£100 or £2800 no contest

exfinnsailor

exfinnsailor

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We have enjoyed our New Beneteau 323 and have enjoyed the Marina but now they have told us that our annual renewal for a 10m space will go up £400 a year to £2800 so we have opted for a friends swing mooring £100 a year. Just hope they can find someone to pay the price quoted. How do they justify a price rise of nearly £10 a week .. Thats 17% .. Suppose its to pay for the WebCam but you are expected to pay for the Internet at £2.50 a day or £10 a week and the electric and an electricity connection charge of £5 a month . So SWMBO is now looking forward to the trials and tribulations of weekends out on a swing mooring .. Also worked out that if you use the boat for 6 months say 30 weeks and you spend every weekend thats 60 nights in a Marina that charges £25 a night thats only £1500 .. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Electric connection charge of £5 a month? Bargain, well, compared with our marina, £15 per month and 'leccy at 12p a unit. Still, that's the south coast, I suppose. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
£2800 for a10 meter berth??

Sign me up!

In plymouth 3600 for 9.5 meters....

We were on a mooring until last year... there are some big advantages in a marina, not the least of which is access, security, the boats in better shape (Its easier to clean in and out, plus power, ) we sublet the berth over the winter which pays for the lift and storage ashore.....

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Cheaper on the surface, but as we live so far from the boat, I thinks the real costs are simular.
 
Not being a lover of marinas I think you're doing the right thing.

I suppose it depends if you sail to join in the social scene or to get away from the social scene.

A mooring is also kinder to the boat than being alongside. The only real downside I can see is security. With a posh boat like yours maybe find a way to lock the mooring chain to the sampson post or something?

Just a thought.
 
These charges are ridicules. I am a commodore of a German sailing club www.ksg-kleve,de , we charge about 350 Euro per season for a 10 meter boat including electricity and we don’t make loss. Ok all the maintenance has to be done by our members. We have also to pay the government for every square meter in use, plus insurance for the installation plus all the membership fees to our money hungry organizations like DSV (German equivalent to RYA).There are a lot of bills to paid.
We charge for winter storage about 200 Euros and the haul out is 30 Euros.
Have a look at our website and navigate to “Steg”. The Clubhouse is an old ferry.
For us it is always a horror to pay your mooring fees in Britain.
Why can you not establish small harbors by your excellent sailing clubs in Britain?
Is it the class system?
We build the pontoons by our self, even we constructed the pontoons. It was assembled by all members of the club.
We are not all engineers some of us are medical doctors, judges, lawyers, architects, mechanics, teachers, taxidrivers etc. The annual member ship fee is 90 Euros.
 
I must admit that I have never had a swinging mooring, and have been spoiled by always having a marina berth.

Here in Swansea I was paying over £2000 a year for a berth some 4 years ago. But now have a less expensive berth in the sailing club.

I would only go to swinging mooring if there was really no option. The pontoon berth is just so convenient for water power getting to the boat, repairs security etc.

Also good for meeting people, easy to pop down for a couple of hours etc.

But you pays your money and takes yer choice.
 
The Swansea YAcht and Sub Aqua Club has done this, ie built its own marina.

Members do most of the work on the marina.

But it has been a route frought with problems, especially when the local council decided to try and multiply the ground rent by 10.

Been very worthwhile though, a great marina at reasonable costs.
 
The answer is quite simple. In our overcrowded island every scrap of waterfront has hungry people competing for it, never mind competition from the nature lobby that protects the bits that are not built on. Add to that most marinas are built in intertidal zones, mainly reclaimed salt marshes that need constant dredging to keep open for use. Then you need valuable hard land to put cars on - and this land competes with housing or commercial use.

Having said that I belong to a club that owns its own marina courtesy of the Harbour Board that reclaimed land to build a ferry terminal. My 8.5m berth cost £550 this year and the club covers all its costs and is paying off the loan taken out to buy the marina from the Harbour Board. But, we don't have to dredge, the marina is well protected and needs minimal maintenance. An almost unique set of circumstances in the UK.
 
A harbor is an addition to the community. The guests spend money in town etc. therefore the Mayor should have an interest. In addition the political parties always want to show off with such projects. The youths get’s off the street. By this argument I raise most of the money from the council….As an example our local rowing club http://www.cleverruderclub.de/ build a new clubhouse (on the website) it cost more 600 000 Euro. They have 64 members and 38 of them are youngsters. They did all the work by themselves it took two years to build. (Build out of wood)
I am still trying to figure out where the raised the funds……as far as I know the secret was more than 50% youngsters..
 
I am afraid that we live in two very different worlds. In the southern half of UK where most people live and want to keep their boats there are no underused harbours or regeneration areas that would benefit from the sort of thing you are describing. Where there are redevelopments that include new berthing and yachting facilities they are financed by building mainly residential properties, often for absentee owners. While there are regeneration projects in other parts of the UK that do have more community related aspects (Cardiff springs to mind) they are in a minority. So your arguments don't fit the political agenda in UK where local authorities are under pressure to constrain development.

The same sort of argument exists when discussing the lower cost of marina berths in France, particularly western France. Why they are encouraged by the local communities is because these are in economically constrained areas, far from centres of population and dependent on tourism as a major income source. The area also has many redundant waterfront assets that used to support a fishing industry.

Taking the argument outside boating, compare the scramble in NE France to get on the Eurostar/TGV network compared with the resistance in SE England only 100 miles away. Why? Lille had a declining textile industry and high unemployment coupled with under developed land areas, compared with Kent with booming commuter population working in London, congested communities and poor transport infrastructure. Just compare property prices either side of the Channel. This gives a good guide to the relative values of space.

The answer? For many in the UK with its dodgy weather and high prices the Med is very attractive!
 
A swing mooring has many advantages. My little boat has been on the swing mooring for 23 years now. There has been the opportunity to get a pen at the local club for more money but I have stuck with the swing mooring. sure we get very little tide change so the mooring is only 40 metres from the shore. I like the fact that I can hoist sails and sail away from the mooring and sail back on with ease.

I guess the huge marina prices in UK is a reflection of prosperity and is only charged so high because people will pay the prices.

Yes here in West Oz there is often publicised the shortage of boat storage. My mooring place is perhaps one of the best real estate innvestments in terms of % increase per annum. We can own and sell the mooring site rights. Currently worth about 2000 squid olewill
 
It\'s really a case

of what the market will bear (or how many mugs they can find out there).

They'll probably fill it soon enough.

Your demonstrating how a "perfect" market works.

The alternative (which I'm sure you're not advocating) is a command economy, where things in demand are rationed (usually distributed by nepotism) and we all know how well that works!!!
 
Re: It\'s really a case

I nderstand that Birdham Pool - sold recently in the wake of the Peters Opal debacle - has sufered two hefty increases in the last six months, as well as a reduction in storeage/repair facilties, and is now enjoying a large scale exodus of customers to cheaper neighbouring marinas
 
WE need to start more "club nautico's "like they do on the continent as mentioned above. We had one in Troon, and then along came R knox-J and we became sub letters of marina space with no freedom of use and huge price increases. If you do it, don't lease - buy.....( we had to go all the way to the house of lords to keep what rights we have)
 
gosh, if only they would lay more of these new things they call moorings; you never know, it might catch on??
 
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