The club is looking to create a 70-berth marina to meet growing demand for boat berths by members and to assist dinghy launching in the junior sailing programme.

But one local resident believes the enlarged marina will take up half of scenic Red Hole Bay.

The club's notice of intention to develop land in the Official Gazette "could be somewhat misleading'', wrote the resident in a letter to The Royal Gazette under the pen-name Save Our Beauty.

"One gets the impression that the club would merely like to put out a reasonably sized floating pontoon fastened to a couple of piles,'' the writer said.

The proposed development is described in the notice as a "new prefabricated wood, metal and PVC floatation system moored with piles''. The land is zoned is Open Space.

The letter writer said the new marina would have "rows of docks, cambers, walkways and pilings''.

"Anyone who cares about the scenic value of that first view of the harbour and Hamilton as one comes onto Harbour Road should consider that this will be completely blanked out by this massive development,'' the resident wrote.

"Others who may well be concerned are all those who will lose their boat moorings.'' The writer added there were "only 14 days (until April 23) in which to object'' to the Planning Department. "Perhaps people should go to the Department of Planning and examine these plans.'' However, RHADC commodore Mr. Buddy Rego said the only moorings that would be affected would be those belonging to the club.

And he did not believe the new marina would destroy harbour views.

"It will be no worse than looking at the container ships across the harbour,'' he said."This is not going to be a public marina.'' The club was seeking in-principle approval only, he pointed out. And the proposal did not yet have the full blessing of the club's management committee, chaired by Mr. Ross Spurling.

The club's current 35-berth facility was "free-swinging and cluttered'', with ground and mooring chains brushing the harbour floor.

A concrete-pylon marina would be more secure and less harmful to marine life, he said.

The expansion was needed, Mr. Rego added, because there was an eight- to nine-year waiting list for berths by members.

And better facilities were needed for launching dinghies in the junior sailing programme.

Mr. Buddy Rego.