Hi all, I could do with some help. I am looking for a yacht from 30 to 35 ft and wish to put it at a marina near yarmouth.

[Ianthediver]

This will be my first yacht to buy and sail on the east coast although I have chartered in greese. I want to get grips with the tidal waters. I have looked at 30ft boats but not what i really want so a 35 will give me the room and stearing wheel, Wgere can I put it?

 

[Ianthediver]

This will be my first yacht to buy and sail on the east coast although I have chartered in greese. I want to get grips with the tidal waters. I have looked at 30ft boats but not what i really want so a 35 will give me the room and stearing wheel, Where can I keep it?

 

[PeterWright]

Hi Ian,

Yarmouth is notoriously unfriendly to yachts - the nearest port with decent marina facilities is Lowestoft where you would do well to join the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club. Don't be put off by the Royal tag - they're all sailors, just this lot happen to benefit from the relative wealth of previous generations of yotties in a comfortable clubhouse with their own small marina just outside the back door:

Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club – Britain's Most Easterly Yacht Club (rnsyc.net)

I note that they are advertising "ANNUAL MOORINGS AVAILABLE NOW" on their website. You will also find being a member of a club gets you help and advice on the benefits and pitfalls of yacht ownership.

Going North from Yarmouth the next fairly accessible harbour is Wells next the Sea, but the entrance here is not all tide and pretty challenging in any strong blow from North to East. Further South Southwold is good then the many possibilities of the Deben, Orwell, Stour and Walton Backwater.

Don't be put off by a tiller, it's much easier than a wheel for steering yachts of the size you are considering.

Peter.

 

[Dee Bee]

I would agree about the RNSYC but Lowestoft has the great disadvantage that there is nowhere to go if you want to day sail. I would plump for the Deben/Orwell/Stour. A bit depends on where you are living but it is only about 90min drive from Yarmouth.

 

[pvb]

Yarmouth is a non-starter. The RNSYC at Lowestoft only has a tiny marina for club members, and their website says there may be vacancies for annual moorings for boats under 8m, which is presumably no good for you. There are two other marinas in Lowestoft - Lowestoft Marina and Lowestoft Haven Marina - but they both have the serious disadvantage of having to go through a lifting road bridge.

There are lots of marinas on the Orwell, which is probably your closest viable option.

 

[Slowboat35]

Firstly, remember there is only one "Yarmouth" to most British yotties and that's on the Isle of Wight.
Here on the E Coast forum (and on the E coast) we'll mostly understand what is meant by just "Yarmouth" but misunderstandings can still arise.
As said above there are no yacht moorings at Gt Yarmouth.
The RNSYC at Lowestoft has a small marina that is not at all well protected from easterly winds when it an build up one heck of a groundswell and is not somewhere I'd put a boat long-term to keep it safe. Nice club though, but nowhere to go nearby. Cost similar to the Orwell.
Next south is Southwold, a muddy, narrow, fast-flowing river entrance that is imho quite unsuitable for permanent moorings even if it is very scenic for short visits.
For all practical purposes look to the Deben, Orwell or Stour where there are numerous marinas and hundreds of swinging moorings in an area where you can day-sail in all weathers.
Again as said above, tiller is much easier and more convenient than a wheel.

 

[PeterWright]

Yarmouth is a non-starter. The RNSYC at Lowestoft only has a tiny marina for club members, and their website says there may be vacancies for annual moorings for boats under 8m, which is presumably no good for you. There are two other marinas in Lowestoft - Lowestoft Marina and Lowestoft Haven Marina - but they both have the serious disadvantage of having to go through a lifting road bridge.

There are lots of marinas on the Orwell, which is probably your closest viable option.

I agree that there are more opportunities for short passages from the Orwell / Stour / Walton Backwater harbours, but having to drive 90 minutes to get to your boat is a PITA. I didn't see the 8m limit on berths at RNSYC in fact, under the shouty ad I pasted above, it says " (April to March) available for leisure craft up to 13 metres. Immediate free winter moorings available for those applying for annual moorings. )" and that marina is accessible without passing the lifting bridge. No personal axe to grind, I'm not a member of RNSYC nor do I berth there (except very occasionally as a visitor). Wild Thyme lives happily at SYH where we are members of HPYC, so I do see the benefits of the Orwell, but then I don't live in or near Great Yarmouth.

