Edgar Cove Boat Builder: Rise and Fall of Family Business

HISTORY OF EDGAR COVE'S BOATYARD IN SALCOMBE

The early years

Born in 1884, Henry Edgar Cove was educated at Salcombe Boys school under its redoubtable headmaster ‘Skipper’ Coad. Instead of going to sea as had so many of his ancestors who became ships’ Captains and /or shipowners he elected to become a boat builder and served his craft apprenticeship with Aaron Dornom in Salcombe. After that he widened his experience by working at Fife’s yard in Fairlie during the period when they built the first of Sir Thomas Liptons ‘Shamrock’ challengers for the America’s Cup.

After a further period with yacht builders James Taylor at Chertsey-on-Thames he started his own yard at Shadycombe, Salcombe in about 1905. By 1909 the yard occupied quite a large building and many boats had already been built.. During the 1914/18 war most of the work was for the Royal Navy and consisted mainly of 27’whalers, 32’cutters, and cutter gigs. The yard was expanded by additions and ended up quite large inside but with several different roof levels each reflecting a rapid need for additional space.

New machinery had previously been purchased from the German firm Kirchner and at the start of the war a letter came from the London agents regretting their inability to procure further spares from Germany but this was hardly necessary as the machines were so massively constructed that they remained in service until 1984.

Power was provided by a petrol/paraffin Kelvin engine of 9hp, which Edgar Cove’s son John has restored to show condition and still has it in working order, having taken it with him when he emigrated to Norway in 2003. In addition the yard had a small petrol engine which drove a generator to provide light using low voltage carbon filament bulbs.

After the war many motor boats began to be built for private owners. One of the first of these was the 22’ ‘Atlantic’, which was started in the winter of 1918 and was afloat for the first time in 1919 and became the prototype for several others, varying somewhat in length but of similar basic design. ‘Atlantic’ had an American ‘Atlantic’ engine with two cylinders running at slow speed and remained as the Cove family boat until the outbreak of WW2 . During the war she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and used as a harbour launch to ferry people out to their ships. At the end of the war she was offered back minus the engine and repurchased for £5 from the Small Craft Disposals Directorate. She was refurbished and fitted with a Morris engine and sold for a brief period to an owner in Kingsbridge. Edgar Cove immediately regretted parting with her and bought her back to resume her pre-war role as a family boat occasionally hired to selected customers. In 1984/5 John Cove had a major restoration carried out and she remains in commission with him in Norway.

Edgar Cove Senior in 'Atlantic' in 1919.

84 years after: Edgar John Cove in 'Atlantic'. Norway, 2003.

In the early 1920’s Edgar Cove bought Island House and Island Quay, which in the 19th century had been Harnden’s shipyard where many of the Salcombe trading ships had been built. Island Quay was more spacious than the Shadycombe yard, which was retained for winter storage, and was a better site for running a hire fleet so all the machinery was moved there and it became the main building yard. In the early 1930’s it was extended to give additional space.

In addition to motor boats my father’s interest in sailing led him to build and race in all the local classes. These were the ‘A’ 20’ class, the ‘B’16’ class, and the ‘C’ 12’ class, in addition to which he built and raced in some of the earliest International 14 footers, which in those early days were of clinker construction. His two International 14’s were called ‘Vim’ and ‘Vigour’ and in them he was crewed by his cousin Bill King.

In about 1930 Edgar bought the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter ‘Jessie L’ after she was retired from service and she was laid alongside Island Quay while she was converted into a houseboat and was for many years used as such while moored in The Bag.

It was about the same time that an order was received from the Salcombe Regatta Committee for six small gigs to be used for rowing races during Regatta week. These boats had to be capable of being rowed by one, or up to four rowers and served very well, their bright colours being a familiar sight at Salcombe Regattas for over 50 years.

Meanwhile work was in hand on a new venture-the construction of a cruising yacht, which it was hoped would open up a new market for the Cove yard but this yacht was never fully completed at Salcombe due to pressure of more vital Admiralty orders. Link to the section "The yacht ‘Friega’.

