

Waterways tourism – final sign-off near for new port management
Waterways tourism – final sign-off near for new port management
New skippers at the helm
Boat hire businessmen for the last 19 years, Mike Gardner-Roberts and Steve
Adams plan to take over the Aquarelle company and the management of the
port of Auxerre.
By Christian Picardieu – Centre France
The well-known public face of the port of Auxerre, Paul van der Mye, has quietly
relinquished the helm after serving the waterways tourism industry in Auxerre for
over 30 years. Once the sale contract is signed for the boat company Aquerelle,
Mike Gardner-Roberts and Steve Adams will take over from 1st April, and also take
charge of the port on behalf of the Yonne Chamber of Commerce.
The two men, originally from the UK, are no novices, far from it. While working at
Lloyds of London, Mike Gardner-Roberts succumbed to the virus he caught as a
child on holidays with his parents along the southern French canals.
“At the age of 30, I faced the choice of continuing with the same boring job for the
next 30 years, or casting off my moorings”, he recalls. He and his wife decided to
head for Calais in the barge in which they had been living near to London. Then,
after exploring France from the North to the South they settled down on the banks of
the Canal du Midi and worked for four years on a hotel barge.
“We were about to buy a hotel when my sister told us about an advertisement in The
Times for the sale of a boat-hire company in Burgundy, „Burgundy Cruisers‟”, he
says.
Bingo! In 1993 Mike and his family moved to Vermenton, and they are there still. His
sister and brother-in-law, Steve Adams, have also changed career and joined the
waterways tourism business.
In just under 20 years this small business has prospered, growing turnover from
€660,000 to €1.5 million in 2011.They have 12 full-time employees and a further 20
on short-term contracts in the summer.
Under the names „Waterways of France‟ and „France Afloat‟ the business has
expanded the services it offers to include winter moorings and maintenance,
targeting British and foreign customers in particular. In 2007 it extended its area of
operation by splitting the fleet of 32 boats between the Burgundy canals and the
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Waterways tourism – final sign-off near for new port management
Canal du Midi. Also in 2007, it took over the management of the Hapimag fleet, a
Swiss company with 10 boats in Burgundy and 11 on the Canal du Midi.
No withdrawal from Vermenton
More recently in mid-January, France Afloat signed an agreement with the Florentin
group of Communes who have licensed them to manage the port of Saint-Florentin
for four years, starting on 1st March.
Moving into Auxerre, while keeping all existing activities in Vermenton, the joint
managers will add to their range of services, in particular by using the panoramic
view of the old town to market luxury cruisers to Parisian customers. Potential clients
will have the chance to become skipper of top of the range boats from the Linssen
company, for whom France Afloat have been the sole distributors for the whole of
France since 1st January.
Fears for the future of the Burgundy canals
Just as the announcement of the devolution of the management of the Burgundy
canals raised many hopes, so the news of the withdrawal of the Region a few days
ago has left the various players involved in waterways tourism facing uncertainty.
Mike Gardner-Roberts, among other things the vice-president of the tourism
business group for the Yonne area of the Nivernais, says that for him the withdrawal
of the Regional Council is a big disappointment. “In Britanny the canals have been
managed very successfully by the Regional Council for many years and I don‟t see
why Burgundy couldn‟t do even better. The HQ of VNF is at Béthune up in the North
and their priority is commercial and freight traffic. It‟s easier to manage matters when
they are on your doorstep.” He went on; “Without regular maintenance a canal
becomes a ditch. If international hirers see that there are concerns about navigation
and hear complaints from customers, they won‟t hesitate to go elsewhere, as they
have already done in Ireland. The canal is also the cycle touring route of Burgundy,
which was a great initiative by the Council, but a cycling tourist spends €33 a day, a
pleasure-boater €60……….”
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