Brighton Marina...

[V1701]

Hi all,

I'm looking at Brighton Marina as main contender to base myself living aboard my 9m Jeanneau Sundream from next Spring. It sounds like there's a good community of liveaboards from what I've read on other posts so I'd like to hear of your experiences there, about practicalities like do you pay extra for being full time liveaboard, are you able to use the marina as a postal address (if not what do you do?), things like that. When I spoke to them it seemed that it wouldn't cost more, they just said they'd want to have a photo of my boat, presumably to reassure themselves it is "respectable" (whatever that means) looking? Do you have any trouble from the council trying to get you to pay council tax?

I'm going to visit Brighton for a few days in a couple of weeks to have a look around, at both the place itself & the Marina...

Many thanks,
David.

 

[highandry]

I've lived aboard in Brighton marina, between voyages. It's the old story, what suits some is a bad experience for others. So I'll try to just answer your questions David and perhaps others will weigh in with yarns of the Brighton hell hole or living in paradise..

As far as I know there is no extra charge for living aboard. What has happened in the past is, there have been increases in berth charges and people have arrived to live aboard and found themselves paying more than an identical boat without live-a-boards. The increase was because of the usual annual (Premier Marinas) increase, but the bloke involved started howling about live-a-boards paying more...and so another legend was born.

They allow use of the marina as a postal address, although they are not keen on the delivery of large packages /parcels..on a regular basis.. in other words don't start an Ebay business from your boat..

Security, when I was there was breached on occasions. In the summer the marina is awash with visitors from landside. The security gates on the pontoons often get wedged open and all hands and the ships cat wander around, so you need to be alert.

On the definite plus side is..shopping for stores is a 3 minute walk to the supermarket.
Parking is free and usually available, although at times gets a bit scarce owing to day trippers using the multi story car parks.

Excellent bus service about every 10 minutes to the town.

If you are berthed in the Western sector it can get noisy from the nearby pubs/bars /resturants. If you're in the eastern sector it's quieter but you'll have a (not unpleasant) hike of 10 minutes to the office or shops/buses.

Council Tax? can't help you there, I'm a "vessel in transit" not a dwelling/housboat and no-one has bothered me when I've wintered there. That may be because I'm an 'orrible bugger and they're frightened to come aboard.
Good luck, go with the flow... you might like the town/marina.

The request for the photo I imagine is to guard against the marina getting caught as happened in the past when someone asked for a live-a-board berth and turned up in a converted landing craft with 9 kids 4 dogs and a pet parrot, apparently the folk in the 52 foot Oyster that he was berthed next to were not happy..for some reason..hence the photo request.

 

[Vonasi]

I agree with everything that highanddry says about Brighton Marina.

We lived aboard there from December 2004 to May 2005 and my main memories were:

1: Bloody cold.

2: Bloody damp.

3: And we never did work out the point of the unisex toilets between the ladies and gents. I know that Brighton is the gay capital of the UK but surely that was taking PC too far. They were useful any how as most people couldn't work out whether they should use them or not so they were always the cleanest toilets to be found!

We were at the end of an annual contract and told nobody we were living aboard, and nobody seemed to care.

Not sure any of this helps but thanks for bringing back some memories of home!

 

[Roaring Girl]

Brighton

We lived aboard in Brighton from June 03 to April 04. All known to marina staff and no problems, and the office was our address. We were on the eastern half which is much quieter, but right on the outside of the outside pontoon, so every time there was a southerly or SW above a F6 we got saltwater all over the decks. If you can get yourself further away from the sea wall it would be more comfortable.

Lots of upsides but the sailing itself is very dull - nowhere to go to just potter for a couple of hours and then spend a nice night at anchor!

The new loos were put in after we left, and since we've only been yachts in transit. But we've always thought they're there to help parents of either gender washing with a slightly older child of the opposite gender!

There have been lots of threads on Council tax. The only time anyone we knew has had a problem with the issue is in Brighton where the lass claimed (and got) housing benefit on her mooring, and they said that therefore she must also go through the c-tax mill. She didn't want to argue about it. If you can and do move your boat etc, you are not liable.

If it suits you for other reasons - work, proximity to London or elsewhere, you could do much worse. It's a much nicer base to live in than Newhaven or Shoreham in my view, though the marina itself has very little atmosphere.