Budget sailing on the Clyde

Hi there
Firstly, you'd be hard pushed to find a nicer area for a boat in the UK...welcome to the west coast!
Secondly, despite perhaps some advice given, you will be very lucky to get a good mooring here on a budget. Not to say they are not out There, but they rarely come up and with most of the type you are hoping for, you need to be vouched for, local or be in the know.
Also a slight concern (perhaps I've read it wrong), is that you may e thinking of leaving the boat in the water all year ? I'm afraid it's a regular occurrence for boats to break their mooring in the winter months over here. It's a regular thing.
Helensburgh sailing club is just up the road from me, but I'd be pretty certain the moorings are full, as with most of this type.
Occassionaly moorings pop up in the greenock area though.
The above aside, you may need to enquire further north like loch long or goilhead.
It's obviously a very popular area and it's not quite as simple as applying to the crown and dropping a mooring....all these spots are long gone.
Best of luck anyway.
 
Jcorstorphine said:
This has just come up on the Sailing and Cruising Scotland:Buy/Sell trade on Facebook

10ton mooring at Helensburgh Sailing Club £550

Are you looking to reduce the costs of your sailing? Mooring at Helensburgh Sailing Club (HSC) for sale. Only 45 mins away from Glasgow City Centre so you can be sailing every evening after work. Suitable for up to 10 ton boat. Professionally serviced annually by DRB marine. Double mushroom on a 28mm riser chain. Buyer needs to become member of HSC (very friendly club with annual beer and gin festival!) unless you plan to move the mooring away. There is the usual annual ground rent which is £65 payable via the club.
Click to expand...

Can't see it! I wonder if it went immediately?!!
 
QBhoy said:
Hi there
Firstly, you'd be hard pushed to find a nicer area for a boat in the UK...welcome to the west coast!
Secondly, despite perhaps some advice given, you will be very lucky to get a good mooring here on a budget. Not to say they are not out There, but they rarely come up and with most of the type you are hoping for, you need to be vouched for, local or be in the know.
Also a slight concern (perhaps I've read it wrong), is that you may e thinking of leaving the boat in the water all year ? I'm afraid it's a regular occurrence for boats to break their mooring in the winter months over here. It's a regular thing.
Helensburgh sailing club is just up the road from me, but I'd be pretty certain the moorings are full, as with most of this type.
Occassionaly moorings pop up in the greenock area though.
The above aside, you may need to enquire further north like loch long or goilhead.
It's obviously a very popular area and it's not quite as simple as applying to the crown and dropping a mooring....all these spots are long gone.
Best of luck anyway.
Click to expand...

Having snooped the Internet I reckon I can find something.....! Probably don't want it for a couple of years anyway. Thanks for your feedback.
 
roblpm said:
Having snooped the Internet I reckon I can find something.....! Probably don't want it for a couple of years anyway. Thanks for your feedback.
Click to expand...

Who knows what the situation will be in a couple of years. Will Holyrood have prised the sea floor out the hands of Crown Estates by then? One thing that is sure is that wherever you find your swinging mooring (incidently, I can think of none off Greenock) it will be a lot cheaper than Port Edgar.
 
QBhoy said:
Secondly, despite perhaps some advice given, you will be very lucky to get a good mooring here on a budget. Not to say they are not out There, but they rarely come up and with most of the type you are hoping for, you need to be vouched for, local or be in the know.
Click to expand...

I think that depends very much on where you are. There would, for example, be no problem at all in finding a mooring at Port Bannatyne for very little, but when I was looking for one Gareloch moorings sold for roughly ten times as much. There are some places where planing your own mooring in virgin seabed is still a possibility, but almost by definition that's in places which are hard to get to or less salubrious.

Also a slight concern (perhaps I've read it wrong), is that you may e thinking of leaving the boat in the water all year ? I'm afraid it's a regular occurrence for boats to break their mooring in the winter months over here. It's a regular thing.
Click to expand...

