Anyone berth in Guernsey but live on the mainland?

[PEJ]

Does anyone here keep their boat in Guernsey (or Jersey) but live on the mainland. If so how does it work out for you on the practical level?

Although I dream of moving to the Med the practicalities don't really work out for me until the kids leave school however Guernsey is worth serious consideration. I live in Southampton, the airport is 15 mins away. A 35 minute flight and I am in Guernsey, 10 mins to the marina. 3 cheap flights per day and they are rarely full so a last minute decision having checked the weather is quite possible.

Are there any pitfalls?

 

[U4]

We have been thinking along the same lines so will be very interested to hear peoples views on this!

 

[andy59]

We have been thinking along the same lines so will be very interested to hear peoples views on this!

and us !

 

[Nick_H]

We had our boat in Lymington, then a short while in Jersey, and now in the Med, and personally I think you get the worst of both worlds keeping your boat in the Channel Islands. You still have the hassle and cost of flights, plus the reduced usage and extra maintenance costs of not being close to the boat, but you don't get noticably better weather, and you still have tides and fog to contend with. It's a great cruising grounds of course, but you can explore that by taking the boat there on holiday, and you get tax free fuel and parts, but the extra costs of travel and higher prices generally more than outweigh the savings.

Having said that, it's the cost of 80 miles worth of fuel to try it, so there's no real downside in giving it a go for a summer/year.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Forumite kcrane tried this a year or two ago (Jersey, rather than Guernsey iirc) - you could try a PM to him?

 

[Bandit]

In Guernsey they do not offiially offer long term bething, but the boat can be left during the summer between trips if you get my meaning.

Beaucette a private marina does have a few non local boats based there although they are relatively full, but Ask Ricky the harbour manager , Piers of this parish lives on one.

Jersey has some non local boats based there RobG71 of this parish is one.

Weather in CI is pretty much the same as south coast UK but you save the cross channel trip each time and the weather cross channel.

From Guernsey Carteret is 30 miles, Jersey 28 , Granville 58, St Malo 56, St Cast 52, St Quay 51 etc

 

[Powersalt]

Yep been doing it for 8 years now. It suits us.
What do you want to know?

 

[Andy Bav]

Does anyone here keep their boat in Guernsey (or Jersey) but live on the mainland. If so how does it work out for you on the practical level?

Although I dream of moving to the Med the practicalities don't really work out for me until the kids leave school however Guernsey is worth serious consideration. I live in Southampton, the airport is 15 mins away. A 35 minute flight and I am in Guernsey, 10 mins to the marina. 3 cheap flights per day and they are rarely full so a last minute decision having checked the weather is quite possible.

Are there any pitfalls?

Dont write off the great British summer just yet !

Must admit we are having some long term thoughts towards the med, but as you say, paying for 5 flights at the drop of a hat AND getting time off work to accommodate those flights can be expensive in money and time, and as the kids start working the next problem you could have is dovetailing holidays.... assuming they still want to go with you of course...

You could consider moving west for a time, closer to the CI's maybe Dartmouth / Brixham etc - according to Yachtpilot its 70 miles -and have the best of both worlds. That said I have done the journey from Southampton to Torquay once by car and it was a bit of a trek - think I traversed what seemed like 25 roundabouts to get there.

Be intersting to see how this thread unwinds though....

 

[gjgm]

I looked into this a bit, but one problem was actually finding somewhere to keep the boat , especially Guernsey. Another thing to consider is that unless you have someone to park the boat back in the marina for you , you are going to find yourself marina bound as much of the weekend you cant actually get in or out at useful times, unless you want a mooring.
I did then try a bit further south in France, north Brittany, but then airport/marina became a problem.
Seems you need to have a bit more flexibility of time on your hands than I can manage.

 

[Powersalt]

You get 6 hours over the sill most tides and thats never been a problem for me.

Much of the time I get Friday off work, catch the last flight out and am on the boat by 8.30 that night. Wake up on The friday, cast off in the am, St Malo or St cast then back Saturday night or Sunday morning then home.

 

[PEJ]

Yep been doing it for 8 years now. It suits us.
What do you want to know?

Well, I guess you have answered the main point when you said you had been doing it for 8 years. That must mean you like it and the hassle of getting there is outweighed by the joy of being there.

Which marina are you in and can you come and go at all tides? If not do the tides have a big spoiling affect on your fun.

Will I have a problem getting a long term berth for a 51ft boat? I thought about taking it down for July/August and then bringing it back but, on the face of it, berthing costs being so much cheaper than the Solent it makes more sense to leave it there over winter.

What do you pay for fuel?

I am not too worried about being stuck in the marina by the tides because I figure I will go at short notice when I see the weather is good and if I can't get out then I'll take the ferry to Herm or Sark or just potter around the island. So I am kind of using the boat as a holiday home.

Flights for next weekend are £81. Times 4 of us = 324.00. I think the berthing saving could be up to £6K enough for 18 weekends. 34% of the year. I don't think I go on the boat that much when it is 6 miles from where I live.

 

[JSYmartini]

You'll have more luck finding a berth in Jersey than Guernsey, plenty of space here at the mo and Jersey Marinas are well used to Brits using them as a long term base.

Guernsey's boat building/maintenance industry is probably stronger than Jersey but you should still find everything you need in that regard.

