Demand for moorings plummeting?

[skyflyer]

Is this indicative of boating in general? Is this the beginning of the end of leisure boating except for the super rich?

Our otherwise thriving club - focussed on yachting, rather than dinghy etc - has thirty swinging moorings and normally we run a waiting list, whereby it can take 3 or 4 years to get a mooring. For 2018 we have exhausted the waiting list and still have many of those moorings vacant. Is this a common story elsewhere in the country I wonder?

Is it the same for marina berths too? I see no sign of rates going down though, but I do seem to get a lot of spam emails from various marinas offering me "great deals" (which aren't particularly great at all!)

Maybe its a regional thing? I wont say exactly where we are as the forum police have already told me off for advertising the vacancies in the Classified section, but suffice to say its a popular spot in the southwest.

Or is it the other way round. Nobody wants to do boating on the cheap on a swinging mooring; they can all afford to pay for a marina berth?

Interested to know of other people's experiences.

 

[Capt. Clueless]

I know, that on Lake district lakes, there are vacancies, some on a certain lake discount their moorings for early booking. I prefer a swinging mooring, due to the rabble that tend to use marina's. Maybe clubs need to look at reducing their prices, as folk will look round for the best deals.....Hows about a "moorings comparison site", like all the others?

 

[DoubleEnder]

My guess it’s another symptom of the same trend that has made smaller yachts unpopular, hard to sell. People expect comfort (honestly!) on board with headroom, hot water, plush upholstery, heating, refrigeration bla bla. And that definition of yachting definitely doesn’t include wet bum ride out to bouncy bouncy hard to board mooring. Much preferred is a nice stroll down the pontoon And the people who used to support lower cost boats, gear and arrangements just aren’t present as much, for all the demographic and economic trends that have been discussed here quite recently.

 

[johnalison]

My guess it’s another symptom of the same trend that has made smaller yachts unpopular, hard to sell. People expect comfort (honestly!) on board with headroom, hot water, plush upholstery, heating, refrigeration bla bla. And that definition of yachting definitely doesn’t include wet bum ride out to bouncy bouncy hard to board mooring. Much preferred is a nice stroll down the pontoon And the people who used to support lower cost boats, gear and arrangements just aren’t present as much, for all the demographic and economic trends that have been discussed here quite recently.

I think that is true, along with the way that many people now get into sailing via sailing schools. They are accustomed to largish boats with easy access and all mod cons and believe that this is the norm. I have sailed from shore for most of my cruising life, but the fifteen years on a swinging mooring were a great delight at the time. He moorings in our local creek have become less than fully occupied for the last year or two, and suspect that the trend will continue in areas where sailors have a choice.

 

[Poignard]

Maybe marina berths are being affected. Instead of a curt "G'morning" one now gets "Good day to you, Sir. And how are you? And your lady wife, blooming I trust? Is there anything we can do for you today, Sir? Anything at all. You only need say the word, Sir."

 

[Tranona]

Same trend in Poole, partly because the main clubs now have marinas, although ours has actually increased the number of moorings against the trend.

However if you look at the storage yards in the summer you can see the increase in the number of boats that are never launched, but are either mothballed, under repair or for sale.

 

[bedouin]

Do your moorings have a maximum length?

There seems to be a continued upward trend in boat lengths that means there are fewer small boats chasing the moorings with a length restriction.

 

[steveej]

my personal view is that for the majority of the UK, honey pots like the solent excepted, sailing will fall off a cliff edge in the next 15 - 20 years due to the ageing demographics of the particpants.

Or option 2, new retirees who finally have enough time and money to do it properly will keep a certain level of participation and these will be new comers to the sport who haven't sailed all their life, so either way participation levels will drop.

There is going to be some kind of correction.

 

[stranded]

Agree with all the above, but I think the real killer is time. The people who earn enough money to run a decent boat seem to work longer and longer hours. Long gone are the days when one might slope off early on a Friday afternoon, or even mid-weekWhen they finally get away, they want the transition to boat to be as quick as possible (and probably still need decent broadband to finish what work was left undone. Even in the civil service now, at least in departmental hqs, 12 hour days are just normal, lord knows what it’s like in the private sector.

