Starter Kit. Idea 481 of 500. Cluster 26
Trincomalee: the harbour as a sailing and diving centre for the Bay of Bengal
The mechanism, from the book
Every city has one thing it could be known for, and each is currently known for nothing in particular.
The first step
Contact the dive centres and boat owners already working out of the harbour and ask what they charge and which days they sit idle. Then write a 5-day sailing and diving week, put a price on it, and send it to the secretaries of 3 yacht or dive clubs in countries around the Bay of Bengal. A request for dates, or a deposit, is your first sign.
- Who pays first
- A dive club or sailing crew from a country around the bay, who want a new harbour to visit and a week arranged for them.
- What leaves today
- A deep natural harbour sits largely unused by leisure sailors and divers, and their spending goes to marinas and dive towns elsewhere in the region.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Ports Authority. Ask what permission boats taking visitors need to use the harbour.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask how dive and sailing centres are registered for visitors.
Check before you spend
Confirm that boats and dive centres are registered and insured, that instructors are properly qualified, and permission to use the harbour waters.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a visitor pay for a sailing and diving week?
- How many idle days a month do the dive boats have?
- Which sailing or diving clubs abroad would you write to first?
A comparison from the book
Trincomalee. Appendix
"the finest natural harbour in the Bay of Bengal, and the hub is the sea"
The harbour is already there. The business is the week of sailing and diving on it.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.