From about the mid 1930’s Admiralty orders for whalers and cutters began to occupy more and more of the building capacity and during the war this work was stepped up until the yard was turning out a completed 27’ whaler every 2/3 weeks. Also built were 32’ cutters, 27’motor cutters and heavily built ‘drifter boats’ which were carried on minesweepers.

In 1943, the yard was destroyed by bombing and work continued at Shadycombe while Island Quay Yard was rebuilt. This work was given a priority rating and was completed in about three months.

The hire fleet

Before the war it was unheard of for people to arrive in Salcombe towing their own boats and the usual thing was to hire a boat from a local firm of which there were several.

Edgar Cove probably had the biggest fleet, which at its peak reached a total of about 50 boats, rowing, sailing and motor. Some of the regular visitors had their own boats built and stored in Salcombe, to be put afloat only when they came down for their summer holidays.

As a boat builder Edgar had to keep his men busy and it was quite common for a boat to be built on spec during the winter and if no customer appeared before the next summer the boat would be put into the hire fleet so some lucky hirers would take out a brand new boat. Before the war people were more caring and damage to hire boats was rare and many people who wanted a boat of their own bought boats out of the hire fleet.

Before the war the cost of having a rowing boat built was only £1-10-0 per foot length and since wood was the only available material for boat building , a very high level of skill was maintained and for a rush job a 12’ dinghy was once built in a week, leaving only the several coats of varnishing required as the limiting factor on delivery.

Motor boats from the hire fleet were requisitioned by the Navy during the war if they were of reasonable size, and were used to ferry people to and from ships in harbours. A number of boats from the hire fleet were called up in this way. Some nominal compensation was paid, by which the boats became Naval property and after the war the original owners were offered the opportunity of buying them back from the Directorate of Small Craft Disposals. Many were in a bad state and were not bought back by Edgar Cove although they achieved a further lifespan in other hands.

After the war boat hire was again a profitable business for a few years but gradually the demand for the smaller boats fell away as people started arriving with their own boats in tow.

This trend was accentuated by the development of glassfibre as a boatbuilding material. This allowed boats to be mass produced and such boats were much cheaper than equivalent wooden boats.

Unfortunately, many of these early glassfibre boats were of very poor design since it was relatively easy to build in fibreglass and many firms building such boats lacked the years of experience and ‘eye’ for a good design which had become second nature to those who had undergone a 5 year apprenticeship to an established builder to learn wooden construction.

Meanwhile the development of National sailing boat classes such as the National 12’, the Firefly and the Merlin/Rocket flourished. These boats were light and easily trailed to races anywhere in the country. . Salcombe Regatta introduced racing for these new classes and this reduced the demand from experienced sailors for racing in clinker built wooden boats of purely local appeal.

However, the latter type of boats were much more suitable for beginners and for pleasure use and this led to a continual demand for them although during the 1950’s racing for them gradually faded away. The exception to this was the Salcombe Yawl class which survives to this day despite the high cost of building such boats nowadays. See the section 'Sailing at Salcombe before the war'.

In the post war years many people started wanting to learn to sail and it gradually emerged that such people would no longer hire a simple stable wooden boat and learn to sail themselves but would go to a sailing school and be taught by an instructor, ending up with a certificate, of more or less value, which enabled them to take out a fibreglass boat such as a GP14 or similar without getting into too much trouble.

Likewise with motor boats, the trend went toward mainly fibreglass boats with outboard engines rather than the traditional inboard engine. This was easier for the hire fleet owner since the motor could be removed from the boat and easily serviced and stored ashore during the winter. Notwithstanding the imposition of speed limits within the harbour, the ‘dory’ type of boat with oversized outboard engines was heavily advertised and many were sold despite the heavy washes they created at low speed and the lack of protection for the occupants due to their shallow hulls.

These developments were not favoured by Edgar Cove and the hire fleet was progressively reduced in size until supply equalled demand for the traditional type of boat. However there remained a reasonable market for new wooden boats for discerning private owners who still wanted to own a traditionally built wooden boat and production of these continued albeit with a work force considerably reduced from the wartime peak.