 

[[70521]]

This topic has been covered several times.

I have a few graduate engineers at work and their outgoings are eye watering! They have no spare cash for any non essentials - and yes they do consider a Smartphone an essential.

 

[bedouin]

This topic has been covered several times.

I have a few graduate engineers at work and their outgoings are eye watering! They have no spare cash for any non essentials - and yes they do consider a Smartphone an essential.

They also probably consider regular short breaks an essential.

The younger generation is far more likely to spend their money on weekend breaks in exotic locations than on a boat

 

[steveej]

let alone saving up for a house deposit I've sailed about 1/3 of the UK coastal areas from say Outer Hebrides all the west coats to the Solent, Lots of Brittany and the Channel Islands, numerous family trips to the med, sailed my own little boat on the bristol channel. At 36 years old, I can tell you I am at the extreme left hand end of the normal distributiuon curve.

 

[pagoda]

let alone saving up for a house deposit I've sailed about 1/3 of the UK coastal areas from say Outer Hebrides all the west coats to the Solent, Lots of Brittany and the Channel Islands, numerous family trips to the med, sailed my own little boat on the bristol channel. At 36 years old, I can tell you I am at the extreme left hand end of the normal distributiuon curve.

That distribution curve is still a curve but in sailing it is heavily skewed. Skewed towards available time and inclination to sail in other than perfect weather. Friday to Sunday boats , motoring flat out in what I consider a decent sailing wind tell a tale. Can't see that changing....

 

[steveej]

That distribution curve is still a curve but in sailing it is heavily skewed. Skewed towards available time and inclination to sail in other than perfect weather. Friday to Sunday boats , motoring flat out in what I consider a decent sailing wind tell a tale. Can't see that changing....

Totally agree with you.

In 2018, there are so many other demands on young peoples time. Convenience is valued and expected. There is a world of difference between dinghy sailing and yachting due to the time, money and other commitments involved. Look at the cost and time differential between keeping a dinghy on a lake and keeping a yacht on the south coast that you sail back and forth to France a few times throughout the summer. I can see why the transition numbers are not great. Different things.

I was a climber before I was a sailor and there are huge numbers of people who now go to indoor climbing walls. Very few climb outside.

People in their 20's will need to try their hand at getting on the housing market.

The smart phone is now a necessary item in 21st century Britain for people of working age. It is instant access to digital knowledge and communication, a sat-nav, a notebook, a yellow pages, ability to answer your work e-mails after working hours , a Chart Plotter, a mobile hotspot so you can get wifi in your flat! etc. I no longer pay for a house phone, but pay for 3 iPhones, me, my wife and mother (for fear of her getting lost in the dust). The efficiency in time saved compared to 20 years ago pays for itself. You have to be competitive and people expect a quick response and if your not in the game you will be lost in the dawn of time. Expensive but necessary but shows how we continue to live in more complicated times and things are not as simple as they once were.

 

[dunedin]

Agree with all the above, but I think the real killer is time. The people who earn enough money to run a decent boat seem to work longer and longer hours. Long gone are the days when one might slope off early on a Friday afternoon, or even mid-weekWhen they finally get away, they want the transition to boat to be as quick as possible (and probably still need decent broadband to finish what work was left undone. Even in the civil service now, at least in departmental hqs, 12 hour days are just normal, lord knows what it’s like in the private sector.

Agree.
Also many boats built in the past 15-20 years are well set up for marina berths, but not particularly well suited to being on a mooring. Our Westerly Fulmar, which was mooring based, had a big strong bow roller and huge chunky bow cleats.
Modern boats often have one roller, occupied by an anchor and perhaps set to overhang the bows - so even if took the anchor off, the roller gantry is at risk in a proper gale on an exposed mooring. Also smaller bow cleats on the toerails, fine for marina side ropes but often a poor angle for a heavy mooring rope coming from the roller.