Peter

 

[pvb]

I didn't see the 8m limit on berths at RNSYC ....

It's on their "Marina" webpage.

The Marina – Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club

 

[MikeBz]

Next south is Southwold, a muddy, narrow, fast-flowing river entrance that is imho quite unsuitable for permanent moorings..

Eh??? I don't berth there but would be more than happy to if it were on my doorstep. Beats the pants off any marina in my book. There are plenty of permanently moored boats in Southwold harbour - I would imagine that the biggest problem is getting a mooring.

 

[johnalison]

Southwold and the Deben will be more demanding if you lack experience in tidal waters. The Orwell marinas are largely straightforward and Titchmarsh at Walton tidal but benign. This is not to say that the first two are dangerous, but they are not the shallow end of cruising.

 

[Slowboat35]

It seeems to me that there's a vast amount more to gettnig used to tidal waters than handling an entrance with a smart flow-rate which is a complete non-event.
Learning tidal waters is about learning to navigate in them, getting where you want by dead reckoning and tidal calculations to see when you can and can't get to places, how to compensate for curren, drift angles, etc. Getting in and out of a harbour entrance is is a smallpart of a large subject.

 

[Leighb]

It seeems to me that there's a vast amount more to gettnig used to tidal waters than handling an entrance with a smart flow-rate which is a complete non-event.
Learning tidal waters is about learning to navigate in them, getting where you want by dead reckoning and tidal calculations to see when you can and can't get to places, how to compensate for curren, drift angles, etc. Getting in and out of a harbour entrance is is a smallpart of a large subject.

All of those things, but berthing and mooring in a tide way are very different from in still water. It depends where the OPs experience is from, if a river with a fair current then that is useful, although he would need to deal with flows reversing and not always being predictable. Two of the Orwell marinas have the tide running through them, and the effect can vary a lot between the outer and inner berths!

 

[Slowboat35]

I really don't agree that mere boat-handling at the dockside is more than a small and very preipheral part of the skills required for sailing in tidal waters.

 

[Greemble]

As said, Great Yarmouth is a non-starter for yachts, unless you want to go further inland, but will have to contend with two opening (when they work) road bridges to get to sea. In which case you might try Burgh Castle Marina,
You'll certainly have some tides to play with on the river and especially on Breydon Water.

However, Lowestoft has a number of mooring spots, not just the three mentioned already:
Haven Marina
Lowestoft Marina
Lowestoft Yacht Services run by Kingston Marine
J.G. Marine
Newson's Yard - the IBTC might help with that
Lowestoft Cruising Club may be able to help with non-member moorings, once this covid stuff is out of the way

Yes, there is the road bridge to get through, but it does have a time table for private yachts and a waiting platform where you can get your boat sorted & have a cup of tea while you wait. It also makes iot more difficult for someone to just sail away without asking if they can 'borrow' your yacht. ;-)

 

[Simon 420]

Echo thoughts about Lowestoft. Don't even think about GY - the trouble that those two bridges cause is immense and aesthetically it's a pretty awful harbour to sail through
In our experience the Lowestoft harbour staff are far more accommodating and the outer road bridge seeems to be the most reliable of all the bridges at the end of the Broads network. Just give them 20 minutes notice and arrive at the alloted opening time. Plus if you fancied a few quieter days you can access the Broads and explore some inland sailing- that will sharpen up your close quarter tacking skills!

 

[syvictoria]

As said, Great Yarmouth is a non-starter for yachts, unless you want to go further inland, but will have to contend with two opening (when they work) road bridges to get to sea. In which case you might try Burgh Castle Marina,

Just to add to the above, whilst more expensive I believe, Goodchild Marine is next door and has better/more facilities I would say. Burgh Castle Marina (which I think is part of the adjacent caravan park?) was predominantly empty when I was last there (summer 2020), which perhaps says something! However, I have no personal experience of either yards.

