cherish your harbour master - a rant!

[Tintin]

The big issue in Falmouth is the complete lack, indeed abject disdain, for anything like consultation with harbour users, commercial or leisure, in water or overlooking, about any of the changes.

And piss poor reasons given after the fact, for the mooring grab by the commisioners, where private moorings were appropriated and then higher charges levied.

And the new corporate brand and structure has cost a pretty penny on top of the contribution to the national pilots pension settlement.a

 

[wotayottie]

I think we all understand your position on this! But why refuse to answer two simple questions, (i) What would you consider to be fair price for Falmouth HA to charge? and (ii) Who should pay the excess if that charge is insufficient to defray their costs, the checkout girl in Poundland?

Well I will answer. Zero. Free anchoring. If you want the showers then pay for them. The harbour has no significant costs that's relate to anchoring

 

[Woodlouse]

Well I will answer. Zero. Free anchoring. If you want the showers then pay for them. The harbour has no significant costs that's relate to anchoring

Indeed. The only 'cost' is the revenue lost to not laying moorings there, but they have to keep that bit of water clear for ships to turn anyway.

I think a nominal fee is appropriate else the anchorage would fill up with the nautical equivilent of a gypsy camp but £12 or £15 is way too high.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I was there this summer and the moorings seem well used - all full. A tenner a night for a mooring is entirely reasonable I think.

It's not too bad, I agree, though you don't get much for your money beyond the mooring. I chose to anchor a lot further in when I was there - the moorings are a wee bit exposed and as I only need four feet of water I could get a lot closer to the throbbing heart of the metropolis.

 

[JumbleDuck]

You are missing the point, the harbour itself is part of the facilities and by anchoring within it you are expected to pay for that use - harbours cost money to maintain ...

In the "stone quays, dredged channels and buoys" sense that's certainly true, but in the "big expanse of enclosed water" sense it is not. Nobody actually needs to "maintain" Chichester Harbour or Poole Harbour.

 

[JumbleDuck]

You can say it all you like but it doesn't make it true, there is no "vandal problem" at Newport Harbour....

So when did the problem - and it was clearly not an isolated incident - in the report to which I posted a link stop, and why?

 

[l'escargot]

So when did the problem - and it was clearly not an isolated incident - in the report to which I posted a link stop, and why?

It stopped 11 years ago and didn't exist just over 11 years ago. It was an isolated incident, there were no others reported. One season it would seem a group of kids hung around the quay and annoyed people, there weren't any reports of dropping bins in the river or anything else just one instance of a boat going adrift in the middle of the night for unknown reasons. If it was the kids perhaps they grew up, moved away or joined a youth club. Maybe they even got locked up. Maybe it wasn't even them and the boat in question pissed off the boat they were rafted to and they untied them.

Would you place as much emphasis on the tide tables and LNTM in 2003 or place any emphasis on a chart that hadn't been updated for 11 years? It has no bearing on now or since - I am sure you could find mentions of vandalism or crime in any town you wished to name in the last 12 years, it doesn't mean they have an ongoing problem.

Here you are, first hit on Google: "Rampant vandalism on a massive scale..." in Chichester in 2003:

http://m.chichester.co.uk/news/local/lack-of-police-blamed-for-rampant-vandalism-1-1518263

Only a fool would try and use that to support an argument that there is a current vandal problem in Chichester Harbour - but you and Seajet seem to think such a link can be made.

I didn't have you down as being as daft as Seajet but I may have to revise that opinion...

 

[l'escargot]

In the "stone quays, dredged channels and buoys" sense that's certainly true, but in the "big expanse of enclosed water" sense it is not. Nobody actually needs to "maintain" Chichester Harbour or Poole Harbour.

They do have to maintain them in an administrative sense, have a read of the Port Marine Safety Code for examples of just some of the processes etc. they have to have in place as a statutory port:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ile/79296/guide-good-practice-port-marine.pdf

And when you've worked through that, have a look at the 1964 Harbours Act...

 

[Seajet]

So someone at the other end of the UK can spot the agro problem at Newport, rather like the Chinese Wall being visible from orbit, but l'escargot retreats into his shell.

