Cheapest marina for 7m keelboat on South Coast?

Gedimin

Gedimin

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I could not find any place to compare prices on berthing - is there such a thing? I guess no.
Trying to estimate berthing costs for a potential purchase which is 7m keelboat. Could be pontoon or dry-sailing - whatever cheapest. By South I mean stretch from Poole to Eastbourne.

Any insight?
 
Gedimin said:
I could not find any place to compare prices on berthing - is there such a thing? I guess no.
Trying to estimate berthing costs for a potential purchase which is 7m keelboat. Could be pontoon or dry-sailing - whatever cheapest. By South I mean stretch from Poole to Eastbourne.

Any insight?
Click to expand...

Join a club? Many have low cost options, especially if you plan to race occasionally.
 
I'm definitely up for racing! I'm just not sure where to start. My planned purchase has no class in South, and I'm not sure where to find best club for me: with good berthing fees and sailing with similar boats, not 40-footers or expensive and new J70s.
 
Gedimin said:
I could not find any place to compare prices on berthing - is there such a thing? I guess no.
Trying to estimate berthing costs for a potential purchase which is 7m keelboat. Could be pontoon or dry-sailing - whatever cheapest. By South I mean stretch from Poole to Eastbourne.
Click to expand...

Quite a few (most) of the Clyde marinas offer cheap berths smaller boats, sometimes with a length restriction (under 6m or under 7m seems common) and sometimes specifying that it's for open boat only. It might be worth looking for something like that. PBO (I think) publish an annual comparison of marina prices, but they don't cover small boat deals at all.
 
Leaving aside berths provided by clubs you might find it cheaper to have a pontoon on a river if elec and walkashore is not important. You will find prices are cheaper on the Isle of Wight so maybe looking at prices on the Medina as a stater where pontoon berths are cheap compared to mainland rates. If you want to remain on a mainland marina then cheaper ones have more limitation on access times so you might look at marinas with locks or sills etc. There is a list of rates per metre published by PBO as mentioned. Another factor is time you wish to spend travelling to your marina berth. Clearly easy at this time of year but summer traffic to many popular marinas can be v slow.
 
Gedimin said:
I'm definitely up for racing! I'm just not sure where to start. My planned purchase has no class in South, and I'm not sure where to find best club for me: with good berthing fees and sailing with similar boats, not 40-footers or expensive and new J70s.
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What boat is it, and when would you like to race? (Most weekends, some weekends, weekday evenings?).
 
Somewhere like littlehampton would probably be cheapest for a walk ashore pontoon, unless you want to seriously restrict yourself tidally, then there are plenty of cheap places even in the Solent
 
A swinging mooring will be your cheapest bet, especially if it is a club mooring. Lots of those around (certainly in Portsmouth and Chichester).
 
As has been already said PBO publish marina prices for the UK from time to time - I think back copies are available. A club swinging mooring may be your cheapest bet - I have a 7m boat and pay £152 for a swinging mooring pa + harbour fees of £70. Of course you also have to pay club membership but you should be able to do the whole works for under £500pa ( not including winter storage ) , and you have the club membership benefits. I am in Portland Harbour so a bit out of your search zone and I imagine the further east towards the Solent the more expensive it is likely to be.
 
Buy something less than 6.5m and it will fit into the Premier Marinas lowest 'small boat' offer.

Having said that the annual fee for this at Chichester Marina is now £2.8k ish. You could buy a nice boat for that but where would you put it?

You pay for convenience...and water.
 
The waiting list in the Hamble is less than a year for a sub 8m boat. £650 for a trot and if you wish to you can put your own pontoon on it (subject to planning and other permissions). Join a club like Royal Southern and you get Bosun service to ferry you out and back and there are also all sorts of races that you can enter either as a dayboat, cruiser or racer. Plenty of options.

It would be helpful to know what boat?
 
What would the travel costs be from London to the Clyde? What would be the costs of a ferry on a regular basis to the IoW? And how much racing will he find out of Littlehampton, apart from racing fishing boats.

A swinging mooring provided by one of the clubs in Portsmouth, or maybe Langstone YC. The Hamble will be expensive. Depending on draft, try the clubs at Emsworth or Thorney, I'm not sure if Thorney Island sailing club is restricted as its on MOD land, a quick call should tell you.
 
Sans Bateau said:
What would the travel costs be from London to the Clyde?
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In case there has been a misunderstanding, I wasn't suggesting that the OP should sail on the Clyde, just that it might be worth looking for the sort of "small boat" deals which all the marinas here seem to offer but which don't get much publicity. Not that I have anything against living down there and sailing up here. I lived in Oxford and sailed from Crinan for years but that was to cruise something I could sleep on, not to race an open boat.

I think the OP should look for the racing fleet he wants to play with, then look for a mooring which fits with that.
 
Several people asked about what sort of boat I am thinking. At the moment still open-minded. Primary use will be weekend club racing, occasionally might take her for a day cruise to explore what's around. I know there is no such thing as perfect racer an cruiser, but any racer is still a boat, so I should be fine with it.

I don't plan to spend everything on the boat just yet, and also don't want to be too nervous about the boat - so it should be a cheap one. But having said this, I don't have plans to take on a project. And finally, in ideal world I want to race against comparable boats, maybe even one design.

So my primary option for now - Hunter Sonata. They are cheap in good condition (£4-5k), it could be considered as day (or 2) cruiser when necessary. The only issue is that nearest fleet is in Medway. Probably a good place to be, and inexpensive, but Ideally wanted to be based in the South.

Secondary choice - something like Hunter 707 or similar 'sporty' keelboat. I used to sail them up in Edinburgh and really enjoyed it, but the whole fleet is up North now. And will probably be less happy on a mooring than Sonata.

If I add some more budget, it might be even Impala which is probably better fit for Solent. But this boat will generally require more work.
 
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