Flights should be similar in price and regularity.

http://www.portofjersey.je/JerseyMarinas/Visitors/Pages/default.aspx

 

[dj43]

Does anyone here keep their boat in Guernsey (or Jersey) but live on the mainland. If so how does it work out for you on the practical level?

Although I dream of moving to the Med the practicalities don't really work out for me until the kids leave school however Guernsey is worth serious consideration. I live in Southampton, the airport is 15 mins away. A 35 minute flight and I am in Guernsey, 10 mins to the marina. 3 cheap flights per day and they are rarely full so a last minute decision having checked the weather is quite possible.

Are there any pitfalls?

Have you considered the Isle of Wight ,berthing cheaper than mainland ,easy to get over on ferry ect ,as we enjoy the channel isles and the West Country ,works very well for us, and we drive down from Cambridge,looked at med but unless you can travel any day bar Friday flights can be expensive ,

 

[jrudge]

I kept our boat in Jersey a few years ago. Getting a berth in Jersey was ( at the time) easy. I was told a year and they called me about 2 weeks later!

Guernsey I gather is almost impossible ( or was).

Jersey did not work out for us. The Marina is a little bit out of things and a bit of a "square box" without much real appeal. There were things being built, so by now there maybe more happening in the marina itself.

Weather wise we lucked out - it was quite often rough and we did not get there once due to fog, and got stuck on Jersey one night due to weather. This is of course not "Jerseys" fault.

When it was nice it was lovely, Sark , trips to Guernsey ... it was just not nice very often which was a shame. We are now in Mallorca.

To be honest I cant see there is much difference in travel time ( to the airport, check in, fly, get out etc) and the med is no more expensive, so you may as well have the weather. Flights to Mallorca etc will be as often - if not more so and from more airports than Jersey.

Good luck.

 

[Piers]

Hi All,

As I think you know, Lin and I live on board Play d'eau (Fleming 55) in Beaucette Marina on the NE point of Guernsey. We are on hols in South Africa at the moment, but there may be some berths available at Beaucette, Try calling Ricky (Marina Manager) on m +44 (0)7781 102302. He 's a great guy and will do whatever to get you in.

Being the only private marina on the island, it's the only place you'll be able to get a berth if you aren't a local 'Guern'. As I suspect you know, we love it there,

www.beaucettemarina.com

 

[Bandit]

Fuel price in Guernsey about £0.65 per litre from the tanker.

 

[PEJ]

Thanks for the replies, very interesting.

I had not realised that only locals can berth at St Peter Port permanently. That is a shame, I really liked it there. Close to the restaurants, busses and ferries. I'll have to find out more about beaucette or think more about Jersey. For me Guernsey being that bit smaller than Jersey made it more attractive.

 

[kcrane]

As JtB flagged, I moved the boat from the Solent to Jersey in 2012. I had a really good year. The weather was OK, no better or worse than the south coast. I live in Cheltenham and there are summer flights direct from Staverton to St Helier, but we occasionally flew from Southampton as it was cheaper and more regular. From Staverton we could be on the boat a couple of hours after leaving home, which was about the time it took us to get to the Hamble.

There is an added frisson of excitement about flying out to the boat that a trip down the M3 does not generate, and Jersey was sufficiently different to make a break from the UK. There is lots to do on the island and we found the local friendly. There are forumites who help point you in the right direction (you know who you are).

Fuel is cheaper, as is berthing. Living costs are similar. Being able to pop 'proper abroad' (i.e. to France) is great.

The downside wasn't so much the tides and locking in and out - that turned out to be less of a problem than we expected as you usually have a 4 - 6 hour window to get out of location A and into location B. The issue is more that once you leave a harbour you are in pretty open sea with nothing to slow down westerlies (wind and swell). In good weather no problem, but with the significant tidal range the currents are strong and so wind over tide is an issue. I used to add 1 onto the wind forecast compared with the Solent, so in my planning a Jersey F4 was treated as a Solent F5 etc. Once you factor in that many trips are longer than on the S. Coast, then the acceptable weather windows close a little more.

Having said that it was a really good year and I'd think about going back.

 

[Bathdave]

I heard there are about 90 empty berths in the Jersey marinas at the moment, though more pressure on the larger ones.

Berthing costs are lower than UK and fuel is about 85p litre at the moment

Tide gates are 3 hrs either side of HW but there are also limited spots on holding pontoons with direct foot access to town which we occasionally use to manage around these times as well as holding moorings outside the marina.

The range of cruising options within the CI and around the French coast make it a good range of destinations for day trips, overnighters or a few days cruising ...I think more so than most south coast marinas.

 

[Mike Tait]

We have quite a few folk who leave their vessels down here with us. Some year round, some winter contracts and some summer. We have a Swiss gentleman who has his yacht with us but is thinking about going further south for summer. A New Zealander and a Swedish gentleman plus several lovely British customers who almost feel part of a "family" down here. Peter Cumbelidge has been down here this winter but I am sure will be moving on soon for summer visting his favourite haunts along the adjacent French coast. Please get in touch if we can be of help. For flight info and where you can get to us from thoughout regional areas of the the Uk do have a look at www.portofjersey.com or catch the ferry from Weymouth or Poole