Anyone used the moorings at Fairlie Quay

[cavitation]

I am toying with buying a bigger yacht but will not be able to afford the £3500 per annum for Largs Marina so may go back to a swinging mooring. Has anyone used the swinging moorings at Fairlie Quay as the cost there for 6 months is £750

I had a look round and it all looks ok but one thing that worries me is that it seems that the only access for getting a dingy down to the water is to carry it on its side down a narrow (about 3 feet) gangway which seems a bit incredulous for an organisation renting swinging moorings.

 

[matthew99]

I've used moorings from Stuart Mc Intyre (Rothesay) - moorings a bit further towards the coal pier. We use the FYC jetty (FYC membership pretty cheap) to launch a dinghy to the boat. Don't know about weight limitations, most seem to be around the 10 ton limit. Also, the Club may sell moorings, or know of some.

 

[penfold]

It is a bit of a faff getting a dinghy down the ramp, the pontoon isn't very dinghy-friendly(it's a horrible steel box underneath and the idiots didn't design it properly so it leans over at a ridiculous angle; apparently welding some ballast onto it is beyond them) and unless you REALLY like rowing into a nasty short chop you need an outboard. Them's the breaks if you want to save a bit of money. You'll also need a junk and pick up buoy as that isn't included in the price(or at least it wasn't last year). My brother has kept his boat there for a couple of years now.

 

[awol]

Both Rhu Marina and Royal Gourock have launches which makes the out/in in inclement weather less stressful. Rhu's prices are similar to Fairlie but with RGYC you own your own tackle - I heartily recommend Neil Cunningham for supply and maintenance. RGYC has a dinghy park and locked oar and outboard stores and even with membership fees works out cheaper per annum (after the initial mooring cost) than your Fairlie deal - and you get a clubhouse, restaurant and bar thrown in.

 

[iain789]

I can certainly attest to the efficiency of the RGYC launch service, but I always feel that the moorings at Gourock are terribly exposed to the West. I would prefer Rhu if I were leaving my boat on a mooring.

 

[Spyro]

Have you thought about Clyde marina I'm probably about £1000 cheaper for a year than I would be if at Largs.

 

[dunedin]

A lateral thought - do you really need a bigger boat? The step on /off at Largs plus immediate access to the isles of Cumbrae, Bute etc certainly makes it a great location for regular sailing.
I think the dinghy transit at Fairlie would put us off doing so many day sails so end up with less boating in practice

PS have previously been on a mooring at Rhu with their launch service - but for weekend sailing got bored of the routine up / down the Clyde, with fewer choices of route - but otherwise great place

PPS We also considered morning at Fairlie but another deciding factor was the fact that the previous (mooring based) boat was a Westerly with hefty twin bow rollers and big central cleat. New boat had single roller occupied by anchor and lighter side cleats - could use a mooring with some adaption and twin srtop ropes, but not really set up for this

 

[AntarcticPilot]

When we decidede that Kip was getting too expensive (it's about the same as Largs), we seriously considered mooring at Fairlie; we were looking at the moorings provided by Fairlie Quay. We decided not in the end, because a) we live 400 miles away and the prospect of arriving and finding that the boat was inaccessible because the weather was not as predicted was not attractive, b) people with local knowledge told us the moorings could be uncomfortable in certain wind directions and c) insurance considerations mean that your season is strictly limited, and there's often good sailing in October, November and even December. Fairlie Quay does provide storage for dinghies, though launching arrangements seem to be hit and miss - unless I've missed something. There is also car parking on site, which we weren't certain of with other mooring providers.

We now berth at James Watt Dock Marina in Greenock, which has several advantages for us, including accessibility and price! Fairlie would have been cheaper, but taking into account the costs of winter storage, it wasn't that much cheaper. ISTR that Fairlie Quay for both winter and summer came to about £1600 for a 31' yacht, whic is a saving, but not that enormous a saving.

 

[cavitation]

Still looking for an affordable option

Thanks to everyone for their input. I have looked at all the options including RGYC, Rhu, Clyde Marina etc but I have had boats in the Gareloch since 1960 until the mid 90s when I moved to Largs as was a bid fed up with the long trek every Friday night down to the Kyles etc.

