"We're in tough economic times and it's unfortunate we've had previous port operators who simply haven't looked after what is, after all, a Wanganui-owned asset," he said.
"But now council has it back. They've got some good people who are looking after the port on the council's behalf in the meantime and we're having discussions with them about a way forward and improving things down there," Mr Fothergill told the Chronicle.
"It would be a disaster for the port to be closed down or not at least brought up to a reasonable standard."
He said he was hopeful the council would adopt a positive attitude to the port and would be prepared to work with businesses to stimulate growth.
"The port is being used and the public need to understand that. Sure, we have a vested interest and I bought the business [Q-West] on the basis that we would have a port that was at the very least usable," he said.
He said current regulars berthed at the port included two vessels - the Island Leader II and Shoman - that had been doing seabed surveys for the consortium looking at mining the ironsand deposits off the Wanganui coast.
"We've done some work on one of them while another caller has been the Ikatere, a boat we built for Niwa and that's been in and out of port lately too," Mr Fothergill, said.
There had also been other boats constructed or refurbished at the Q-West yard that were in and out of the river and harbour.
These have included a crayfishing boat, the Milford Wanderer owned by Real Journeys in Fiordland. And there is another 24m-long ferry soon to be launched for the same company.
"This all highlights that there's a lot of commercial activity in and around our port," he said.
But he said a realistic attitude was needed regarding the port's future.
"In my opinion a deep water port is something that would be nice to have but just isn't going to happen.
"However, there are opportunities for our port. Some of those are recreational, and there are commercial operators including our company as well as a charter operation based here."
But Mr Fothergill said the offshore ironsands prospect was looking promising as Wanganui would be the closest port to the undersea mining.
"As I understand it the ships that would come here to load the ironsands would all be based offshore and wouldn't come anywhere near any port. But there's a lot of service vessels involved and they need looking after.
"They could look at Nelson or New Plymouth as operational ports but Wanganui is the closest and more preferable. Certainly talking to the crew on those survey boats and following a briefing with those involved in the project, they indicated they'd prefer to use Wanganui," he said.
Mr Fothergill said despite the port's limitations, he believed it had a future.
"There's another smaller boat builder in town and when we refurbished the Milford Wandered we subcontracted a number of local tradespeople."
And he said the coastal ship Anatoki was a regular visitor carrying cargo between here and the South Island.
