Perth company plans world-class Tayside sailing resort – can Argyll step up?

Two years ago, a private enterprise in Perth, Strathtay Developments, bought Croft na Caber on Loch Tayside – with a hotel and seventeen chalets. One of the partners in the company, Eric Strickland is also a partner in an architects’ practice, McKenzie Strickland Associates. He himself learned to sail at Croft na Caber and he has now submitted plans, through Strattay Developments, for a £20 million sailing resort there. The plans include a sailing school, swimming pool and health spa, restaurant, children’s club and holiday accommodation from one to four bedroom units. Argyll has the best sailing grounds in the UK; Owen Sails, Scotland’s largest sailmaking firm, now associated with an Olympic Gold medal in Beijing; the annual Bell Lawrie Series at Tarbert in Kintyre; the annual West Highland Yachting Week in Oban; good yacht clubs, marinas, chandleries, boat builders and shore facilities; and a wealth of sailors in all classes of boats. This provides so much to build on, playing to core strengths. Is there the entrepreneurial spirit and the commitment to Argyll to make this sort of thing happen here – well and fast?