NEW owners appeared this week to have taken over Watchet Marina from financially troubled Swiss-based entrepreneur Christopher Odling-Smee.

Western Marinas Operations Ltd (WMO), a company formed in March of this year, implied the move on its under-construction website.

It said: “We are a new company with a new management team and new investors.

“We are on a mission to realise the potential of Cardiff, Aberystwyth, and Watchet Marinas, as well as Cardiff Marine Village, and the associated dredging division.

“We are currently scrubbing the decks and creating a new website, so check back soon.”

The named enterprises were all run by Mr Odling-Smee’s Marine and Property Group Ltd (MPG), which went into administration in April, 2023, with estimated £16 million debts and £2 million assets.

MPG’s administrators said the firm was owed about £8 million by another of Mr Odling-Smee’s companies, the Bayscape Group, which was in formal insolvency procedures which made it uncertain if any of the money could be recovered.

Watchet Marina was the only one of 10 MPG companies not in administration and Somerset Council was negotiating to grant Mr Odling-Smee a 200-year lease once he acquired the original lease from former operator Tim Taylor, of Havant, Hampshire.

If confirmed, new ownership was seen by boat owners as ending years of complaints over the build up of mud in the marina, broken lock gates, and lack of facilities.

MPG ceased to have ‘significant control’ of Watchet Marina Ltd on August 17 with Wm Cardiff Ltd replacing it, a company formed on July 8 this year.

Mr Odling-Smee was then removed as the sole director on September 2 to be replaced by Andrew Cornish and Alexander Ross.

Mr Cornish is also a director of WMO, Wm Cardiff Ltd, and five other associated companies.

Meanwhile, a loan taken by Mr Odling-Smee for Watchet Marina in April this year from GH Daryani and Co Ltd and secured against all of its assets and rights has been marked by Companies House as ‘satisfied’ on August 21.

An earlier loan from Seaward Properties Ltd, dating to 2022 and secured against under-leases of the marina and the harbour offices was still listed as ‘outstanding’.

Mr Odling-Smee, who refuses to talk to the Free Press, remains sole director of MPG.

Somerset Council had been waiting for Mr Odling-Smee to purchase a lease from Mr Taylor and to complete a ‘wider refinancing deal’.

A council spokesperson told the Free Press: “We are being kept informed of progress on the purchase of the lease which is a private transaction between two commercial entities.

“We expect the future of Watchet Marina to be resolved in the very near future and will comment more upon completion.”

A WMO spokesperson responding to a Free Press inquiry said: “Unfortunately, we are not able to comment any more at present, but will be releasing a statement soon.”

Also this month, the registered office of Mr Taylor’s Watchet Harbour Marina Ltd, which holds the substantive lease, was changed from Havant to Fareham, Portsmouth.