Brightlingsea charges

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ex-Gladys

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Club rally to B'sea this weekend, went with friends and were amazed a the charge increases... 35' boat £25 and £1.50 per trip in the harbour ferry, so 4 people overnight with a return trip ashore £37... That's way over a proper marina charge, are they pricing themselves out of the market?
 
Have thought for some time now that Brighlingsea, whilst enjoyable, is getting pricey for a stop with no water, no electric, no wifi, no walk-ashore access to facilities etc. We'll keep going because we love the port but we may choose to anchor off if not planning a meal ashore...
 
35ft should have been £20 unless in the east basin of the marina, according to their published charges 1/4/17 on. I agree the charges are well above for the facilities offered, but others seem not to agree as it always seems well stocked with visitors.
 
To be fair the charge for the water taxi has not gone up for years, it was £1 when Kevin and his dad ran the service which must be nearly 20 years ago. Compared to £15 on a bouy a mile from town with no ferry in West Mersea £20 on a pontoon seems comparable.
 
Overnight stays in Brightlingsea marina cost the same as overnight stays on the pontoons but you get electricity, water and wifi included. Not such nice views and tidally restricted entranc/exit - take your pick!
 
There was a consultation document published by the Harbourmasters office (last year ?) in which a "Consultant" made a statement about "Maximising revenue streams" for the harbour, I guess that says it all really.

The water taxi can be made a bit cheaper by buying a bag of tokens which effectively makes the trip £1 each way. They are trying to remove cash from the process apparently. The marina was pretty full this weekend with Bradwell Quay YC in force. The harbour guys tried to make sure every one was happy in their normal manner.

The last time we visited, the cost was based on boat length bands the same as for the pontoons, which cost us £20 per night in the marina for our 27ft boat, which makes it the most expensive in the Blackwater as far as I am aware.

I personally think that this is a bit steep considering that there are no toilets or showers available (apart from using the CYC facilities). Bradwell and Tollesbury marinas both have adequate facilities on site, but are relatively isolated and quiet. The old charging scheme was £2 per metre which for us came to a bit over £16 which I considered more reasonable. I suspect that we will be visiting Brightlingsea less as the year goes on.

Ian & Jo
 
ianfr said:
There was a consultation document published by the Harbourmasters office (last year ?) in which a "Consultant" made a statement about "Maximising revenue streams" for the harbour, I guess that says it all really.

The water taxi can be made a bit cheaper by buying a bag of tokens which effectively makes the trip £1 each way. They are trying to remove cash from the process apparently. The marina was pretty full this weekend with Bradwell Quay YC in force. The harbour guys tried to make sure every one was happy in their normal manner.

The last time we visited, the cost was based on boat length bands the same as for the pontoons, which cost us £20 per night in the marina for our 27ft boat, which makes it the most expensive in the Blackwater as far as I am aware.

I personally think that this is a bit steep considering that there are no toilets or showers available (apart from using the CYC facilities). Bradwell and Tollesbury marinas both have adequate facilities on site, but are relatively isolated and quiet. The old charging scheme was £2 per metre which for us came to a bit over £16 which I considered more reasonable. I suspect that we will be visiting Brightlingsea less as the year goes on.

Ian & Jo
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No complaints about the harbour staff who, as always were very helpful... especially with two clubs in attendance, and breezy conditions on Sunday. However my last visit to Bradwell (31/5/16) cost £41 for 2 nights....
 
I seem to remember getting flamed for suggesting the place needs to update itself to keep in touch with changing boating and sailing trends.
What we have is increasing price for no increasing facilities. Does not seem so good.
 
It's all a bit of a catch 22 really. The reason Brightlingsea is so popular with visiting yachtsmen (and the great majority of berth-holders) is because it is still a proper old-fashioned harbour and not wall-to-wall concrete and pontoons - long may that continue.

But that creates the problem where at times there is a need to berth large numbers of visitors in very few berths. Reserving more berths solely for visitors doesn't look great when you have people waiting for resident berths, so it's a bit of a dilemma. I suspect that the pricing may be reflecting a desire to control the number of visitors (although I don't agree that's a fair or forward-looking way of doing so).

The staffing levels required to offer the helpful service that visitors get must add to the costs considerably - nobody accompanies you to your berth and helps you into it in a marina.

I know 2 smack owners who relinquished their residents berths on the 'heritage/visitors' pontoon because of the difficulty of getting on & off the pontoon when it's rafted out with visitors and also the amount of damage they were suffering.

I suppose being a victim of your own success isn't the worst situation to be in, but if it generates bad feeling then that's not good.
 
Gladys said:
No complaints about the harbour staff who, as always were very helpful... especially with two clubs in attendance, and breezy conditions on Sunday. However my last visit to Bradwell (31/5/16) cost £41 for 2 nights....
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+1. Harbourmaster great, as usual. Managed to get all of our club together on the pontoon, helped with lines, which considering it looked pretty rammed was quite an achievement. I don't mind paying a bit for service like that. Like most of the people here, we've been going there for years, and I can't see us stopping.
 
DavidofMersea said:
The East Mersea/Brightlingsea/St Osyth ferry charges are almost double this year to what they were last year
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That's not quite correct....

B'sea to point clear is double, from £1 to £2 (its been £1.00 for years)
To East Mersea is up 50p from £3.00 to £3.50.

Still seems like a bargain to me.
 
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