Absolutely nobody ever leaves a boat on the moorings at Port Bannatyne over the winter. As an experiment, I'm going into the marina this year - my insurance will not cover me on the mooring after the 1st November. Someone did post a while back to say that their insurers were happy with a Clyde mooring over the winter, but as I recall it was somewhere exceptionally sheltered.

awol said:
Who knows what the situation will be in a couple of years. Will Holyrood have prised the sea floor out the hands of Crown Estates by then?
Click to expand...

That has already effectively happened, hasn't it? I'm currently dealing with Crown Estate Scotland, not the CEC, over the bugger who has dropped a mooring ten metres from mine.
 
You can leave your boat on a mooring anywhere over the winter - but in almost all locations it won't be insured and if it comes a cropper and sinks or breaks loose your insurance company won't be interested in paying for the "clean up"...
 
roblpm said:
Can't see it! I wonder if it went immediately?!!
Click to expand...

Yes, i had a search and it is sold. I would not agree with some of the views expressed here. There are plenty of spaces to lay your own mooring in the Gareloch. North of the Royal Northern there is space for moorings, further up just south of Faslane is fairly open, Clynder has space and Stroule Bay has some space. You should contact the Crown Estates and the Clyde Yacht clubs Assoc for inforation
 
JumbleDuck said:
That has already effectively happened, hasn't it? I'm currently dealing with Crown Estate Scotland, not the CEC, over the bugger who has dropped a mooring ten metres from mine.
Click to expand...

You are right - since 1st April this year. Managed by Crown Estates Scotland but the "assets" still owned by the wee German wifie.

Wham (http://www.whamassoc.org.uk/) have a lot of relevant how-to information.
 
Just some information about the approx cost of all the material required for laying your own mooring in about 6 to 8 metres

2 Railway wheels giving 500 kg. £360
10 m Ground chain (30mm x 120 mm) £305 (about 200 kg)
10m Riser chain (16 mm). £200
5m 8 strand riser multiplayer 28 mm £50
60 in Mooring bout £70
10in pickup buoy £25
25 mm swivel £50
Plus shackles and rigger costs for splicing multiplat and carriage

Total cost about £1000 ish

The above is similar to a mooring I laid many years ago although for that one I cast a 4 ft dia x 1ft high concrete sinker in a steel casing which weighed about 2000 lbs in air which was about 600 kg in water. That held my 31 foot Westerly in a pretty exposed location.
 
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Jcorstorphine said:
Just some information about the approx cost of all the material required for laying your own mooring in about 6 to 8 metres


Total cost about £1000 ish

The above is similar to a mooring I laid many years ago although for that one I cast a 4 ft dia x 1ft high concrete sinker in a steel casing which weighed about 2000 lbs in air which was about 600 kg in water. That held my 31 foot Westerly in a pretty exposed location.
Click to expand...

Useful information, thanks.
Round here concrete sinkers are popular, usually cast in a shallow pyramid shape using plywood shuttering, over a rounded heap of sand covered in polythene to give a concave bottom, you can usually increase the density quite a bit by gathering up all the old chain lying about the yard and adding it to the mix.
 
QBhoy said:
Hi there
Firstly, you'd be hard pushed to find a nicer area for a boat in the UK...welcome to the west coast!
Secondly, despite perhaps some advice given, you will be very lucky to get a good mooring here on a budget. Not to say they are not out There, but they rarely come up and with most of the type you are hoping for, you need to be vouched for, local or be in the know.
Also a slight concern (perhaps I've read it wrong), is that you may e thinking of leaving the boat in the water all year ? I'm afraid it's a regular occurrence for boats to break their mooring in the winter months over here. It's a regular thing.
Helensburgh sailing club is just up the road from me, but I'd be pretty certain the moorings are full, as with most of this type.
Occassionaly moorings pop up in the greenock area though.
The above aside, you may need to enquire further north like loch long or goilhead.
It's obviously a very popular area and it's not quite as simple as applying to the crown and dropping a mooring....all these spots are long gone.
Best of luck anyway.
Click to expand...