The number of fully trained shipwrights working in Salcombe was reduced postwar by several who left the industry to take up crab fishing. There had been a number of crabbers in Salcombe before the war but their boats were relatively small and made little inroads into the available stocks. During the war crab stocks had the opportunity to increase themselves and consequently postwar crab fishing turned out to be a profitable occupation, attracting several of Edgar Cove’s trained shipwrights including Richard Cove, who started with a small boat ex the hire fleet and progressively worked his way up to the largest boat in use in the harbour.

This left only Edward Cove in the business with his father, as John Cove had left Salcombe after demobilisation from the Navy to take up a career in engineering.

Edgar died in 1960 and the family decided that the business should continue and agreed to form a company, Edgar Cove Ltd, with Edward as the Manager and John as Company Secretary with the shares equally divided between Lily Cove and her three sons. Lily died in 1971 and the Company continued with the three brothers owning all the shares in equal proportions.

The old buildings at Shadycombe were becoming pretty ramshackle and a request from the South Hams District Council to purchase part of the site to enable a road to be run into the car park it was intending to build on the ‘dump’ was readily agreed by Edgar Cove Ltd. This triggered the complete demolition of the old buildings and the erection of a new boatstore in its place. All the design work and drawings for this building were the work of John Cove.

Subsequently Edgar Cove Ltd applied for planning permission for a retail outlet at Shadycombe but the SHDC refused this, saying that the site was unsuitable for a sales outlet. Subsequent to the sale of the yard to others some years later, permission was granted and there is now a chandlery at the same place handling retail sales!

The Shadycombe boatstore was fairly empty during the summer and became the venue for dances during the summer season which, despite the dance floor being of concrete, were very popular as there was no other available large hall in Salcombe.

Decline and fall

Traditional boat building continued at Island Quay until the 1980s, with Edward designing and building a number of fine boats.

However, the rising cost of labour was beginning to limit the market to those people who were determined to have a traditional boat even though they could have had a fibreglass boat of similar size off a production line for less money. The market thus became more specialised and the total number of boats built annually became smaller. The boatyard at Island Quay was now much bigger than strictly necessary for the volume of boats being built.and only a small part of this large building was actually serving a useful purpose.

To add to this problem the rates and taxes demanded for Island Quay on the basis of its size and its prime Salcombe waterfront location became a major burden on profitability. It was clear that this situation could not be allowed to continue indefinitely and yet the family wanted to continue building fine wooden boats to Edward’s designs. Clearly therefore it was necessary to find some way of utilising Island Quay boatyard to its full potential.

John, who as Company Secretary was the only one who could authorise raising capital using the Company’s properties as security, made it clear that he would not agree to this unless it was in furtherance of a scheme which offered prospects of increased turnover and profitability.

As a result the three brothers discussed various options and looked into several in considerable detail.

The idea which seemed the most promising was to improve the facilities at Island Quay so that bigger boats could be handled and better use made of the large building. Boats the size of the local fishing boats and large yachts could have been brought inside the existing building to be worked on if only they could be hauled out up the slipway.

Although in the 19th Century Island Quay had been Harnden’s yard, and had built a number of large ships, the slipway at the quay had since been reduced in size before Edgar Cove bought the site.

Moreover, there was a drop of about 5’ from the end of the slipway to the foreshore, making it impossible to haul deep keeled yachts and larger vessels such as the expanded local fishing fleet which had to go elsewhere for maintenance. The Cove brothers considered that an improved slipway would present an opportunity to bring additional business to both the Company and the town.

As the foreshore was owned by the Duchy of Cornwall an approach was made to them for permission to extend a widened slipway outward over the foreshore so that large boats could be brought out on a carriage on rails.

