Buoyed by opportunity: a Port Rexton business owner is hoping to attract new business
You can get to Port Rexton by road and by air … but what about by sea?
John Fisher, owner of the Fisher's Loft Inn, has invested $4,500 of his own money to install three mooring buoys in the Port Rexton harbour.
He's hoping the buoys will attract larger leisure craft into the harbour, and bring more tourist dollars into the community.
"We decided to make these a donation to the town," he said.
"You can come here by road and you can come here by air, by helicopter, but nobody's thought much about people coming by sea."
Fisher says Port Rexton is already a tourist hotspot with the brewery, his inn, and the surrounding businesses bringing in a steady flow of people. He says It only makes sense to create another way for people to arrive.
Smooth sailing so far
To that end, Fisher's installed buoys by the book, mooring them to 1200 pound blocks in about 30 feet of water. The buoys can support many sizes of sail and motor boats.
Though they've only been installed this July, Fisher says they've already had a few boats tie up and the people on those vessels spent a good bit of money in the town.
"The first boat spent $288 at our restaurant, the grocery store, and the brewery," he said.
"If that's any measure then it's not out of line to think of these buoys producing something like about a thousand dollars expenditures a day, and maybe over the season about a hundred thousand or more," he said.
Keeping rural Newfoundland afloat
Ultimately, he says, it's all about helping to keep a rural part of the province growing and thriving.
"We've been living here for 28 years as a family and 21 years as a business," he said. "We like to think this will be some help to the town. A rising tide lifts all boats, that kind of thing. It's not about Fisher's Loft, it's about all of the fellow businesses and I think we'll all get something from this."
