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Pickle replica in Mylor

Think of Cornwall and -- pasties, cream and beaches apart you think of boats, natural beauty and history as much as anything.

Nowhere will you find more of these things than at the multi-award-winning Mylor Yacht Harbour, a picturesque haven on the banks of the River Fal and once the Royal Navy's smallest dockyard.

In this idyllic location at the heart of arguably Britain's finest sailing water, a five-year Renaissance has transformed the historic former dockyard into a much lauded boatyard, marina, and holiday destination gaining national as well as county level recognition for its environmental stewardship, and the quality of its facilities. It is the realization of a lifelong dream, with interest, for its prime mover.

Roger Graffy has always loved the sea and well.

In the late 1990s he and his wife Dinah saw the potential to realize their long-held ambition of acquiring a marine-based business in the Duchy.

The couple purchased the seven acre Mylor Yacht Harbour and set in motion a train of developments which, costing £5 million over five years, has created what they describe as "the ultimate self-sufficient Cornish boating community".

The original Mylor Royal Navy base was established in the early 19th century. In 1866 many of the original buildings were taken over as part of the shore base of the training ship HMS Ganges, which arrived in nearby Carrick Roads and remained until 1899.

Following her departure, the Admiralty retained control, leasing it to Mr A N Bath in 1927 and subsequently selling to Colonel Henry Trefusis. Following the Second World War, it gradually evolved into a commercial yacht harbour.

The Graffy's purchase represented its first change of ownership since the early 1960s.

The revamp has created 56 new jobs both for Mylor Yacht Harbour Ltd and other companies on site and sustained a further 20.

The initial phase of the harbour's rejuvenation was awarded the British Nautical Environmental Award in 2002.

The final phase has been the £1 million refurbishment of an historic former Admiralty building for use as high quality holiday apartments.

The redevelopment programme over the past five years has amounted to the biggest single investment in the site's history and resulted in what the Graffys are convinced in now the South West's biggest and best equipped yachting haven.

Historic Site Reborn as "Award Winning Ultimate Cornish Boating Community"

Think of Cornwall and -- pasties, cream and beaches apart you think of boats, natural beauty and history as much as anything.

Nowhere will you find more of these things than at the multi-award-winning Mylor Yacht Harbour, a picturesque haven on the banks of the River Fal and once the Royal Navy's smallest dockyard.

In this idyllic location at the heart of arguably Britain's finest sailing water, a five-year Renaissance has transformed the historic former dockyard into a much lauded boatyard, marina, and holiday destination gaining national as well as county level recognition for its environmental stewardship, and the quality of its facilities. It is the realization of a lifelong dream, with interest, for its prime mover.

Roger Graffy has always loved the sea and well remembers walking into St Mawes sailing Club some 35 years ago, at the age of ten, and seizing the chance to crew on the Ivy, a member of the Sunbeam class, one of the sailing world's best loved boats Education and business beckoned as Roger grew up and saw less of his beloved Cornwall, but opportunity knocked in the late 1990s when he and his wife Dinah saw the potential to realize their long-held ambition of acquiring a marine-based business in the Duchy.

Roger had led a management buyout of a marketing services company, turned it round from a loss-maker and sold it to a large American concern. Dinah had previously managed the international publicity department of United International Pictures.

The couple purchased the 7 acre Mylor Yacht Harbour, moved from London and set in motion a train of developments which, costing £5 million over five years, has created what they describe as "the ultimate self-sufficient Cornish boating community".

An early and highly symbolic act was to commission from their own yard the building of another Sunbeam the first all-wooden sailing boat if its class to be built anywhere for 20 years.

The building of Milly was the realization of dream no. 1 for Roger after his first much-cherished introduction to the class at St Mawes.

Much grander schemes were subsequently to come to fruition as almost exactly 200 years since the Admiralty had first homed in on Mylor, the Graffys set about reviving its fading fortunes and making it a more fitting 21st century operator. There is a fantastic symmetry to the completion of the project, as 2006 is Mylor's bicentennial year.

The original Mylor Royal Navy base was established in the early 19th century. In 1866 many of the original buildings were taken over as part of the shore base of the training ship HMS Ganges, which arrived in nearby Carrick Roads and remained until 1899.