I do like Largs for day sailing and if we get a bigger boat, we will still do this, hence the interest in the moorings at Fairle Quay, however as has been said, the trek out in the dingy at Fairlie Quay will be a bit off-putting especially when you take into account the herculean effort required to carry a dingy down that stupidly designed ramp. (what kind of numpty designed that, did they forget that you need a dingy to get out to the boat!)

In my naivety, I had actually hoped that I could have used my old trusty solid GRP dingy rolled down a slipway on its launching trolley to get out the mooring and leave my inflatable rolled up on the deck of the yacht.

Going back to Largs Yacht Haven where I am just now, one of my gripes is that they do not offer anything in the way of a Summer package as I can get winter storage ashore elsewhere for about £300 including haul out and launching. Troon does offer deals such as 3 month summer package or whatever else you can strike a bargain with but Troon is a long way from everywhere other than Lamlash and Irvine Bay can be a bit of a washing machine. Clyde offer a summer package and the jury is still out on that one.

One point I had overlooked was that the cost to buy and lay a new mooring sinker with heavy ground chain will be less than one years rental at Fairlie as I have all the rest such as heavy riser, swivels, mooring and pickup buoy and an unused octoplat junk from my life before marinas.

So one option I have is to lay my own mooring off Cairnies Quay near the old LSC as there is the slipway there for launching a dingy and a place to store it although not very secure but will need to talk to the Crown Estate to get a licence. The moorings there used to be organised through the LSC but not sure who if anyone is looking after them now.

I the meantime I just hope I don’t see the perfect boat at the forthcoming boat shows before I have come up with an affordable option

 

[EuanMcKenzie]

are you a distance traveller or looking for convenient local access?

I used to keep my boat at maramarine in Tighnabruaich and their moorings are cheaper and very well protected with a dinghy shed and good slipway. Also a travel hoist etc for winter lay up. Downside is a trek by car.

Helensburgh sailing club is another option. Where do you want your boat to be?

 

[ffiill]

I can certainly attest to the efficiency of the RGYC launch service, but I always feel that the moorings at Gourock are terribly exposed to the West. I would prefer Rhu if I were leaving my boat on a mooring.

Second that-my boat when it lived there back in the early 2000s got wellied by another boat during a storm and having lived in Rothesay half way up Canada Hill I used to see some pretty horrendous weather from my kitchen window.
I would suggest Rothesay Harbour but gone are the days when I used to moor in the inner harbour against the wall back in the late 1990s for a mere £200 a year!

 

[JumbleDuck]

I would suggest Rothesay Harbour but gone are the days when I used to moor in the inner harbour against the wall back in the late 1990s for a mere £200 a year!

There may still be spaces for moorings in Kames Bay; the CEC cleared out a bunch of derelict ones last year. Neil Cunningham should know. You have to join the Port Bannatyne Moorings Association, which is £10 p.a. on top of Her Majesty's forty quid.

 

[penfold]

I do like Largs for day sailing and if we get a bigger boat, we will still do this, hence the interest in the moorings at Fairle Quay, however as has been said, the trek out in the dingy at Fairlie Quay will be a bit off-putting especially when you take into account the herculean effort required to carry a dingy down that stupidly designed ramp. (what kind of numpty designed that, did they forget that you need a dingy to get out to the boat!)
In my naivety, I had actually hoped that I could have used my old trusty solid GRP dingy rolled down a slipway on its launching trolley to get out the mooring and leave my inflatable rolled up on the deck of the yacht.

It's not clear at all why they don't have a ramp of some kind onto the foreshore, for people with either larger inflatables or hard dinghies like you; the narrowness of the ramp is understandable as gangways are pricy and width is expensive, but the stupid railing at the top of the gangway is just ridiculous, all of 3-4' clearance from the ramp and then a chest-high railing at right angles. They'd have difficulty making access more difficult if they tried, all that open space on a huge pier and they have this constriction forcing you to heft your dinghy overhead. Fine if you're fit and strong, but not all sailors are. If they shifted all the dinghies to a rack or something further out along the pier and removed that stupid railing it would be a lot more usable, not perfect but vastly better. I think the problem is when they planned the pontoon and travel hoist dock it wasn't really for customers, more for the ease of the chaps slipping boats; renting moorings to folk is a bit of an afterthought.