We considered using a mooring for our next boat but decided it just wouldn’t take the chunky gear we would need to be happy coping with a F8/F9 unattended. And in the marina it happily survived a couple or more F10 storms in the next decade.

 

[Poignard]

There is another option available in some ports. Dry sailing.

Although not suitable for someone who wants to go off for a sail at short notice (since most yards would want a day or two notice to launch), it has the adavantage that your boat is only in the water when you need it. The rest of the time it is in its cradle, safe from hit-and-run boaters, and you may not even need to anti-foul it. Also it reduces the chance of osmosis.

 

[oldharry]

Increasingly unpredictable weather has a lot do with it too. Lets face it, who can remember the last really good summer? I'm no prophet of doom on the forbidden subject, but the last seven years have put off a number of people who sailed regularly: who wants to spend their holidays in a marina listening to the mournful howl of the wind in the rigging, and the rattling of innumerable badly secured halyards while the rain drums steadily on the roof? Cheap air fairs can get you to dependably decent weather in a few hours - if the weather at home isnt so awful everything has been cancelled! Not saying it was all fair winds and calm seas in the past, it most certainly wasnt! The 1979 Fastnet comes readily to mind, but he 1956 race was also seriously overwhelmed by a severe gale, and before that DDay was nearly cancelled due to a particularly violent storm turning up at the wrong moment. I can remember a summer gale in around 1960 delaying the Newhaven Dieppe ferry for nearly 12 hours on a 3 hour crossing - much to my delight as teenager. But one could reasonably depend on perhaps two out of three summers giving enough good weather to allow a decent trip, and being stormbound for a couple of days was part of the fun - but not for the entire fortnight!

 

[dgadee]

Voices of doom! Who knows what's around the corner and how fashions and interests change. After all, I hear macrame is making a comeback.

 

[Channel Sailor]

Not a issue in my area. Extract from harbour web pages:

“The enquiry/application lists for the 2018/2019 season ...
Mooring Class & Category Application Status
A1 (Itchenor) WAITING LIST ONLY
A2 (Itchenor, Emsworth, Sweare Deep) WAITING LIST ONLY
A3 (Itchenor, Emsworth, Sweare Deep) WAITING LIST ONLY
A3 (Nutbourne Channel) VACANCIES
B3, C3 (Itchenor) WAITING LIST ONLY
B3, C3 (Emsworth, Girt Rithe, Church Rithe) VACANCIES
A4 (Itchenor) WAITING LIST ONLY
B4 (Itchenor) VACANCIES”

By the way, 2017 has been one of my best Solent area sailing seasons for a while.

 

[Kelpie]

Totally agree with you.

In 2018, there are so many other demands on young peoples time. Convenience is valued and expected. There is a world of difference between dinghy sailing and yachting due to the time, money and other commitments involved. Look at the cost and time differential between keeping a dinghy on a lake and keeping a yacht on the south coast that you sail back and forth to France a few times throughout the summer. I can see why the transition numbers are not great. Different things.

I was a climber before I was a sailor and there are huge numbers of people who now go to indoor climbing walls. Very few climb outside.

People in their 20's will need to try their hand at getting on the housing market.

The smart phone is now a necessary item in 21st century Britain for people of working age. It is instant access to digital knowledge and communication, a sat-nav, a notebook, a yellow pages, ability to answer your work e-mails after working hours , a Chart Plotter, a mobile hotspot so you can get wifi in your flat! etc. I no longer pay for a house phone, but pay for 3 iPhones, me, my wife and mother (for fear of her getting lost in the dust). The efficiency in time saved compared to 20 years ago pays for itself. You have to be competitive and people expect a quick response and if your not in the game you will be lost in the dawn of time. Expensive but necessary but shows how we continue to live in more complicated times and things are not as simple as they once were.

Good post. I'm the same age as you, and we never meet people who are even close to our age whilst cruising. Most of my friends regard it as a bit strange that I bother to spend my time messing around with boats.