With a traditional builders mug of tea in one hand, he used the other to ‘lift’ the harbour’s pilot boat, ‘The Fenlander’, off the ground. The crowd, and the cameras, loved it.

Tommy is currently in March where he is building the most eco friendly home ever to have been constructed in Fenland for a television programme scheduled to be shown on TV in the autumn, called Tommy Walsh’s House. He took time out from putting the finishing touches to the house to launch the 75 ton boatlift, the biggest facility between Gravesend and the Tyne.

The boatlift is part of the massive £50 million Nene Waterfront Regeneration Project, which is transforming the economy of Wisbech and of Fenland too. The boatlift is already playing a key role in attracting boat owners, keen to lift their craft either for storage or for repair.

The boatlift was in big demand even before it was completed at the end of March, with more than 18 boats booked in to be lifted out of the water. Since it was opened in April, it has lifted more than 40 boats and more are signing up each week.

The modern is breathing new life into the newly revamped yacht harbour, with increasing numbers of boat owners from the Midlands choosing to move their boats from as far away as Felixstowe and the South Coast to Wisbech because berthing costs are much more competitive and because new boatlift facilities and repair and storage services are now on hand.

Already, a boat building company is gearing up to move to a site alongside the boatlift so that they can enhance their boat building side of the business with a boat repair business.

Cllr Mac Cotterell, Fenland District Council’s Portfolio Holder with responsibility for the Port of Wisbech said, ‘The boatlift will attract sea going commercial and leisure boats to Wisbech as well as those that ply the inland waterways. This all spells fantastic news for the town and Fenland as a whole as it will bring in more tourists and generate a much more vibrant local economy.

‘The boatlift is only one element of the Nene Waterfront Regeneration Project which is transforming a 20 acre site that has lain derelict for more than 30 years. It complements the redeveloped and expanded yacht harbour facilities and when the Boathouse business centre is built on Nene Parade and the Parade itself is pedestrianised and fronted by attractive apartments and retail outlets, this whole area of Wisbech will come alive. It will become even more vibrant when more than 300 eco-friendly homes are completed on the site in the next four years.’