Following her departure, the Admiralty retained control, leasing it to Mr A N Bath in 1927 and subsequently selling to Colonel Henry Trefusis. Following the Second World War, it gradually evolved into a commercial yacht harbour.

The Graffy's purchase represented its first change of ownership since the early 1960s, when private investors formed the limited company to take over the running of the complex after it had encountered financial difficulties while being run by a group of local yachtsmen.

Visitors to Mylor Yacht Harbour in the mid-1990s would have formed the impression of a complex which had maybe seen better times and certainly was capable of a much grander role with the benefit of serious investment.

Among such visitors were the Graffys who today are looking back with satisfaction on the completion of the five-year redevelopment programme that has involved a facelift, and more, for the entire multi-activity operation.

This has included the creation of a new 150 berth marina, the doubling of lay up capacity to 600 boats and substantially increased car parking facilities, along with heavy investment in new equipment and services.

The revamp has created 56 new jobs both for Mylor Yacht Harbour Ltd and other companies on site and sustained a further 20.

This initial phase of the harbour's rejuvenation was awarded the British Nautical Environmental Award in 2002, a prestigious national award won against weighty contenders including the Crown.

The final phase has been the £1 million refurbishment, just completed, of an historic former Admiralty building for use as high quality holiday apartments. Once again Mylor gained recognition for its uncompromising attention to detail with the 2005 Cornwall Tourism Silver Award for Self Catering Establishment of the Year. This was followed a fortnight later by the complex winning outright the Cornwall Sustainability Award 2005.

The seven new Admiralty Apartments all named after famous admirals have been created over the last two years in a three story 200 year old building whose early uses included a naval hospital, stables, and victualling store.

The stylishly designed new units, all fully equipped and with their own individual outdoor space for eating, drinking or play, are being marketed to both visiting yachtsmen and holiday visitors to Cornwall.

The location is described as a great battery recharger and ideal centre for a huge variety of land and water-based holiday ideas in Cornwall.

"Admiralty Apartments represent the final piece in a mammoth jigsaw," said Mr Graffy.

"It has been tremendously exciting to see a dream gradually turn into reality and we are immensely grateful to everyone concerned for bringing about such an achievement with great care and thought to ensure that none of the location's essential character has been lost.

"At long last, this outstandingly beautiful historic harbour at the heart of what is arguably Britain's finest sailing water has all the modern facilities that today's yachtsmen expect it is a completely self-sufficient boating community."

The building now housing the eight new apartments was used for a variety of purposes in the last century, including an store and scrapyard, and in the 1960s was converted to 11 holiday flats, Upon taking over Mylor Yacht Harbour, Mr and Mrs Graffy were not satisfied with their condition and took them out of use. They are now being relaunched as "Mylor Harbourside Holidays".

It is the second historic building at Mylor Yacht Harbour to enjoy a new lease of life. Two years ago the former boathouse, one of the site's very first buildings in the early 19th century, was converted into the new Castaways seafood and wine bar.

The boathouse was originally used for working on the boats that were involved in victualling Royal Navy ships. The original Mylor naval dockyard was Britain's most westerly victualling point and boats serving the ships would be hauled up on rail tracks for maintenance and repair work in the boathouse.

As well as creating new roles for old buildings, the Graffys have even managed to import some additional history from Devon.

Two thousand tonnes of granted from one of the world's first dry docks at Devonport was used to build a sturdy 70 metre wall to separate the new public slipway from a new lay up / car parking area on reclaimed land.

The listed Devonport dock was built in 1840 but had long been out of use. "We learnt that the granite had become available because the dock was being partly demolished," recalls Mr Graffy.

"The surplus granite was just going to be thrown away, so we thought it would be an excellent idea to give it a new life at Mylor and recycle rather than use up scarce resources.

We have literally built another chunk of history into the Mylor Yacht Harbour story and now everyone is calling it the Great Wall of Mylor!"

The redevelopment programme over the past five years has amounted to the biggest single investment in the site's history and resulted in what the Graffys are convinced in now the South West's biggest and best equipped yachting haven.

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