Comparative costs - Solent vs Non Tidal Thames

[boatone]

Would like to get a handle on the comparative costs of using a boat on and around the Solent (Poole to Chichester and IOW) compared with the non tidal Thames.
Marina moorings on the Thames for a 9 metre boat around £330 metre/year. Thames Licence fee around £450 p.a. What licence fees are chargeable around Solent harbours, if any, or are they reflected in marina charges?
Paid overnight moorings on non tidal Thames between £5 and £12 outside marinas but there are quite a lot of free 24 hour moorings which I suspect is not the case around the Solent? How much a year do you spend on away from base moorings in an average season?
What does a lift out scrub and back cost for a 9 metre boat?
Suspect routine stuff like restaurants etc will be pretty similar but would be interesting to see if cost of Thames licence is offset by lower mooring costs, for instance?
Also, you guys must spend quite a lot more than we do getting there and back compared with our 4knots meandering - what is your average fuel spend in a year for a sub 10 metre boat?
Just factual information please - we can leave the inquest until later !

 

[admillington]

Would like to get a handle on the comparative costs of using a boat on and around the Solent (Poole to Chichester and IOW) compared with the non tidal Thames.
Marina moorings on the Thames for a 9 metre boat around £330 metre/year. Thames Licence fee around £450 p.a. What licence fees are chargeable around Solent harbours, if any, or are they reflected in marina charges?
Paid overnight moorings on non tidal Thames between £5 and £12 outside marinas but there are quite a lot of free 24 hour moorings which I suspect is not the case around the Solent? How much a year do you spend on away from base moorings in an average season?
What does a lift out scrub and back cost for a 9 metre boat?
Suspect routine stuff like restaurants etc will be pretty similar but would be interesting to see if cost of Thames licence is offset by lower mooring costs, for instance?
Also, you guys must spend quite a lot more than we do getting there and back compared with our 4knots meandering - what is your average fuel spend in a year for a sub 10 metre boat?
Just factual information please - we can leave the inquest until later !

For an example, Chichester Marina for 8.1m - 9.0m boat is £3,671.00, on top of this there is a small charge for the harbour authority.

I cannot think of a free mooring in the Solent! And of course, you will use loads more fuel but not a lot as nowhere is that far!

 

[Wavey]

Hi Tony,

Mooring fees varying considerably depending where you are and what facilities you want. I paid about £4,500 at Penton for 13.4m. The highest I've been quoted down on the Solent is £11,900 on the Hamble but you can get moorings there for no more than you're paying now. PM TheJonesey as I'm sure that's what he said and he's on the Hamble above the bridge. Shamrock Quay on the Itchen is a tad over £7,000 for me IIRC.

Fuel consumption depends a lot on whether you're displacement or planing. From your trip down to the Mudway I guess you'll know your current consumption so as a guide here's a few rough distances.

Poole - Chichester (probably the furthest you'd go) 49 miles
Southampton - Cowes 9 miles
Southampton - Yarmouth 16 miles
Hamble - Lymington 12 miles
Hamble - Chichester 18 miles

Overnight moorings tend not to be free. Cheapest we've paid for us so far was about £30. Most expensive just over £50.

Certainly from what I understand with regard to MDL, lift and scrub virtually the same as Penton.

Jim

 

[nicho]

Would like to get a handle on the comparative costs of using a boat on and around the Solent (Poole to Chichester and IOW) compared with the non tidal Thames.
Marina moorings on the Thames for a 9 metre boat around £330 metre/year. Thames Licence fee around £450 p.a. What licence fees are chargeable around Solent harbours, if any, or are they reflected in marina charges?
Paid overnight moorings on non tidal Thames between £5 and £12 outside marinas but there are quite a lot of free 24 hour moorings which I suspect is not the case around the Solent? How much a year do you spend on away from base moorings in an average season?
What does a lift out scrub and back cost for a 9 metre boat?
Suspect routine stuff like restaurants etc will be pretty similar but would be interesting to see if cost of Thames licence is offset by lower mooring costs, for instance?
Also, you guys must spend quite a lot more than we do getting there and back compared with our 4knots meandering - what is your average fuel spend in a year for a sub 10 metre boat?
Just factual information please - we can leave the inquest until later !

Perhaps much of this information can be gleaned from the internet. Try Premier Marinas for a start - their website will tell you the costs of mooring/lift/relaunch etc for their Solent based marinas (Swanwick/Port Solent/Chichester included) MDL will not do this - you have to apply. The further up the Hamble you go, the cheaper the marinas, though they are all expensive. Hythe is a nice marina in Southampton Water, and not too expensive - it is locked, but being Thames based, it will not be a problem for you. Of course, it's obvious you will be using much more fuel being unrestricted speed wise. We left the Thames (Windsor Marina) many years ago, after becoming frustrated by 5 knots in a planing boat.
Beware though, once you have been in the Solent for a few weeks, you will never want to return. We are 9.95 metres in Chichester Marina - costs £4068 per annul. Lift/block/wash and relaunch £408. Swanwick is £3k more.......hence we are now at Chi!

 

[blueglass]

having had seasons in both locations I went through similar reckonings as yours OP. Too many variables so no real point in quoting figures but as a ballpark if you double your overall Thames costs you won't go far wrong. Sounds bad but there is so much more on offer on the south coast than trudging (as we did after just one season) round the same old riverside pubs.
The only thing we found turned out cheaper was maintenance and repairs cost. We found Thames outfits much more expensive and harder to get on board due to lack of competion maybe.

 

[mlines]

For a 5 metre boat on a trailer then the costs would be £1000 at Rockley Park, Poole and £1300 at Val Wyatts, Wargrave. Poole Harbour licence is £60 per year whilst Thames is £182.60

Most cost effective for us is to buy a Poole annual licence, keep the boat in the boat park at wargrave as its close to home and then buy visitor licences wherever we go, £182.60 gives us 18 day licences on the Thames or 15 x 7 day licences, by buying a week licence for Henley Regatta/Festival and odd day licences this gives us better value than the £182 annual licence.

its a bit of a balancing act and something we constantly review as drystacking on the coast is quite competitive for us.

 

[boatone]

Not considering a move to the coast - simply trying to get a handle on comparative costs. The Thames licence fee is seen by many as a reason for abandoning the river but I don't believe this holds water when you look at the other costs and take the full annual cost of boating into account. Cost of a licence for my 27 foot Hardy is around £440 this year which is probably less than 10% of my total annual boating costs.
The younger, fitter, more adventurous brigade will undoubtedly say the Thames is not for them but the fact is that coastal boating is not for everyone and many people enjoy the charm of the river, in spite of its limitations.

 

[Chris_d]

Have you seen the Solent short stay costs thread? quite shocking, I can't think of anywhere on the non-tidal Thames that charges for short stay.
However the Solent is probably the most expensive place to boat on the planet so not really representive for a Thames/Coast comparison, suspect most deserters
will find it cheaper on the Medway or East coast.

 

[mlines]

I can't think of anywhere on the non-tidal Thames that charges for short stay.

Henley on the moorings on the port side fields downstream from the town

 

[neale]

There is no comparison once you take fuel into the equation, assuming people actually use their boat. I had a whole summer on the Thames a couple of years back. Clocked up about 100 hours and used half a tank of fuel. On the coast I could get through a whole tank in about 5 hours, and many times I have used a tank of fuel in a day. On the coast I find filling myself up the tanks almost every time I use the boat, maybe every couple of times if I am only doing short trips. From my experience on the Thames it would be a couple of times a year.