Tor Bay
August 19, 2022
HM 208 ... and HM 17. Tor Bay and an old friend...my first "double" Harbour Master.
In March 2019 I received a text out of the blue. It was Rob Parsons, then HM of Newlyn, saying he was looking forward to meeting me. Three and a half years later I was lucky enough to meet Rob again in his new harbour, Tor Bay (not Torbay), comprising Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, 22 miles of shoreline and 19 sq miles of sea.
You may have seen Rob on the BBC TV series "Cornwall: This Fishing Life" which includes the story of him attempting to regenerate the Newlyn Fish market. It was a tough job. No HM knows the south west fishing industry better than Rob so when the opportunity came up to be HM of Brixham, Rob seized the chance. 100 boats land circa £50 million of fish every year here and Rob says business is booming.
He describes his move from Cornwall to Devon, using a scone analogy - changing from "jam first" to "cream first". Knowing Rob it won't be long before he starts ambitious plans to start improving things - expect a new type of scone soon!
Tor Bay is a council owned harbour and Rob is busy teaching the councillors the huge legal and safety related responsibilities of running a profitable Statutory Harbour.
Speaking of safety, it was Deputy Harbour Master Nick Burns who had to phone Rob to break some urgent news - see photo 4. "Torquay Super Yacht on Fire" was trended at number one on Social Media for some hours. In May 2022 a 26 m boat, together with 8,000 litres of fuel went up in smoke and then broke free from its mooring. Every HM's nightmare - luckily no-one was injured.
Rob describes his biggest bain, Jet Skiers, as the "Birmingham Navy". He says if he ever wrote a book about being a Harbour Master it would be called "Turds, Wasps and Jet Skis". As all HMs say "no two days are the same". Very good to see you again Rob, there is certainly no other HM in any way similar to you!
In March 2019 I received a text out of the blue. It was Rob Parsons, then HM of Newlyn, saying he was looking forward to meeting me. Three and a half years later I was lucky enough to meet Rob again in his new harbour, Tor Bay (not Torbay), comprising Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, 22 miles of shoreline and 19 sq miles of sea.
You may have seen Rob on the BBC TV series "Cornwall: This Fishing Life" which includes the story of him attempting to regenerate the Newlyn Fish market. It was a tough job. No HM knows the south west fishing industry better than Rob so when the opportunity came up to be HM of Brixham, Rob seized the chance. 100 boats land circa £50 million of fish every year here and Rob says business is booming.
He describes his move from Cornwall to Devon, using a scone analogy - changing from "jam first" to "cream first". Knowing Rob it won't be long before he starts ambitious plans to start improving things - expect a new type of scone soon!
Tor Bay is a council owned harbour and Rob is busy teaching the councillors the huge legal and safety related responsibilities of running a profitable Statutory Harbour.
Speaking of safety, it was Deputy Harbour Master Nick Burns who had to phone Rob to break some urgent news - see photo 4. "Torquay Super Yacht on Fire" was trended at number one on Social Media for some hours. In May 2022 a 26 m boat, together with 8,000 litres of fuel went up in smoke and then broke free from its mooring. Every HM's nightmare - luckily no-one was injured.
Rob describes his biggest bain, Jet Skiers, as the "Birmingham Navy". He says if he ever wrote a book about being a Harbour Master it would be called "Turds, Wasps and Jet Skis". As all HMs say "no two days are the same". Very good to see you again Rob, there is certainly no other HM in any way similar to you!