A section of the Port Antonio Marina at opening in September 2002.

More than two years after opening, with promises to transform its environs into a major hangout for the rich and famous, the Port Antonio Marina has fallen woefully short of expectation.

In fact, some players in the industry have dubbed the project a failure, saying it was rushed from the drawing board, and undertaken without the necessary support services and infrastructure to ensure its commercial viability.

Yesterday, William Tatham, vice president of the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), the government agency that funded and built the marina, declined to discuss its economic returns to date.

Tatham referred the Business Observer to the representative of Westrec Marinas, the United States firm that was awarded the contract by the Port Authority to promote and manage the asset.

But the manager too declined to talk with this newspaper, saying only that he did not speak with the media.

However, visits by representatives of this newspaper to the marina over the past four weeks revealed a picture of relative inertia - not the burst of activities that had been visualised at its launch in September 2002.

Sources told this newspaper that the water surrounding the marina was not deep enough to attract large yachts, and that Port Antonio as a town simply did not have enough facilities to hold the interest of the types of visitors to whom the facility was being marketed.

"The marina does not even have a dry cleaning facility," remarked one person in the tourism business.

The marina features a 50-ship facility for yachts up to 350 feet in length and a maximum depth of 17 feet. It also accommodates fishing and sailing vessels. The complex also includes a private beach with bar and grill, a swimming pool and a crew lounge.

It was developed simultaneously with the cruise ship pier at a combined cost of US$20 million. These assets represent the forerunners for a much more comprehensive development of the town being spearheaded by the Port Authority.

Though flatly declining to comment on the financial performance of the marina, Tatham was willing to speak about the cruise ship pier, which he said was showing significant promise.

The PAJ vice-president projects that the pier will receive 38 cruise vessels over the next 24 months, a major improvement, he says, over previous years.

"You have to remember that four years ago Port Antonio got one ship every two years," he said. "Business is building."

According to Tatham, one constraint now faced by the pier in quickly developing as a port of choice, was the fact that cruise liners set their itinerary 18 to 24 months in advance.
But by November this year, the pier is expected to begin hosting larger vessels like the Zenith, a 680-feet ship that will be just about the maximum size that the pier will accommodate.

The PAJ is hoping that the introduction of Zenith to the pier will encourage other large vessels to dock.

"So we have made a huge jump in that aspect and we know once it is publicly announced in the North American market that the Zenith will be calling in Port Antonio," declared Tatham. "We know it is going to increase additional demand and interest."

Traditionally, vessels carrying 300 to 800 passengers dock at the pier. The Zenith is a 1,400-passenger vessel.

The pier was built to accommodate small and medium vessels, not the 3,000 mega-passenger cruise liners which dock in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay and which appear to be increasingly in demand.

Tatham is confident that smaller ports like Port Antonio will be able to carve a niche among what he believes to be a growing segment of the cruise market.

"There is a growing trend to bring back these boutique (smaller) ships," he says. "Even though cruise ships are getting larger a number of passengers want to go on smaller cruise ships. There has been renewed interest in the cruise industry to develop these type of boutique vessels as well as the super yachts."

According to Tatham, the Port Antonio pier expects cruise calls over the next several weeks: today, next Wednesday, 24 February; 14th, 15th, 23rd of March and 4th June.

"In November alone we will have five calls," he said.
In January a US$500,000 full-service boatyard was opened at the facility, enabling it to carry out repair and maintenance. The equipment include a 100-ton travel lift and 50-bay dry storage for up to 80-foot boats.

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