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Audio clip 10 available here on audio player.
Jake Stuart is the third generation of the family heading up Stuart Line Cruises. He follows in his father’s footsteps by managing the family company that runs boat trips out of Exmouth. Jake is hands-on in his work, often skippering the tour boat, heading ticket sales, or handling administration in his company’s office. In this recording, Jake, his mum Philippa Stuart, and aunt Liane O’Donnell reflect on the protected status of the Exe Estuary, the UNESCO World Heritage status of the Jurassic Coast, and the boost this has created for the cruising business.
This trail marker is situated on the seawall railings facing towards Dawlish Warren.
What 3 Words: ///resort.defining.fidgeted
Liane: Then my dad bought a boat off, I think it’s Bernie Bradford.
Philippa: I think so.
Liane: Was it?
Philippa: Yes, I can’t remember.
Liane: Bernie Bradford. That was in 1968. He thought, that’ll do for a year until I decide what we want to do. He had no boating experience prior to that, to my knowledge. He didn’t have any, let’s say he just bought this boat off a guy, probably in a pub somewhere. He thought, that’ll do for a year until I decide what I want to do with my life. Because he was, what, 40 when I was born. That’s how it all started.
Philippa: We used to do half-an-hour trips around the bay, around the bay, or out to sea, didn’t we? Half-an-hour trip. Never used to take any notice. Then, obviously, you’ve got World Heritage status now, haven’t we? Which is the Jurassic Coast. Everybody just used to take that for granted. You didn’t think. Whereas now, like our Jurassic Coast trips now, people can’t get enough of them, can they?
Liane: No.
Philippa: Then we had, so in 2003, we had this boat [Liane: We had Pride of Exmouth built] built, all right? This is a brand new boat that we’ve still got now. We had this one built because the idea was we were going to go along the coast, weren’t we?
Jake: We’re a small little family business. It’s not like I’m the owner and all the staff do the work. I very much am one of them and just get on with it. Every day is different, we have a different timetable, we go all year, do different trips. I’m driving the boat mostly, I then go over and help them in the office, doing all the ticket sales, bits like that, admin. We get involved, I do all of our own maintenance in the winter. A bit of everything is your honest answer.
The River Exe is the protected site. It’s a SSSI site. It’s a Ramsar site. In the winter, it’s one of the top places in the country for its bird life. It’s obviously good for us because we promote that, we take people out to see the birds. I don’t know when that was awarded, quite a few years ago. Whereas then the main thing for us is, just went down today, is along the Jurassic Coast. That was awarded the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. Obviously before, it was just a nice coastline and people just used to see the red cliffs, where as soon as it becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site, they want to come and see it. It’s England’s first natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. That’s a massive marketing point for us because we are at the start of the Jurassic Coast.
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