The Poole Yacht Club Joins Harbour Assist: Supporting the Future of a Historic UK Yacht Club
The Poole Yacht Club
The Poole Yacht Club Joins Harbour Assist: Supporting the Future of a Historic UK Yacht Club
We’re delighted to welcome The Poole Yacht Club to the Harbour Assist community, following their successful go-live in July 2025.
As one of the UK’s most established yacht clubs, The Poole Yacht Club manages a complex mix of marina operations, membership administration, billing, and reporting. As the organisation has evolved, it became clear that their existing systems were no longer providing the flexibility, visibility, or efficiency required to support both day-to-day operations and future development.
Moving to a purpose-built marina system
The Poole Yacht Club began reviewing software options with a clear objective: to move away from a rigid, legacy system towards a more integrated, user-friendly platform designed specifically for marina and harbour operations.
Harbour Assist was selected for its strong industry focus and its ability to bring berth management, invoicing, reporting, and customer records into a single, connected system.
Carla Casagrande, IT Administrator at The Poole Yacht Club, explains:
“Harbour Assist stood out due to its strong focus on marina and harbour management, as well as its comprehensive functionality. The system aligned closely with our operational requirements, offering an integrated approach to berth management, invoicing, reporting, and customer records. We also found the platform to be flexible and well suited to the way we operate.”
The team was also reassured by seeing Harbour Assist successfully used by Poole Harbour Commissioners, providing real-world validation within the local marine environment.
Clear objectives, tangible benefits
Since going live, The Poole Yacht Club has been using Harbour Assist as a central system of record across operational and financial workflows. The platform now supports berth allocations, membership renewals, invoicing, payments, and reporting, helping teams work from a single, consistent source of data.
The Poole Yacht Club’s objectives are focused on streamlining internal processes, reducing manual administration, improving data accuracy, and delivering a smoother experience for members, particularly around billing and payments.
Improved reporting and financial visibility are also enabling more informed decision-making and stronger operational control, supporting a more connected way of working across teams.
A realistic onboarding journey
The onboarding process was structured and well supported, although it presented some challenges along the way.
During implementation, there was an unexpected change of project manager, which required both teams to regroup and, in some areas, restart elements of the work. Harbour Assist provided supporting documentation throughout the process; while helpful, some elements would have benefited from access to a test environment to make validation clearer and more efficient.
The Poole Yacht Club’s internal IT experience played an important role in navigating the transition, enabling the team to work through the process effectively and maintain momentum.
There were also early learnings around data preparation and transfer, which both teams worked through collaboratively. Once these challenges were addressed, data migration, configuration, and system setup were completed successfully, allowing The Poole Yacht Club to move forward with minimal disruption to day-to-day operations.
Carla Casagrande, IT Administrator at The Poole Yacht Club, adds:
“Once these challenges were resolved, the Harbour Assist team demonstrated a strong understanding of our requirements and supported us effectively through the remaining stages.”
Training was tailored to The Poole Yacht Club’s operational needs, helping staff become confident using the system quickly. Ongoing support has remained responsive and knowledgeable, with issues generally resolved promptly. The level of support during the implementation phase made a real difference throughout the transition.
“Working with the Harbour Assist Training Specialist, Oli Pearce, was a real pleasure. He was reliable, always willing to help, and highly committed to our implementation.”
Looking ahead
With Harbour Assist now embedded into daily operations, The Poole Yacht Club has a platform that supports greater efficiency, clearer visibility, and the flexibility to adapt as requirements evolve.
We’re proud to be working with The Poole Yacht Club and look forward to continuing the partnership as they build on this strong foundation.
Welcome aboard.
Learn more about Poole Yacht Club
To find out more about The Poole Yacht Club and its marina and membership operations, visit their website:
How can Harbour Assist help your business?
If you’d like to discuss how Harbour Assist could support your organisation, get in touch with our team to start a conversation by clicking here.
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