The Board of Trade, being responsible for rights of navigation, had first to be consulted, and after they had decided that the proposed extension would not interfere with navigation as long as the end of the slipway was marked, Edgar Cove Ltd reached an agreement with the Duchy of Cornwall to rent the necessary piece of foreshore in perpetuity. While commencing the design of the extension Edgar Cove Ltd started paying rent to the Duchy for the foreshore while formal documents were being prepared. Unfortunately when the legal documents arrived for signature some three months later from the London solicitors representing the Crown it was found that they had included a requirement that the Directors of Edgar Cove Ltd and their descendants had to assume personal responsibility in perpetuity for any damages caused to any adjacent Duchy property and this liability could not be passed on by the Cove family even if Island Quay passed into other hands. The Cove brothers were adamant that this was outrageous and after failing to get the clause amended decided to pull out of the whole deal. Thus a project that could have brought additional employment to Salcombe had to be abandoned.

It was now 1980 and the question still remained about what to do about Island Quay, which had become something of a white elephant. The first plan, agreed by all three brothers, was to demolish the wartime yard and rebuild with a smaller yard suitable for running the hire fleet and doing minor repairs.. This yard would retain sufficient quay space for these activities and would be incorporated into a development of the rest of the site for flats and houses. Shadycombe yard would be used for building new boats.

A local architect drew up a suitable plan and after some local controversy about the redevelopment in principle, and discussions with the Planning Dept of SHDC, who were concerned about ‘mixed development’, the scheme was approved by the Council.

While Edward was well aware that something needed to be done if the business was to continue and therefore fully supported the plan, it does seem in retrospect that Richard might have felt that this was just another idea that would end up coming to nothing except perhaps a paper exercise. Whatever his reasons, it was only after planning permission had beeen obtained that Richard had a change of heart and contended that the small boatyard on the site was unnecessary and that a better solution would be to redevelop the whole site for housing, right up to the waters edge, notwithstanding that the disappearance of the quay which formed part of the approved plan would affect the view from his house.

Such a scheme would certainly produce a greater financial return although the loss of any shorebased facilities at Island Quay would necessitate many changes and cause difficulties for the operation of the hire fleet from their existing moorings.

In fact, since Island House was an important building on the local scene, the planners made it clear in informal discussions that they would not agree to this plan because of the detrimental effect on the view of and from Island House being obscured, so a further scheme was drawn up showing the whole site developed for housing but with the frontage drawn back so that the view from Island House still remained more or less the same. This was the scheme for the site substantially as it exists today.

Although the basic idea of developing the entire site for housing without any boatyard was Richard’s, all three brothers agreed to proceed along those lines.

Fresh drawings were prepared and all matters relating to the planning application were left for John to handle, with his brothers being parties to all decisions taken.

During this period some discussion took place about how the development should be handled. John had experience of project management and was in favour of retaining family control of the whole project and tackling the development ourselves. The others feared that this would be too great a task and no agreement was reached at that stage as it was felt that the priority was first to get the planning permission for the project approved and then decide how to proceed.

When the architect had finished the plans and the planning application was ready to be submitted Richard had a further change of heart about the whole project despite his earlier advocacy of a full housing development.

Perhaps he had indeed felt all along that this was a paper exercise that would come to nothing or perhaps he had been influenced by others. He now started to suggest that the whole of the yard should simply be sold as it was and that the new owner should be left to decide what should be done with it. To this end he used his considerable circle of local friends to whip up opposition to the planning application and as a result many objections were sent in by people on various grounds. One local organisation sent in three objections under different signatures. An objection was even received from Richards wife!

Within these objections it was noticeable that there ran a thread suggesting that although the Coves were asking for what was shown on the drawings accompanying the application there was somehow a ‘hidden agenda’ and they were really planning to do something completely different should permission be granted.

One person well known to Richard went to the length of putting in a somewhat similar application on the site in his own name although he was quite unconnected with the Company and had been told clearly that he had no hope of buying Island Quay. Another objector was found up a ladder checking the height of the existing building, being apparently convinced that, notwithstanding the dimensions on the planning drawings prepared by the architect, the Coves were planning to erect some much higher structure!

In the end, however, there being no valid planning reasons for refusal, planning permission was given at the beginning of 1982.