It would be OK to admit it, after all Wareham has an ongoing yobbo problem; the difference is, Wareham is worth visiting despite the hassle while Newport IOW could take a tactical nuclear strike and no-one would notice apart from the balance of these forums tilting slightly towards sensible on the ' reasonableometer '...

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I am sure you could find mentions of vandalism or crime in any town you wished to name in the last 12 years, it doesn't mean they have an ongoing problem.

Vandalism at Lochinver harbour (well, 8 miles down the road, but near enough)...

http://www.northern-times.co.uk/News/Vandals-attack-Calda-House-near-Lochinver-31072013.htm

Only last year. Strewth. Who'd take their boat there and risk having it binned by the local yobs. Actually, thinking about it, the wind is the worst vandal. Last winter it blew big lumps of the ice factory around the harbour and cast adrift a couple of boats. Now that is a risk to boats parked nearby.

 

[l'escargot]

Vandalism at Lochinver harbour (well, 8 miles down the road, but near enough)...

http://www.northern-times.co.uk/News/Vandals-attack-Calda-House-near-Lochinver-31072013.htm

Only last year. Strewth. Who'd take their boat there and risk having it binned by the local yobs. Actually, thinking about it, the wind is the worst vandal. Last winter it blew big lumps of the ice factory around the harbour and cast adrift a couple of boats. Now that is a risk to boats parked nearby.

Well don't go to Chichester Harbour it must be awful: "Rampant vandalism 'on a massive scale'..." and as the problem was "..rapidly worsening..." in 2003 it must make Newport look like Nirvana now 12 years on. With it being as bad as the newspaper reports, and I know it is because I looked on Google Earth and nearly went there once, I doubt if there are even buses still running. It must look like a Nuclear wasteland with Zombies and things - I'm too afraid to even look at any reports on TripAdvisor...

 

[JumbleDuck]

It stopped 11 years ago and didn't exist just over 11 years ago. It was an isolated incident, there were no others reported.

The damage to the 24ft Swallow last Friday was the latest incident of vandalism at the quay, which boat owners say is denting its reputation among visitors.

Harbourmaster Wayne Pritchett this week admitted the reputation of the harbour had been affected and visitor numbers were down.
​

Latest incident. Boat owners, plural.

 

[Triassic]

With all this talk about it I actually want to visit Newport now just so I can say I've been somewhere famous. Tell me, will they charge me to drop my anchor or do you think I might get a commission for helping to promote the place?

 

[l'escargot]

With all this talk about it I actually want to visit Newport now just so I can say I've been somewhere famous. Tell me, will they charge me to drop my anchor or do you think I might get a commission for helping to promote the place?

There is nowhere to anchor in the Harbour as it dries but I believe the mooring fees on the pontoon are the cheapest in the Solent. You can always come by bus though...:encouragement:

Be ready for a bit on an anticlimax

Now if you really want some excitement, try Chichester Harbour - their problems are reportedly worse if you use the Jumbleduck/Seajet assessment method

 

[Lucky Duck]

I imagine the bus trip would be something like this

 

[michael_w]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but nobody in 22 pages of this thread has said that the £15 anchoring charge is, I'm fairly certain, only applied within the area adjacent to the Falmouth Yacht Haven, and includes use off the showers, loos, and laundry facilities provided by the Harbour Authority.

And very decent facilities they are too, clean, warm, and with piped Radio 2 at all times.

As I own a blue water cruising boat, the only shore facility I require is somewhere to leave my dinghy. I have no desire to get verrucae from the ablution block.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I imagine the bus trip would be something like this

I've been to the Isle of Wight too.

 

[l'escargot]

I imagine the bus trip would be something like this

You've been on Southern Vectis then? Although that looks more like the No 1 back from Cowes...

 

[Daydream believer]

Last winter it blew big lumps of the ice factory around the harbour and cast adrift a couple of boats. Now that is a risk to boats parked nearby.

Hope it was not blue ice !!

 

[Tranona]

In the "stone quays, dredged channels and buoys" sense that's certainly true, but in the "big expanse of enclosed water" sense it is not. Nobody actually needs to "maintain" Chichester Harbour or Poole Harbour.

Perhaps you should come down to Poole and see why it has to be "maintained" - and see the challenges the Harbour Commissioners face trying to satisfy all the different users of the harbour.