Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC) has appointed Harry Gregory as its new Harbour Master.

Harry, who takes over the role from Captain Brian Murphy, previously worked as Harbour Master at Littlehampton as part of a five-year tenure which ultimately saw him taking the role as Chief Executive before his move to Poole.

“Size is probably the biggest change,” Harry explained, “both geographically and in terms of the team.

“I’d say Littlehampton has all of the same challenges, as well as all of the same user groups, as Poole, but on every imaginable metric Poole is bigger.

“With that though, the size of the team grows too.”

Harry first discovered a love for the sea aged six when, on holiday in Cornwall with his family, he took part in a dinghy sailing taster session.

“It felt like it was in the middle of a storm, but in hindsight it was probably quite benign,” he said.

“A lot of my family got into sailing as a result of that, and I gradually progressed from dinghies to yachts then, eventually to ships.”

Poole Harbour, credit: David Dixon

In that time, Poole has been a regular setting for his seafaring adventures.

Along with his parents moving there when he was in his teens, Harry, who spent time working in project management for the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence, did much of his training in Poole.

“I’ve always been attracted to Poole, and I always hoped to come back here one day.”

His new role will see him ensuring the harbour’s Marine Services team and pilots are all operating effectively.

“If all is going well, regrettably I won’t need to do much more than attend meetings and sit at my computer, but I intend to get afloat with the team as much as I can.

“My team will be bringing in and out several large vessels each day, we’ll have the patrol vessels afloat making sure everyone’s using the harbour safely and behaving themselves, and we’ll have other teams out there monitoring the depths and working out what dredging needs to be done to keep the harbour open.

“I’ll generally tend to flit to whichever area needs attention at any given time, but at least for the next few months I’m going to be keeping my eyes and ears open and getting to know the team and the patch.

“In the first instance my aim is to fill Brian’s enormous shoes, then I’ll work out what might need to be done after that.

“If I can continue to do what we’re doing at the moment, while making some small improvements and responding to whatever challenges will inevitably come around the corner next week, then that’s great.”

And Harry recognises the importance of having a strong team around him.

“I keep hearing from people who say they joined for a few years and they’re still here 20 years later. There seems to be more people who have been here for more than 10 years than less, and that’s a great measure for an organisation these days.

“The team here is very proud of what they do and many of them have been here for quite a long time, so I’m in safe hands.”

Outside of work Harry spends much of his time with his young family, but when he gets the chance he has a number of nautical hobbies to keep him busy.

“Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of my hobbies are quite wet too! Sailing, kite surfing – at the moment though most of my attention is on my family, I have a 3-year-old and a four-month-old so they take up quite a lot of my time.”

To conclude, Harry said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be here.

“I’ve had a real connection to Poole for many years and I look forward to getting to know the team and what we’re doing, then meeting the several thousand harbour users that we’ve got and working out whether what we’re doing is up to scratch, and how we can make the harbour the best it can be!”

• phc.co.uk

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