About this time another person, a rival boatyard owner, telephoned to find out if it was true that Edgar Cove was about to sell the foreshore bay to the South Hams District Council as he had been approached by a Council official, who had offered in turn to sell it on to this rival business! This seemed ridiculous at the time but in the light of subsequent developments can be seen the first sign of problems that the Coves would face with the South Hams District Council in the future.

From this point various property developers and would-be property developers started expressing interest in the site.

One of these was an acquaintance of Richard’s. In early 1982 he made a conditional offer of what superficially seemed a good price for the shares in Edgar Cove Ltd and Richard pressed his brothers to accept. This would have meant the sale of the entire business including the Shadycombe yard and this would have ended the Cove’s boatbuilding business, which Edward ran, so Edward was obviously not in favour.

John, who before retirement from a large engineering Company, had previously been responsible for handling the takeover of other companies, recognised that since the offer was conditional and took no account of taxation and other matters the actual amount received by the Cove brothers for their shares would be substantially whittled down by virtue of the conditions specified. He pointed out that this made the offer completely unacceptable and, with support from Edward, rejected it, Richard therefore being outvoted.

This marked the beginning of a serious split within the family as Richard was out of his depth when tax and accounting matters were concerned and could not understand how a conditional offer could end up being worth less than its face value.

The other friend of Richards, who had put in his own planning application earlier, then made an even higher offer backed by a named associate. After having a few facts explained to him by John this associate withdrew his support and Richard’s friend consequently had to withdraw his offer.

Richard therefore started seeking other explanations for John’s rejection of the original offer and came up with the notion that the real reason must have been that John had a friend of his own tucked away somewhere with whom he was planning to do some deal on the side for his personal benefit. This became an obsession with him and every evening at the end of a working day Edward had to contend with Richard coming into the yard speculating about ‘what can John be up to’ and pressuring him to change sides and join with him to overrule John and accept the offer made by his acquaintance. Edward did not want to go down this road but the pressure continued for months while John was meeting prospective developers, interested in purchasing just the Island Quay property from Edgar Cove Ltd.

Even more serious in its effects was an idea that Richard came up with to the effect that John’s attitude had been influenced by his wife and as a result of this he lost no opportunity to harass her both verbally and physically every time he saw her on the quay. In the end this only stopped when John made a complaint to the police and they took some action including the temporary removal of Richard’s arsenal of guns, all of which he held legally.

In these, and other various ways Richard did everything in his power to make life as difficult as possible for John and Edward throughout the whole of the summer of 1982. In July 1982, after taking legal advice, John was advised that Richard’s conduct was incompatible with his role as a Director of Edgar Cove Ltd. and he should be removed from his directorship. This would involve both John and Edward voting to remove him from the Board. Edward had already suffered extreme verbal pressure and even some physical abuse from Richard for some time and dreaded the intensification of pressure on him if such a motion was put to Richard.

This additional strain, coming on top of his other problems, proved too much for Edward who took his own life in August 1982.

Since this was the height of the summer season and the quay crowded with boat hirers all day, John endeavoured to continue the business on a daily basis to fulfill existing hire contracts until the end of the season and ensure continued work for our employees while the future was sorted out.

This brought him into even more serious conflict with Richard who wanted to shut everything down in the middle of the holiday season regardless of contractual obligations to boat hirers, our staff, taxation considerations or anything else, and sell the whole business to the aforesaid acquaintance of his.

John refused to agree to this but his efforts to keep the business going until a solution could be found were opposed in every possible way by Richard who was determined to shut it down. In particular he refused to sign a cheque to pay the architect, despite the fact that he had been a party to commissioning him in the first place. This caused John a few problems as it needed two directors signatures to sign a cheque or alter the bank mandate. This account was becoming well overdue and the failure to pay it risked damaging Edgar Cove’s credit rating. John’s wife Patricia came up with the solution for this problem. She suggested that she and John should purchase the debt from the architect, via a legal document, and then pay the architect from their own resources. This left them, rather than the architect, as creditors of the company for the not inconsiderable sum involved.

