Crap marina hall of fame?

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zefender

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Following on from the crap towns post, how about we make our own league table of crap marinas? Nominations please with reasons, so an equally valuable, cynical rogues gallery can be produced.

I'll start with my nomination - Brighton marina.

- Dodgy entrance, hopelessy silted, facilities in sort-of-converted ship containers, miles from anywhere on land or sea, pontoons in poor state, naff retail zone adjoins...

you get the idea..

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Hey! It's not Ardrossans fault they built a crappy marina there!


Donald

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Redon, Canal de Ille et Rance

The Bassin des Yachts that is. The canalside moorings are quite attractive.

This place is a ships graveyard. We counted at least five british yachts covered in green algae that had obviously been abandoned there. Rotten pontoon decking - my (then) nine year old fell through fetching the (stale) bread. The (cold only) shower on the far side of the fouled basin from the berths is in a stone sentry box without a door up a side alley covered in dog sierra thro tango. It is a totally depressing place which you approach along a dismal & decaying industrial quayside. Miss the unsigned hairpin turn into it and you're over a weir.

This place HAS to be the worst around.

Steve Cronin



<hr width=100% size=1>The above is, like any other post here, only a personal opinion
 
Admit its not the best marina but I have to say they have some of the best staff! Town makes me feel a bit ill though

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Know what you mean but I don't think that's too fair on Brighton! Got a lot more going for it (for visitors) than say Mercury or East Cowes? You got buses and a chuff chuff down to town. and I guess unless it was where it is, it wouldn't - err, be there at all?

No I don't want to say the other two are crap either!

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Maybe I believe its crap because it has the potential to be so good, given what you've said. It just fails in my book. I went there on a beautiful sunny day and sitting in the cockpit it just felt so dreary and the other side of the gate was so sterile - though I grant you quite a few places could be accused of that. Mercury though doesn't set out to be anything much, but what it does, I think it does well so certainly not crap for me. No shop but the bloke in the chandlery does his best to provide some non-boaty stuff and let's you order a Sunday paper. Try even finding a paper shop/general store/newsagent on a Sunday morning at Brighton marina. East Cowes I can't really comment on. It was pretty dodgy when I was last there - portacabin loos etc.

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My pet marina hate is pay-as-you-go showers. They invariably stop just when you are well lathered up, and you don't have a spare token!

<hr width=100% size=1>Black Sugar - the sweetest of all
 
Spose I tend to look at places with a ten year old in mind! (Or is that a ten year old mind)? He loves it!

Biggest in Britain isn't it?

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Redon with TGV?

Is there a touch of bigotry in the aforesaid comments or is there another Redon up the Villaine? Very short catwalks, granted, but it just doesn't compare with Campbelton!

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Zefender, I'll second your choice of Brighton. I moved my boat out of there to the Hamble (although I live in Brighton) because I got fed up of being an inconvenience to the marina owners who wanted a 'marina village' with the emphasis on the second word: well actually its a crap shopping centre with a few pretty boats as a backdrop. The final straw for me was when they brought in a 20-min wait-or-be-clamped at the parking by the foot of the pontoons (ie not enough time to unload a weekend's load of kit), with the only other parking in the shoppers multi-storey (try wheeling a loaded trolley up to the 6th floor of a car-park, having to use the same ramps the cars are going up and down...

And in the evenings the marina bars and restaurants just turns into shell-suit heaven and its a distinctly unpleasant place to be.

The fact that yachts will run aground in the main entrance is another indication of where boat-owners come on their list of priorities. Crap, crap and crap again!

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Here's 3 for the list (the other dread ones are more than 3 years old so possibly not current)

1. Ribadeo - allegedly a marina in all the pilots but no facilities, no place except the breakwater.
2. La Coruna - expensive, dirty and pontoons break every EC health & safety directive, far better to finish a Biscay crossing in Ria de Viviero.
3. San José de Gata - becomes a mincing machine in any wind outside.

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Essex Marina

On the River Crouch.

May have improved by now, but I went there with a small flotilla cruise I was leading and regretted it much.

Rickety pontoons athwart a strong tide. No cleats or rings on top of the pontoons - just rusty loops on the sides - and believe me, you need somewhere to "take a turn" in those tides. Lighting poor or missing. Light at the end of our pontoon lying on it's side in the water. Many pontoon slats missing - one crew member nearly broke a leg. Bunches of bare electrical wires sticking up. I didn't touch to see if they were live........And they wanted to charge us as much, or even more, than the excellent Burnham Yacht Harbour on the other side of the river.

This was three years ago and I suspect it was "work in progress". I am sure they were trying to improve the quality of the place, but IMHO the pontoons where we ended up were an accident waiting to happen and in no way "fit for purpose" - certainly not to be charged for. But I would never go back. We don't use marinas much. When we do, I am not keen on those with pontoons fore and aft in the tideway. Athwart a strong tide is worse, however good the facilities may be.

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Don\'t agree with you on La Coruna

There are 2 marinas there. The inner one is not as nice as the outer one. The outer one reflects the state of La Coruna which is pleasantly old fashioned and equally laid back.

If I have a quibble about La Coruna then it's the concrete sill that causes problems in getting to the fuel dock. Wobbly and sinking pontoons are all part of the fun just as tying up up the end on the 'T's ends up with 'Hablo no Espanol' :)

Round the corner and down a bit, Figuera da Foz is not as nice nor is it as friendly.




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