Becoming demoralised...

[PaulRainbow]

Personally I prefer to avoid the cry of ‘Messiah’ when I open the hatch in the morning. Marinas are like living in a goldfish bowl. I wake up to be greeted by kingfishers, egrets, cormorants and the occasional seal.

We all have our own personal preferences. I used to have a swinging mooring in a reasonable remote land area, all very nice to start with, but dragging the tender to the waters edge, full of supplies, motoring to the boat, transferring the supplies, tying the tender up, heading off to fill up with water, running engines to charge batteries (solar now so not so much of an issue), motoring ashore for a pint/meal out and then repeating it all at the end of the weekend soon got very tiresome.

Moved to a marina a little further down the river. Same rural type location, but walk on/off access, electricity, water, pub/restaurant on site etc. Plenty of wildlife and seclusion a 5 minute motor along the river.

 

[Tranona]

Dover is a very long way from Poole though, and has little else to recommend it. We all have our pet ports though, mine is my home port of Yarmouth. With the new foot ferry, it might just be accessible to the OP, though I’d think a river mooring in Lymington or swing in Poole might suit better

Don't recall ever seeing a 44' MOBO permanently on a swinging mooring in Poole harbour, although RMYC have some moorings that could take one. Very exposed though. Problem with Poole is that 3 out of the 6 best marinas are owned by clubs and 2 of those are essentially sail only. Cobbs Quay is the most popular with MOBOs but not the best for access because of the bridge and Salterns is I think the most expensive in the country.

As the OP has found out there is a shortage of 12m+ berths everywhere around the Solent. All very well to talk about cheaper berths elsewhere - but they are cheaper for a reason mainly to do with demand.

 

[markc]

If you have the time, definitely consider basing the boat in the Med. It can be cheaper, warmer plus you'll get the chance to use the boat loads more rather than sheltering from the cold, wind and rain!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Don't recall ever seeing a 44' MOBO permanently on a swinging mooring in Poole harbour, although RMYC have some moorings that could take one. Very exposed though. Problem with Poole is that 3 out of the 6 best marinas are owned by clubs and 2 of those are essentially sail only. Cobbs Quay is the most popular with MOBOs but not the best for access because of the bridge and Salterns is I think the most expensive in the country.

As the OP has found out there is a shortage of 12m+ berths everywhere around the Solent. All very well to talk about cheaper berths elsewhere - but they are cheaper for a reason mainly to do with demand.

Of course, you’re right on all counts. Lymington and Yarmouth are his nearest ports which could accommodate a 44’ mobo. Boats have got bigger, it seems that moorings have not. We might squeeze another 2ft onto ours. More restricted now cos the guy in front has gone from a Vancouver 27 to a 34. More than a fathom longer.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Of course, you’re right on all counts. Lymington and Yarmouth are his nearest ports which could accommodate a 44’ mobo. Boats have got bigger, it seems that moorings have not. We might squeeze another 2ft onto ours. More restricted now cos the guy in front has gone from a Vancouver 27 to a 34. More than a fathom longer.

Probably a few kilos more draft as well

 

[Never Grumble]

Approaching semi retirement I started to investigate a slightly larger sail boat but have given up on that and spending the extra money on updating the present boat. Amazing how expensive boating can be and the number of people who can afford to do expensive boating!!

I sat down to do my retirement planning yesterday afternoon, actually writing the numbers down and adding them up gave me a bit of a shock.

 

[lustyd]

Now isn’t a good time to look at numbers, everything is down this week. With any luck we’ll be back to normal in February and it’ll be ok to look again and/or sell some investments

 

[pete78]

have you considered Weymouth (the Council harbour)? they have limited berths around that size, but, definitely appear to have plenty of 10m pontoon berths - currently at 450 per metre. they may initially say they have no space, but an end of arm etc may be able to accommodate you. it's not a full service marina by any stretch, but also not a swinging mooring. Also very drivable from Poole area.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I'm starting to become a little demoralised.

We have an upcoming move down to the South Coast (between Ringwood and Poole) and after boating for most of my life on small powerboats, RIB's and sailing boats I finally thought that I would be able to scratch the itch for a "Big Boat"

My wife has no interest in sails whatsoever so I started looking at flybridge / aft cabin motor cruisers up to the 44ft mark. A boat this big would allow us to spend weekends onboard with our grown daughters and grandson, and all in relative comfort with the option of popping across the Channel or to Guernsey/Jersey once or twice per year. So with a budget and a good idea of what we would like we have viewed a selection of boats such as Sealine F44, Sealine F43, Fairline Phantom 42 etc. All older boats from the late 1990's / early 2000's but still all hovering around the £100k mark. So a good choice of boats that would meet our needs and that I could comfortably handle.

The problem comes when looking for a berth around the Poole area. Anything over 13m and the price jumps to the next bracket. Even sub 13m some of the annual quotes I have received are eye watering. In my mind I had set aside circa £12,000 - £13,000 per year to berth, fuel and insure a boat with routine services being carried out by myself. However when receiving quotes of £16k for a Sealine F37 (sub 13m) just for the berth alone it blows my man math's out of the water! Then comes the challenge of finding a berth for a 44ft boat, with many of the providers around Poole and Christchurch saying that they can't take a boat that big.

I have now accepted that anything I now consider needs to be sub 40ft just so that I can increase the places where I can find a berth. Even then the costs make me question my big boat bucket list dream.

I guess that boating in the UK really is becoming a very wealthy mans game? Are my experiences one of the reasons why its taking years and large price reductions to sell larger boats?

Low morale moan over. Onwards and upwards, onwards and upwards..

Quite honestly if you can afford £100k for a boat you are wealthier than most of the population of the UK - be pleased that fortune favoured you - and you have family’s

No reason why you should not enjoy it. A 40ft boat will be well seaworthy enough to get you across the channel and can probably accommodate quite a few ‘guests’

 

[SC35]

Right boat, wrong place.

How about Cobbs Quay?
There is "bridge fun" to cope with.