Richard also refused to countersign any cheques for wages or services As Company Secretary John overcame this by opening a fresh account at another bank after seeking legal advice over the matter. Income from boat hire was paid into this account and John was thus able to continue paying the wages of the staff.

After some weeks of such obstructions John sent details of Richard’s activities to a leading London Counsel whose Opinion confirmed that Richard had laid himself open to charges under the Companies Act, one of which was neglect of his Fiduciary Duty, for his improper conduct while a Director of the company.

Faced with being taken to Court on this charge Richard finally agreed to sell his shares and leave the Company.

Edward’s widow had the right under the Articles of the Company to purchase half of Richard’s shares but, through her solicitor, she declined, so John went ahead with the purchase of all Richard’s shares on his own behalf.

John now owned two thirds of the business and Edward’s widow the remaining third.

Richard then worked to convince Edward’s family that John would use this situation to their disadvantage, so while trying to reorganise the business John was also having to contend with letters from Edward’s family’s solicitor trying to tie his hands by presenting him with various legal documents which, had he signed them, would have the effect of limiting his powers despite his majority shareholding and directorship and would have given Edwards widow complete power over any decisions made on behalf of the company, even though she was a minority shareholder and also not a director . Some of these documents conflicted with the articles of association of the Company, an additional reason why they could not be signed.

Naturally John declined to sign, having already promised his sister-in law that her minority shares would always be treated equally with his own. But all this involved several months of needless legal expenses for both parties and considerable stressful waste of time for John.

While all this was going on John was continuing to build some boats at Island Quay while seeking a purchaser for the site.

Finally he arranged to sell Island Quay to a developer on acceptable terms. This was complicated and time consuming for various reasons and even after the deal was done it took John four more years to get the taxation situation agreed so that he could finally release the money from the sale for the use of his sister-in law and himself.

There was also the immediate problem of moving and disposal of the contents of the Island Quay building which had been accumulating there during 60 years of occupation. This was in itself quite a mammoth task, achieved by the staff of the yard.

John planned to continue the business of Edgar Cove Ltd at Shadycombe for the benefit of himself and his sister-in-law and to this end the Shadycombe yard which had been rebuilt a few years previously, was modified internally to create a separate building area walled off from the boat storage area.

Sufficient machinery and equipment for this purpose were moved from Island Quay into Shadycombe.

John intended that the hire fleet would be managed from pontoons placed in Foreshore Bay adjacent to Island Quay. Foreshore Bay was almost the only privately owned foreshore on the Salcombe side of the harbour and John had retained ownership of it for this purpose when he sold Island Quay.

Despite Edgar Cove Ltd. requesting permission for only a limited number of pontoons in the Bay, with space left so that the lifeboat could still beach there for maintenance, the Harbour Master refused to approve the placing of any pontoons in Foreshore Bay, saying that this would interfere with navigation. In this he was supported by the SHDC Harbour Committee. However, after the site had later been sold to someone else, the SHDC immediately reversed this decision and the Bay is now completely full of pontoons!.

After the business moved to Shadycombe some small boats were built there under John’s direction and the business could have continued in this way except for an entirely unexpected development, costing enormously in time, frustration and expense which ultimately led to the end of the Edgar Cove business in Salcombe after some 80 years.

The Harbourmaster refused to accept that the business itself had not been sold along with Island Quay and contended that the sale of a business entailed, under SHDC rules, the forfeiture of all its moorings for the benefit of those on the waiting list. Nothing would convince him that the business still existed and had need of the moorings for the hire fleet in order to survive. John appealed to members of South Hams District Council but despite the fact that Edgar Cove Ltd quite obviously still existed, had documents to prove it, wanted to go on building and hiring boats, and still employed boatbuilders working in their other yard at Shadycombe, the Councillors supported the actions of the Harbour Master.

The situation was complicated by the fact that at this time the Harbour Master was in the process of reorganising the moorings on the halftide mud into straight lines and in any event needed to agree a reduction in the 43 moorings held by Edgar Cove to allow this to happen.

