Blackwater Marina?

[NUTMEG]

No neighbours then?

Ah well, looks like Alexandros and I will have to remain 'Billy-no-mates' a bit longer. I have been offered a very good price at BM for the winter and the liftout and pressure wash with a few days on the hard was reasonable I felt (£160). I have always found the staff to be very helpful and careful moving the boat, so am happy to continue to deal with them. Tidal access is an issue but if there was more water I could not afford to stay there I guess.

 

[Fire99]

Ah well, looks like Alexandros and I will have to remain 'Billy-no-mates' a bit longer. I have been offered a very good price at BM for the winter and the liftout and pressure wash with a few days on the hard was reasonable I felt (£160). I have always found the staff to be very helpful and careful moving the boat, so am happy to continue to deal with them. Tidal access is an issue but if there was more water I could not afford to stay there I guess.

Well, for what it's worth, i'm a BM fan so you have at least one marina buddy.

 

[sailorman]

Well, for what it's worth, i'm a BM fan so you have at least one marina buddy.

Foxs do that length x 2 for £200

 

[Fire99]

Foxs do that length x 2 for £200

Oo I've always been a fan of their glacier mints.

Well Fox's is up at Ipswich (if we're thinking of the same) and that is far far away... ish.

 

[NUTMEG]

Foxs do that length x 2 for £200

That worried me, may have misunderstood but I read that as meaning that Foxes are charging similar prices to BM. I thought maybe I was paying over the odds! Had a quick look at Foxes website and they would have charged £340 plus VAT for just an hour in the slings whereas BM let me take several days and relaunched when I was ready, VAT inclusive. Is there an anti-BM current in this thread? If so, could someone explain why? Or am I being paranoid, I have had a **** few days, so it is possible!

 

[sailorman]

That worried me, may have misunderstood but I read that as meaning that Foxes are charging similar prices to BM. I thought maybe I was paying over the odds! Had a quick look at Foxes website and they would have charged £340 plus VAT for just an hour in the slings whereas BM let me take several days and relaunched when I was ready, VAT inclusive. Is there an anti-BM current in this thread? If so, could someone explain why? Or am I being paranoid, I have had a **** few days, so it is possible!

Berth holders get a "Deal"

 

[Fire99]

Is there an anti-BM current in this thread?

It appears a bit that way.

I speak as I find, and have no criticism of the place (other than the name of the pub next door and perhaps a smidge more water and less mud)

 

[Pye_End]

I was there some years ago, at the end of the DW&F era, and start of BW era.

I had little need of the yard (apart from trying to get my drop keel to drop), but had no issues with them. They were always friendly and helpful. The creek itself I enjoyed for the 3 years i was there.

I was on shift at the time in W London, and regularly charged over there after 10pm, blew up the dinghy and went out to the mooring. When there was water at the end of the first pontoon I could just about get onto my boat. I remember one Friday night arriving after midnight at what should have been high water, only to find I had read the wrong column and it was low, and had to sit there for an hour or two before there was enough water. One of those lessons in reading the tide tables correctly that you never forget!

Thoroughly enjoyed my years on the Blackwater, and in Lawling Creek, and would have no hesitation to doing it again if the circumstances were right. Hope that adds some balance, even though it is well out of date!

 

[Cobra]

Is there an anti-BM current in this thread? If so, could someone explain why? Or am I being paranoid, I have had a **** few days, so it is possible!

As you may possibly have gathered from earlier comments, I am not a great lover of Marinas (that is also probably the understatement of the decade ). However if forced into choosing an East Coast Marina, then I think that Blackwater Marina is pretty hard to beat.

OK, so it doesn't have the flash shower blocks that many of the more upmarket marinas boast, but what it does have is REAL character.

Whereas when you moor up in BYH or Shotley you feel as if you are just another number adding to the profits, at Blackwater Marina you truly feel as if you are visiting a proper working yard that has a few mud berths serviced by pontoons for the benefit of a group of friends.

Does that make any sense at all??

 

[Fire99]

As you may possibly have gathered from earlier comments, I am not a great lover of Marinas (that is also probably the understatement of the decade ). However if forced into choosing an East Coast Marina, then I think that Blackwater Marina is pretty hard to beat.

OK, so it doesn't have the flash shower blocks that many of the more upmarket marinas boast, but what it does have is REAL character.

Whereas when you moor up in BYH or Shotley you feel as if you are just another number adding to the profits, at Blackwater Marina you truly feel as if you are visiting a proper working yard that has a few mud berths serviced by pontoons for the benefit of a group of friends.

Does that make any sense at all??

Bang on the money! (And that's from a non-Marina man)

 

[Lucky Duck]

Thoroughly enjoyed my years on the Blackwater, and in Lawling Creek, and would have no hesitation to doing it again if the circumstances were right. Hope that adds some balance, even though it is well out of date!

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts I kept my first boat there for a couple of seasons and was very glad to have found a home having just escaped the spiralling costs of keeping it on the South Coast. The mooring was just opposite the marina so it was a short row from the pontoons and with the advantage of a larger tidal window and the feeling that you were away from it all once on the boat (getting down to the boat before the tide receeded was sometime a challange ). Also Lawling Creek provided shelter unlike some of the more exposed moorings on the river. If I changed boats and my circumstances were different then I would seriously consider going back.

However at the time Blackwater Marina seemed to be going through a 'bad patch'. The toilet block was housed in a portacabin sited on the hardstanding area and unfortunately it was vandalised and not repaired so there were no facilities on site until the new facilities block opened in the main building. Sadly both the chandlery and the waterfront pub both shut. There were a few complaints about damage to boats while launching an recovering and they managed to dislodge the spreader on my father's boat that was also over wintering there.

This was all some time back and hopefully these issues have been overcome but sadly by 1.9m deep fin keel probably precludes me from visiting in the near future.

 

[Pye_End]

However at the time Blackwater Marina seemed to be going through a 'bad patch'. The toilet block was housed in a portacabin sited on the hardstanding area

Oh I remember the portacabin - and that was a major upgrade from what was there before. Perhaps we overlapped? I was there about 90 to 93 I think. My mooring was just round the first right hand bend. What's this about a pub? It always seemed far too quiet to support a pub, but the change from moorings to pontoons muct have changed that a bit.

Must admit I probably didn't use the toilet block all that much as it was a good row back from the boat, much longer if the tide was out!

 

[Lucky Duck]

Oh I remember the portacabin - and that was a major upgrade from what was there before. Perhaps we overlapped? I was there about 90 to 93 I think.

I was there in 98 and 99 before moving to sample the 'fleshpots' of Burnham on Crouch.

IIRC the pub was called 'Hoppers' and had graphics of a large green frog on the windows. The loss of the chandery was a real pain, it was replaced with a hair saloon of all things.

 

[Fire99]

I was there in 98 and 99 before moving to sample the 'fleshpots' of Burnham on Crouch.

IIRC the pub was called 'Hoppers' and had graphics of a large green frog on the windows. The loss of the chandery was a real pain, it was replaced with a hair saloon of all things.

I was there from around 2000 till 04 ish and the pub was back.. Called 'The Horny Toad'. Where do they get these names from? Looked a bit suspect from the outside but wasn't bad for a pint or two.

Toilets / Showers were in the main building by the archway but the office moved into a portacabin opposite the pub a couple of years in, around the time Steve (the Manager) moved on.