I think it is easier than you think unless I am missing something. I was speaking to a guy from Fairlie sailing club. No clubhouse. No big costs. He says moorings come up every year at Fairlie. However even if they don't there is still space for about 10 more if you wanted to get one laid. So definitely doable. And then sort out the winter. If I had lots of time then back round to the Forth for the autumn and winter! Excellent plan. Just need to ditch work....
 
roblpm said:
I think it is easier than you think unless I am missing something. I was speaking to a guy from Fairlie sailing club. No clubhouse. No big costs. He says moorings come up every year at Fairlie. However even if they don't there is still space for about 10 more if you wanted to get one laid. So definitely doable. And then sort out the winter. If I had lots of time then back round to the Forth for the autumn and winter! Excellent plan. Just need to ditch work....
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Fairlie....in Ayrshire ?
I'm sure there will be moorings for there....when one thinks of the west coast, sailing and it's beauty...Ayrshire isn't often first to mind. Although technically on the west coast of Scotland....it's usually slightly further north which people desire a mooring.
 
QBhoy said:
Fairlie....in Ayrshire ?
I'm sure there will be moorings for there....when one thinks of the west coast, sailing and it's beauty...Ayrshire isn't often first to mind. Although technically on the west coast of Scotland....it's usually slightly further north which people desire a mooring.
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Fairlie is indeed in North Ayrshire.
The OP seems to desire a mooring on the Clyde, not further north - if you read #1... Fairlie would be pretty good imho.
If you mean further north on the Clyde then fair enough!
 
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A1Sailor said:
Fairlie is indeed in North Ayrshire.
The OP seems to desire a mooring on the Clyde, not further north - if you read #1... Fairlie would be pretty good imho.
If you mean further north on the Clyde then fair enough!
Click to expand...

Hmmmm. Yes you are correct. Driving time from Edinburgh is paramount. So Greenock is closer. Clyde definitely. They have some weekend races to other places that look fun.
 
roblpm said:
Hmmmm. Yes you are correct. Driving time from Edinburgh is paramount. So Greenock is closer. Clyde definitely. They have some weekend races to other places that look fun.
Click to expand...
I hadn't twigged you were the "thread owner"! Sorry...
To be honest driving time from Junction 29 of the M8 is pretty much the same to Greenock as it is to Largs/Fairlie. It depends where you want to sail to, also. If you want easy access to the Kyles of Bute and Loch Fyne then Largs/Fairlie is better than being in the Upper Clyde. It was a consideration for me when I moved from a mooring at Cardwell Bay to Largs.
 
A1Sailor said:
I hadn't twigged you were the "thread owner"! Sorry...
To be honest driving time from Junction 29 of the M8 is pretty much the same to Greenock as it is to Largs/Fairlie. It depends where you want to sail to, also. If you want easy access to the Kyles of Bute and Loch Fyne then Largs/Fairlie is better than being in the Upper Clyde. It was a consideration for me when I moved from a mooring at Cardwell Bay to Largs.
Click to expand...

Anyone is welcome to share the thread! Some great information coming out.
 
A1Sailor said:
I hadn't twigged you were the "thread owner"! Sorry...
To be honest driving time from Junction 29 of the M8 is pretty much the same to Greenock as it is to Largs/Fairlie. It depends where you want to sail to, also. If you want easy access to the Kyles of Bute and Loch Fyne then Largs/Fairlie is better than being in the Upper Clyde. It was a consideration for me when I moved from a mooring at Cardwell Bay to Largs.
Click to expand...

Actually driving through Greenock to Kip would drive me mad anyway! All those roundabouts and lights. Got irritated on Saturday just going to the boat show. The drive to Largs/Fairlie is fine.
 
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