Several discussions took place between John and the Harbour Master concerning the possible reduction in Edgar Cove’s moorings but John was told he would have to give up all moorings except for a number equal to the number of boats in his hire fleet. This would give Edgar Cove no moorings that could be let to visitors who brought their own boats, nor would there be anywhere to moor boats that were being repaired or worked on for customers. John pointed out hat this was unfair as other businesses in the town were allowed to exist by letting moorings and resisted the effort to substantially cut back his available moorings since other businesses affected by the reorganisation were not being forced to do so.

It was repeatedly claimed that the case of Edgar Cove was ‘different’ to the other .businesses in the harbour for reasons never specified and John tried hard to reach a fair settlement. However he got no support whatever from the South Hams District Council. Instead, with the honourable exception of just one Salcombe Councillor, he met with active hostility from members of SHDC throughout this whole saga for reasons never explained. . Agreements were reached and promises made both at Harbour Committee meetings and SHDC meetings, attended by John, but these never appeared in the minutes and when John protested they were simply denied. It was at this point that Coves found it necessary to begin recording meetings and conversations in order to prove what they had been promised.

One SHDC Councillor who was telephoned by John asking for support continued to assert that the business had been already been sold, even though he was well aware that prospective purchasers were still actively trying to buy it. He assured John that he was going to lose out and indeed expressed the hope that he would lose out unless he desisted from his fight for these moorings. John replied that he already stood to lose out under the unfair treatment being meted out to him in comparison with other businesses so he intended to carry on with his objections.

We have never been able to understand this outright hostility from the South Hams District Council throughout this whole affair.

The Harbour Master finally ended all discussion on the moorings issue by instructing harbour staff to physically haul out moorings belonging to Edgar Cove Ltd and dump them on the foreshore!. One of John’s regular customers who had had his boat on one of these moorings for many years went to the Harbour master asking where he was now supposed to moor his boat and was allowed to jump the waiting list and was given a Council mooring. The net result was a transfer of income from Edgar Cove’s boatyard to the Council itself!

John Cove compiled a report for the Ombudsman, but our local Councillor, although it was his duty to accept it and pass it on, refused to accept it so we had to send it in to the Ombudsman ourselves with a letter of explanation. However he replied that his terms of reference did not give him any say over harbours, so no help was forthcoming from that source.

Once again John Cove had to resort to consulting a London barrister about the outrageous treatment the firm was receiving. His Opinion was that John had grounds for seeking judicial review of whether the Council’s actions on Edgar Cove’s moorings showed evidence of malice. In the event of this being shown Edgar Cove might have a case for damages...

In the event legal action was not necessary as armed with this information John’s solicitor was able to obtain from the SHDC a satisfactory proposal allowing Edgar Cove to retain enough moorings for its business activities.

By this time John had had enough hassle from a variety of sources and decided to accept an offer from another firm for Edgar Cove’s business in Salcombe including both Shadycombe and Foreshore Bay. John first changed the name of the business so that he could retain the Edgar Cove Ltd name but was forced to insist that the buyers should also take the bulk of the hire fleet as without moorings or a suitable base in Foreshore Bay the hire fleet could not be handled.

The final irony is that the purchaser of Island Quay had no trouble in arranging with the Harbour Master to retain a large number of the disputed moorings despite the Council’s own rules that sold businesses had to forfeit their moorings back to the Council for the benefit of others who had long been on the waiting list for moorings.

Also, as mentioned above, the new owners also got permission, despite the Harbourmaster’s earlier stated objections, to fill Foreshore Bay completely with pontoons.

So for the third time in 20 years a development refused to Edgar Cove Ltd by SHDC was readily granted to others after the Cove family had tired of the expense and time involved in continuing to strive for the necessary permissions.

Thus ended 80 years of a family business in Salcombe.

N.B.This narrative describing the demise of this Salcombe business is fully supported by documentation and recordings which I do not propose to make public on this website unless any concerned party seeks to dispute any part of my account.

They will all be retained indefinitely as an historical record of the way the business my father founded was brought to an end.

John Cove
September 2009