More than 50 yacht owners with berths at the Ta’ Xbiex marina have formed an association with the aim of eventually running the place.

Association chairman Rino Muscat Scerri said they had been told informally that Transport Malta would be issuing a tender for the marina by the end of the year. However, details were as yet unknown.

The Gżira Garden Yacht Marina, as the new association is called, groups together the owners of yachts berthed between the Manoel Island petrol station and the Ta’ Xbiex water polo pitch.

Mr Muscat Scerri said it hoped to be in a position to run and develop the marina. “The main aim of this association is to acquire the title for the marina site and possibly also the development and maintenance of the adjacent garden,” he said during the launch of the group yesterday.

The association, he said, was ready to form a company and raise the capital needed to bid for the contract and safeguard the interests of the berth holders while looking after the upkeep of the garden and surrounding area.

The association hopes that once the tender is issued, the company would be given first preference but it suspects that Midi plc, the developers of Manoel Island and Tigné Point, would be interested in acquiring the marina.

The marina near the Gżira garden was one of the first to be developed in Malta and has been there since the last century. Some association members have been berthing their yachts there for the past 35 to 40 years. Others have held the same berth for donkey’s years.

The association’s other officials are: Silvio Farrugia, vice-chairman; Charles Zerafa, secretary and teasurer; and the members, Trevor Sullivan and Roland Darmanin Kissaun.