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.

 

[Richie]

We used to live in Bournemouth and berthed in Cobbs Quay. Significantly cheaper berthing due to the bridges. We got tired of those and ended up on the Itchen in Southampton at MDL Shamrock Quay paying <£7k pa for our Sealine SC38 so there are much chesper options out there in fully serviced marinas. (Or cheaper still somewhere jusr down the river at Ocean Quay, looks like they do a 13m berth for <£7k) Better cruising from there than in Poole too imo which always seemed a long trip across Poole Bay to the Solent or west to Weymouth exposed to SWesterlies.

What we found that even though our berth was further away in distance the bonus was even more so if you live closer to Ringwood is that Shamrock Quay is only 35-40 mins by car and usually the opposite way to the traffic (if weekend boating) which wasn’t any longer in the car than driving across town to the Poole marinas.

 

[potentillaCO32]

Are you sure ?
That's way cheaper than the rest of the Thames Estuary.
P.s. are there any spaces at Bradwell

https://www.bradwellmarina.com/pricelist.pdf

Essex marina is about the same as well.

 

[Lucky Duck]

https://www.bradwellmarina.com/pricelist.pdf

Essex marina is about the same as well.

It’s just under £100 per foot PLUS VAT, also hard standing seems to be extra rather than an allowance being included in the fees.

The only attractive aspect of Essex marina I can think of is its more convenient if you live just South of the Crouch

 

[paulbrown22]

When I bought my Saga 26HT nearly a year ago it was in Essex Marina and I kept it there for a few months whilst clearing my berth at Greenwich before bringing it up the Thames. Definitely stuck in the middle of nowhere with minimal facilities nearby for regular users/visitors without jumping in a car so personally I probably wouldn't go there long term, but the on site cafe/restaurant was amazing and very reasonably priced (when it was open). A bit far for the OP though, and I wouldn't wish the M3/M25 on anyone to get to their boat regularly!

For nearly 20 years we kept a 40' sailing yacht on swinging moorings in Poole, first at Salterns Marina and then Parkstone Yacht Club, but both moorings were in the Wych Channel over by Brownsea Island which we loved. We used it practically every weekend and had no issues with it being on a mooring, and if we did have visitors we could easily bring the boat into the marina for pickups/loading. Both have launch/trot boat facilities so at Salterns we never owned a dinghy at all, at Parkstone we can store a 15' motor dinghy ashore which was super easy to launch, so we tended to use that so that we were fully flexible on times as the PYC launch only runs on the hour.

 

[ylop]

Hmmm... Maybe a swing mooring is the way to go? …... I guess that I had the romantic idea of just parking the car, walking along the pontoon and slipping the lines whenever I wanted to take the boat out. You really do pay a premium for that dream / convenience eh?

You do and it might not be as big a convenience as people think! We used to be in a marina and I thought that way. But I don’t miss faffing with fenders and lines to make sure the boat was ok to leave, nor having to disconnect shore power, prepare lines to slip, take the springs off, etc before we can actually jump on board and head off! On the mooring - untie one knot, lift chain off cleat and go. Opposite on return. Car handbrake to actually sailing is probably the same time,

Well "free" wind does have a lot going for it, but after taking my wife out on an overnight trip on my brothers (the epitome of a "tight sailor") Wharram catamaran some 36 years ago she swore that she would never set foot on a sailing boat again!

well you may not be able to convince her but a modern cat is a rather different prospect (perhaps not in budget) but even a modern production yacht is much more designed for comfort - you should really be in Düsseldorf right now looking at a wide range of boats. If there is any potential that she might be persuadable, actually getting her on a course where (someone else) teaches her how it’s all meant to work and how calm and controlled everything can be may make the difference. My wife swore sailing was not for her after some early “adventures” until circumstances found herself on a comp crew course. She was sea sick and the weather was awful - she came home and started looking at yachts! Because the moment the engine is turned off and the world falls silent brings a huge grin to her face. Don’t get too excited about free wind though - sails and rigging cost money to maintain.

the faff of launching the tender and rowing or motoring (with the hassle of fitting and removing the outboard or risking getting it nicked), getting gear or supplies on board, getting anyone to work on the boat, filling the water tank, even cleaning the boat. Total PITA.

That’s partly about finding a good mooring with convenient dinghy storage. A small electric outboard is a game changer for clipping in place and throwing in the car. Depending on the size of your marina pushing trolleys of stuff around before and after isn’t necessarily insignificant time/hassle. If it’s your own boat you often can leave most stuff in situ. Filling tanks is slightly more hassle, but with forward planning we only once had to go to pontoon/marina just to fill up with water.

 

[jon and michie]

I'm starting to become a little demoralised.


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.

Does it have to be specifically Poole ?

Around the Corner on the upper section of the Hamble there is 4 Yards prices are significantly lower - The drawbacks are the Bridges which you have to allow for tide heights - they are not all singing and dancing marina's. but do the Job

 

[SimonD]

Some suggestions.

Weymouth 'council' berths must be the cheapest (inc water and leccy) on the south coast. They do have berths for some pretty big boats - well worth calling the harbour office.
Portland harbour is horribly exposed in some winds but the Royal Dorset Yacht Club maintains moorings there. You also get use of the Castle Cove Sailing Club water taxi and use of a dinghy rack.
Yarmouth harbour is probably not an option but give the the River Yar Boatyard a call. They have a huge pontoon above the bridge.

Good luck

 

[Little Ricky]

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..

I would suggest an aft cabin boat. Trader or Broom type of boat, this means you will effectively get more space. A 39-42 foot aft cabin boat would be akin to say a 50 foot flybridge type boat when it comes to space especially if you go for the single upper helm so in the saloon, it is all given over to living space rather than having a second helm. Regarding mooring fees, yep its all pretty expensive.

 

[paradave]

The other with Marina fees is that they can go up year on year and there is sweet fa you can do about it. Even the best budget could be blown apart. Have you looked into buying a mooring?

 

[Ian h]

£16K for 13M is nuts. On the East coast we pay £6600 for 14M, but that's obviously to far for the OP to travel. The IOW would be similar to what we pay.

worth a look Bembridge harbour

Resident Berthing