Waterways
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The Liverpool Yacht Club was established in the Coburg/Brunswick Dock in 1988. Since then it has established itself as the premier yacht club in the North West. It runs races and cruises both locally within the River Mersey and further afield, and also organises social events on the river.
Ferries:
MerseyFerries is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the North West of England, with over 600,000 people taking the ferry across the River Mersey last year. The ferries also form part of the city's public transport system in that they carry a significant number of Wirral commuters across the river to work in Liverpool City Centre.
Liverpool Marina:
Since the mid-1980's, Liverpool Marina has been developed to provide berths for 350 yachts, and now features a harbourside club and restaurant.
Albert Dock:
The Albert Dock complex was renovated in the early 1980's and is now one of Merseyside's top tourist attractions. The Liverpool South Docks are owned and managed by British Waterways and are used for canoeing, water-skiing, scuba diving and other watersports.
Albert Dock itself and the adjoining Canning Half Tide Dock provide prestige waterside frontage within Liverpool City Centre, and are visited by various vessels throughout the year - particularly during the Mersey Festival.
Vessels of up to 55m length overall are welcome to access and berth in the dock by prior arrangement only. For more information about berthing, and watersports in the dock, contact: Captain Broadbent on 0151 709 6558 or email him.
Leeds-Liverpool Canal:
The Leeds-Liverpool Canal is the longest canal in Britain built as a single waterway - yet one of the least busy. This is mainly because at the Liverpool end there is no significant destination point...the canal simply stops at Eldonian Village, just short of the city centre and its tourist attractions.
A new link from the Stanley Dock branch, across the Pier Head to Albert Dock should be open by 2008. Thus creating an appealing destination to attract canal boaters into Liverpool.
British Waterways has approached Liverpool City Council with a proposal for a new canal link to improve and extend it. When built, the canal will pass alongside the waterfront close to the River Mersey, up to the Albert Dock to make a more fitting destination/termination point and encourage greater use of the canal by tourists and pleasure craft.