Oyster Bay Marina at Ladysmith BC

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Hydraulicjump

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Apr 13, 2012
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Off Leash
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Helmsman 38e
I thought I would post this to our Marinas, etc. forum. We did our annual visit to Ladysmith, BC for a great restaurant and amazing bakery. In every single conversation with folks I had after our visit they always started with "I thought the marina had closed." No, it is under new management, but there was some significant controversy involved. Here is my (overly long) post to ActiveCaptain that makes a lame attempt to explain what is going on. Apologies to those who never cruise this area, but this is a cute little town that some of us visiting the Gulf Islands like to frequent. Oh, and a reminder, don't believe everything you read on the internet about this issue. Including this post!

"As veterans of visits to this marina and town will note, some things have changed. And it is too early to tell whether the changes are for the better or worse for us, the cruiser community. To simplify (and I am sure to get some of this wrong), the marina is technically owned by the BC Province and leased to the Town of Ladysmith, which, in turn, subleased it to the Ladysmith Maritime Society (LMS) to manage. As part of reconciliation efforts with indigenous peoples, the Province and the town ended the sublease with LMS and transferred the marina and adjacent land to the Stz’uminus First Nation which, in turn has renamed the marina Oyster Bay Marina and hired a new management team. This process has been very tough, with lots of strained relationships between some members of the town and the marina. We spent a fair amount of time on our recent visit listening to folk’s views on this, both in town and on the dock. The new management is here to stay—with strong support from local government, the Province and the courts, and they have grand plans.

From the point of view of us, the cruiser community, the Oyster Bay Marina will have little in common with the one run by LMS. The plans can be found here:


It is very impressive and they have funding for clean up work and initial improvements to the docks. But a 1200 slip marina with houseboats and a large condo complex, including a new restaurant, is a big change and will take many years to complete. We cruisers know how often grand plans get derailed, so this is all a wait and see. The good news is that they plan to clear out all the derelict boats next to the marina (a perpetual eyesore). But for now, the docks are pretty empty. No worries about getting space on the transient dock which used to be pretty crowded in the summer. The showers and laundry are the same. The facilities are sparse and clean. I found the management polite and engaging—and very enthusiastic about the development plans—but the staffing is minimal. And of course, the wonderful little town of Ladysmith is at the top of the hill with Maya Norte—our favorite tapas restaurant—and Old Town Bakery with cinnamon buns bigger than your head, an amazing meat market, good provisioning, and good hiking to work it all off. Just don’t visit on Sundays when they roll up the streets. We will come back next year and report on progress."
 
That is good news for now, was wondering about the status. Thanks for the update!
 
I have been going to the Ladysmith Maritime Society's (LMS) facilities yearly for over 20 years and have watched this situation develop for more than a year.
I'm ashamed of what our Government has done there.

LMS will likely sue the Government soon.

Here's their take latest on the situation.

I looked at planning my annual trip to the LMS about a month ago but when I called the new owners at Oyster Bay Marina, a recording told me to use their new site to make reservations. Their site now uses Molo (whatever that is) to make reservations.
At that point I gave up as I have no appetite to be involved in a data breach and phoned Rob at Chemainus Municipal Wharf for a berth. He was full on the mid Aug. date I wanted so I changed destinations to Pender Harbour. I will miss the town of Ladysmith, but I doubt they will miss me.

If the long transient dock is indeed pretty empty, it looks like I'm not alone in avoiding the place due to the new owners and management.
I do note that the LMS's Dance off the Dock party on the 22nd of June was canceled and don't know if July's Dine off the Dock party in about 10 days will suffer the same fate, time will tell.

Ladysmith itself is a wonderful town with now only Ladysmith Marina as an option, albeit one with about a 20 min. longer walk to town. Maybe next year, but I won't be staying at the newly named Oyster Bay Marina.
 
May as well add my two cents. We'd visited this marina by boat several times, and loved it very much. However, the museum, the heritage boats, and especially the cafe are all gone/closed now. We swung by in our truck one or two months ago, just out of curiosity.

The place felt desolate. The fact that they were recovering a corpse that day didn't help, but it wouldn't have mattered. If you come here, come for the lovely town of Ladysmith, and not because someone told you the old marina was cool. It was, but not at the moment.
 
As they clear out the derelict boats, these same boats are just moving across to fill up the anchorage by the park. Lady Smith is changing from a sleepy inexpensive destination to a high dollar stop over.
 
If you mean that the boats are moving to the other side of Slag Point in front of Transfer Beach Park, I don’t think many will last through the winter as the fetch to the SE is about 10 miles.

It will take years and many taxpayer dollars before Ladysmith becomes a high dollar stopover. If it ever does.
 
They are moving to the bay behind Dunsmuir Island. I hope you are right about the winter blowing them out.
 
Sad. We have never been there and was planning a stop next year. Now....guess not.
 
IMHO, the town is still worth a stop with many local shops and some great places to eat including Maya Norte, the Bayview Brewery, and of course the bakery. When we were there (at our club's outstation), we took our dinghy in and the dock was full of guest vessels. We know multiple folks that have anchored out and dinghied in and enjoyed Ladysmith without incident but I get the hesitancy given the state of many vessels in the area including next to Oyster Bay Marina where many unkept vessels are congregating.
 
They are moving to the bay behind Dunsmuir Island. I hope you are right about the winter blowing them out.
We were just there in late August and there weren't any rough looking boats back there. Looks like they may have moved on. Now as the season winds down and there are less transient boats coming in and out they may move back in taking advantage of the desolation and lack of oversight.
 
IMHO, the town is still worth a stop with many local shops and some great places to eat including Maya Norte, the Bayview Brewery, and of course the bakery. When we were there (at our club's outstation), we took our dinghy in and the dock was full of guest vessels. We know multiple folks that have anchored out and dinghied in and enjoyed Ladysmith without incident but I get the hesitancy given the state of many vessels in the area including next to Oyster Bay Marina where many unkept vessels are congregating.

Yeah the town is still wonderful. The marina itself is not what it used to be a year ago, but as far as being a place to dock and go to the bathroom, it still fills that role.

One thing, there's maybe a 50/50 chance that the floating welcome center that houses the bathrooms could be repossessed and hauled away by the original owners. So just watch for that I guess.
 
Yeah the town is still wonderful. The marina itself is not what it used to be a year ago, but as far as being a place to dock and go to the bathroom, it still fills that role.

One thing, there's maybe a 50/50 chance that the floating welcome center that houses the bathrooms could be repossessed and hauled away by the original owners. So just watch for that I guess.
Yikes. If that happens then the dinghy dock goes with it and I guess the alternative is down a ways with the longer walk into town?
 
Yikes. If that happens then the dinghy dock goes with it and I guess the alternative is down a ways with the longer walk into town?

Potentially. There's talk of the original tenants taking all their stuff and opening a new marina nearby, but I wouldn't expect any motion on that for a bit.
 
The walk into town from the further north marina isn’t too bad. We’ve stayed there many times.
 

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