“It’s been great,” said Harbormaster Gregg Marsili of the early numbers coming in for the first season of the Town’s new marina, which opened in May after eight years in the making.

The 650-foot breakwater and wave attenuator that comprises the bulk of the structure includes a substantial expansion of slips which are available to Bristol residents, but it’s the transient space for visitors, including large luxury yachts, that provides the income that will eventually allow the marina to operate at no cost to the taxpayer. In 2016 voters approved a $2 million bond for its construction; and though total costs ended up being closer to $4.2 million, town officials figured out how slip and fuel fees would pay for it so it would not be a burden on homeowners who don’t own boats.

So far in fiscal year 2023, which runs from July 2022 to June 2023, the Town has collected $139,908 in revenues from visiting vessels using transient slips and moorings. Consider that number will grow with spring traffic, and compare that to the total revenue of $75,916 collected during the entirety of fiscal year 2022.

“It’s amazing, when I started here in 2013, we only had $6,350 in income from transients.” said Marsili.

The numbers for fiscal year 2024 should be even more dramatic — the marina had neither water nor electricity all season due to complications with a subcontractor. The town lost at least $45,000 in cancelled reservations due to that hiccup, and an unknown number that were never made, but the issue is scheduled to be rectified in the spring, so revenues should be up substantially next season.

Traffic was high all summer. Predictably, the week around July 4th was very busy, with several large vessels, including two over 90’, docked on the marina. The Seastreak ferry, with service to Providence and Newport, made regular stops, and a Save The Bay educational vessel ran a summer camp for kids. During one week in September, Marsili counted eight different countries represented, from Europe to South America, to Oceania. “It was a real melting pot,” laughed Marsili. “I guess we’re international now.”

Though the Town has done limited advertising and Marsili credits Explore Bristol and other marketing efforts with getting the word out, he also credits word of mouth and his staff, who he says are great ambassadors for the town, for Bristol’s growing reputation as a marine destination. “Boaters want a nice, short walk to a nice downtown,” he said. “People love coming here because this is a great town.”

He also credits the fuel dock for drawing visitors. That brought in $21,000 at the tail end of fiscal year 2022, and about another $117,000 since June. Those numbers are all the more remarkable because the numbers the Town used to estimate the dock’s income figured about $50,000 in annual sales. They are positioned to possibly triple that number.

Once there is a full year of operations with a fully operational marina — which should be fiscal year 2024 — the Town should be able to make more concrete projections about the full economic benefit of the marina — and that does not even include the hidden benefits of revenue that ends up in local shops and restaurants.

No matter how you add up the numbers, it’s clear they will be exceeding the Town’s most optimistic expectations. “I am very, very pleased,” said Marsili.