Thursday 31 May 2018

Ardfern Road Resurfacing

Road works planned for B8002 - Craignish Peninsula road

Resurfacing works are planned for the Ardfern road commencing on Wednesday 6th June 2018.   They are planned to last for two weeks.


Ardfern road resurfacing
Traffic control on B8002 

Road Closure

Works are planned to start after 9am each day and will finish by 4pm.   During that time the road will be closed for up to 30 minutes at a time whilst they lay and roll  the tarmac.

Tuesday 8 May 2018

2018 Crinan Canal Pilots


CRINAN CANAL - PRIVATE PILOTS FOR 2018 SEASON




YACHTSMEN looking to transit the Crinan Canal this season can still hire assistance for their 9-mile journey from a number of recommended local private pilots.

Crinan canal
Transiting the Crinan canal
“With Yotspot no longer providing their assisted passage service this year, any short-handed sailors requiring assistance to transit can now do so from a number of our recommended private pilots,” said Donna Mallan, Customer Operations Manager at Scottish Canals.
Scottish Canals will aid boats to transit as much as possible from one lock to the next, however if boats are single handed, never transited the canal before or are looking for a speedy transit, Scottish Canals recommend contacting one of the pilots and making arrangements with them, in advance of a journey through the canal.

“The pilots on the list are all experienced, either having worked for us on the canal or having taken many boats through over many years,” she added.

Additionally, the 2018 edition of Welcome Anchorages contains a 5% discount voucher on page 5, for a transit, return or two-week licence on the Crinan or Caledonian Canals.


2018 Pilot List

Crinan canal pilots 2018
Crinan Canal Pilot list

Wednesday 2 May 2018

Spring 2018 Newsletter - Staff Changes


STAFF CHANGES

AFTER 16-years with the business, general manager, Mark Cameron, will be leaving Ardfern on 30th June and will be replaced by managing director, Andrew Ashton.
Andrew will continue to work closely alongside the existing workshop, boatyard, chandlery and office teams, together with dealing with the general business side of the company.

As a family owned business now in its 39th year we remain committed to Ardfern along with the customers and the skilled staff, without whom, the business would not operate in the way that it does.

With the majority of boats now launched for the forthcoming season Bob, Fraser and the workshop team continue to be as busy as ever completing the final stages of some larger jobs, along with spring re-commissioning, varnishing and work on customer special orders.

Over the winter, along with the standard annual maintenance programme conducted by North West Marine, all of the pontoon decking received a spring clean, while the purchase of a batch of new boat stands in the yard has proved invaluable for boat movements, with the plan being to purchase more of these for this coming winter.

We have also been working hard at solving the connectivity issues with BT regarding the installation of superfast fibre broadband to the business. Once this is up and running and stable, it is our aim to install WIFI poles around the pontoon network in order to get the best possible speed for customers to access. In the meantime we are pleased to say that the local telecoms masts have been upgraded over the winter and there is now a reasonable 4G signal covering the marina for 02, EE and Vodafone.

The chandlery continues to be well stocked and a new larger storage container was put in place behind the chandlery building over the winter, which gives us a much better space for storing the wide range of products we offer.

In the office we welcomed Bel Hawson to the team as company bookkeeper in the accounts department in mid January and Grant Lees continues with the role of marina co-ordinator alongside chandlery manager, Guy Neville, chandlery administrator Larrissa Madden and chandlery assistant, Willie Young. This summer we also have Rachel Fraser returning for a second season in the chandlery, along with keen yachtsman, James Hoad who will also assist in the chandlery and with visitor berthing/mooring allocation.

BROKERAGE SERVICE

The brokerage service run by Ardfern Yacht Centre Ltd will, however, cease as from 30th June 2018, as Andrew and the team at Ardfern focus on running the marina, boatyard, workshop and chandlery that is our core business, while Mark will continue to focus on his brokerage work under his own name.

Going forward, Mark, who completed 7 years in the workshop office and 9 years as general manager at Ardfern, will now offer an independent brokerage service under the name ‘Mark Cameron Yachts’, which will cover the West Coast of Scotland and beyond.
Over recent years the brokerage section run by Mark at Ardfern has become extremely busy and the directors of Ardfern and Mark now feel that customers will benefit further from this new arrangement. We will continue to work closely with Mark in the future, in what we are all sure will be an amicable and customer enhancing experience going forward. 

DATA PROTECTION

Lastly, from 25th May 2018 the personal data laws are changing under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the UK. If you would like to receive any future updates from Ardfern Yacht Centre Ltd please reply to this email with the statement ‘YES’ in the subject line to confirm you would like to keep hearing from us when we send out occasional news updates by email. If we don’t hear from you we will remove you from our mailing list for all future mailshots or newsletters later this month.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark for all his hard work and leadership at Ardfern over many years and to wish him every success in his new enterprise, while also wishing you all an enjoyable cruising season over the next few months.

Joanna Ashton & Nick Baker
Directors
Ardfern Yacht Centre Ltd