 

[Marmalade]

We sacrificed some time driving for a better choice of sailing waters, and have never regretted it.
Also, a friend who had a boat in Newhaven - as mentioned above in relation to Lowestoft and Southwold, chose to drive to Chatham to access his boat because the choice from Newhaven was turn left (full on sea sailing) or turn right (full on sea sailing). The choice to stay in a river for a day sail when the sea is lumpy as all hell is well worth having, I think.

 

[Slowboat35]

Re Lowestoft inside the bridge, I found it thoroughly inconvenient as one has to time entrance and exit for bridge-lifts that are 2 and sometimes 3 hrs apart. This severely restricts your access and can really bugger up your tide timings, sometimes either forcing you out half a tide 'wrong' or missing a precious hour or more of fair tide on the previous or next bridge which is a serious consideration given it's an entire tide's-length sail and then a bit to get anywhere pleasant bar Southwold. Day sailing is pretty pointless as there is nowhere to go and again your going, but more so coming back, is dictated by the bridge which you really don't want to miss. The so-called 'waiting pontoon' is thickly (and I mean thickly) covered in guano and much of it is inacessible to a yacht with more than 1.4m or so draft at low tide as you'll be aground metres before you reach it - not that the pilot diagrams mention that... Lowestoft entrance can also be very unpleasant indeed in some weather conditions, and occasionally unusable for a yacht. As for unscenic - it's ghastly! Unlike Gt Yarmouth which- I beg to differSimon - is lined with wonderfully attractive imposing old harbourside buildings (think old Holland) near the bridge and is always an interesting working harbour with many points of interest elsewhere. An off-the-beaten-track nightstop but no more. In the last year or two the bascule bridge has had its problems but historically really hasn't been too bad. However it is Victorian and if it breaks down properly it could be down for years.
Lowestoft will soon be subject to the building of the Third Crossing which will inevitably create considerable disruption to non-commercial traffic that lives upstream of the site for several years (noise, dirt, dreadful road access problems)and when built will pose yet another bridge-obstacle to many moderate sized yachts as the air draft will not be great. As there is no commecial shipping to speak of up there it remains to be seen just how co-operative the authorities will be in raising it for mere yachts when doing so will only exacerbate Lowestoft's atrocious traffic which the new bridge will inevitably suffer from.
Despite it adding 40 minutes to reach the boat my move to the Orwell has proved a 100% success. I can find beautiful and peaceful anchorages galore safe in any weather starting within 15 minutes of the marina, I can come and go as I like and the boat doesn't get covered in the layers of industrial grime that drifts across the harbour in Lowestoft Haven marina. A day on the Orwell uses a day only, ex Lowestoft it requires three...and a weekend in the area needs four.
The only downside is cost but I'm told Ipswich marina is not much more expensive than Lowestoft. Swinging moorings are available too.

 

[PeterWright]

Perhaps there's a reason that the only berthing in Lowestoft I mentioned in post #3 above is the one outside all bridges.

Peter

 

[Leighb]

Just to add to the above, whilst more expensive I believe, Goodchild Marine is next door and has better/more facilities I would say. Burgh Castle Marina (which I think is part of the adjacent caravan park?) was predominantly empty when I was last there (summer 2020), which perhaps says something! However, I have no personal experience of either yards.

We stayed a couple of nights in Burgh Castle marina in 2019 on our way from the Yare to the Bure. It is a convenient stopover to get the tide right for the Yarmouth bridges, but apart from that it is pretty grotty. Some power points not working, pontoons not well maintained. Showers and laundry in the caravan site which is a bit of a walk, especially in a Gale and rain.? The pub, “Fisherman’s Arms” not bad “pub grub”. Most awkward thing was we had to come alongside at the Fisherman’s to “check in” and it is a horrible raggedy edged metal quay heading close to water level near HW, so fendering near impossible. On top of all that it was NOT cheap!