Do boat ownersin marinas do something to anoy you?

After 22 years in our marina, I have to say that I simply do not recognise any of the above complaints, apart from one case of one berth holder who allows his dog to run off the lead on the pontoons. He has been warned, but is presumably a friend of the owners, or perhaps a major shareholder.....

But then, we don't keep our boat anywhere near the Solent. Our only beef is the cost, but then we value the very real benefits to us of being able to sail all year round (at least once every month this year so far); being confident that the boat is safe and secure whatever the weather (no need to twitch about chafing buoy strops, hit and run boats etc); parking close to the boat (and to the town if and when we need to shop) and no need to prat about in the dinghy, with the attendant risks to life, property and dignity, when setting off or returning; and so on and so on.

Also we have made a number of good friends among our neighbours and elsewhere in the marina. When I was made redundant a few years ago on the eve of a bank holiday weekend, our initial gloom was much lightened by a steady stream of well wishers bearing bottles and demanding to know how I had arranged it.
 
Grumpybear said:
...we have made a number of good friends among our neighbours and elsewhere in the marina. When I was made redundant a few years ago on the eve of a bank holiday weekend, our initial gloom was much lightened by a steady stream of well wishers bearing bottles and demanding to know how I had arranged it.
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Good for you, GB! That's encouraging. But I reckon you may be right about locale: your marina sounds fantastic. Unusual. :(
 
I'm with Grumpy Bear on this one. Down at Swanwick we seem to have very cheerful neighbours, plenty of hands to help move a heavy dinghy or whatever, and few things to bother us.
Except the cost.....
 
Wind generators are stopped very effectively by a handful of heavy (50 lb+) fishing line.
Mine was accidently to my own generator, but accidents will happen.....
 
Surprised theOP doesn't simply turn the thing off except on Fridays..:D that's a joke btw, well almost.

How's about mast manufacturers offering the DB levels of their products for different wind angles and strengths....some are impressive to say the least.. Multiply by 400 and its a symphony of the tone deaf :rolleyes:

I have a completely bonkers theory that at 15-18 knots the wind moaning through a "marina of masts" is just enough to deter enough folk from going out for a wee sail..Yet out at sea all is sweetness and light, as Mr Beaufort would have it:)

There, is that a moan about moaners or a moan about a moaning noise or just part of life's rich tapestry?:)
 
dancrane said:
Doubtless you jest...I hope so, anyway. Imagine the actual pile of tens and twenties you pay to your marina-owner each year...

...which you shell out grudgingly, presumably for the convenience, security, calm waters, shore-power and facilities provided? It makes sound sense to compare the value with the bare-minimum one enjoys from a relatively remote, relatively inexpensive mooring.

Granted, they're both much costlier than is justified by the materials/services they provide...but perhaps the one thing which would make the four-figure marina fee seem like value, is the SAME one thing berth-holders don't get...an assurance of peace in the marina?

Whilst I hope I'll never need to keep a boat in a marina, I would consider the idea more readily if a preposterously draconian rule-book was issued, and its observance absolutely required by all present, without exception...

...you'll keep halyards (and all other unsecured lines/fabrics/materials/wind turbines) from spinning/flapping/tapping noisily...you'll only operate engines, generators and heaters which accord with strict noise limits and do not bother or asphixiate other berth-holders...

...you'll never block pontoons or other constricted spaces...you won't shout unless to warn of danger/emergency...you will not play music that is audible more than ten feet from your berth...and you will ensure your guests likewise obey these requirements...etc.

As long as those who berth in the marina sign a document accepting that their enforced removal will be immediate if they behave with prolonged disregard for the rules, then everybody will take care not to piss off others in the vicinity...

...and they can have an agreeable grumble about how draconian the management is. Much better than hating each other!
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For the first time our pride and joy is alongside in a commercial marina. Previous to this it was on a swinger or mid river pontoon. The reason is simple. One of my kneecaps is held together with two big screws-a car crash- and my other knee is totaly shot from 45 years of motorbike racing. Standing up with a straight right leg at high speed in bumpy corners on a rigid framed Speedway bike tends to have this effect. Throw in a bit of rugby and thirty years of pushing heavy motorbikes in and out of workshops and showrooms while earning a living and thats what you get. Dont think I am complaining-I would do it all over again in an instant. If I died tommorow it would be with the thought that I have had a great time while alive. The pain in my knees after unloading the car, loading the dink, pushing it down the slip, launching the dink, taking the trailer back to the car park and then transfering to the boat in the dink and then loading the boat was spoiling my sailing. Pain has been a constant companion for the last thirteen years and I can deal with it and minimise it by being careful what I do. Since being alongside with a nice walk ashore berth my pain is much less-I am enjoying sailing again. So far it is worth the huge pile of notes it costs to keep her there. First mate got a text yesterday. It said that in the current high winds we could be assured that extra patrols were checking the boats in the marina and any problems would be dealt with or we would be notified if it became nesessary. We felt reassured, and it appears to be part of the normal service in heavy weather. So far- only three months- we have not experienced anything from other marina users that causes us grief. So far, so good. As to my previous post -"Do you want a sandwich with that whine?" If you did not get it, I wont get far explaining.
 
dancrane said:
Oh, go on and tell. I like a laugh.

Assuming it was a laughing matter? :confused:
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My Dad, a skilled engineer from everything varying from pre WWII traction engines, Spitfires to Battersea power station and Harriers, doesn't suffer noise in marinas gladly; he thinks nothing of tying up frapping halliards or bunging a sock up exhausts ! :)
 
Nostrodamus said:
The question comes because some of us actually live aboard their boats during winter. I have never seen anyone on the next door boat yet as soon as the wind gets up his wind generator begins to drone. A quick look out and I can see six of them spinning away and nobody is aboard. Two of them even have had their sails removed. Why do they need to leave their wind farms spinning and droning like a flying bomb?
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Well, I leave mine running.

  1. It makes very little noise; it is actually a lot louder in my aft cabin than it is on deck. It only starts to get noisy when there is enough wind that noise from the rigging drowns it out.
  2. It keeps my batteries topped up when I'm not away; I don't use shore power, and my boat isn't set up to use it. Without the wind generator, I'd probably come back to dead batteries.
  3. The controller ensures that it provides a good battery charging regime.
  4. The manufacturers reckon it is better for it to run than for the blades to be tied down - apparently tying the blades down causes uneven wear on the bearings, and shortens their life.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
[*]The manufacturers reckon it is better for it to run than for the blades to be tied down - apparently tying the blades down causes uneven wear on the bearings, and shortens their life.
[/LIST]
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How can there be wear on the bearings if the blades are tied down and cannot turn?????
 
Resolution said:
How can there be wear on the bearings if the blades are tied down and cannot turn?????
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Apparently, when the blades are tied, the main shaft rocks back and forward with the wind, causing localised wear. It was all gone into in a thread long ago.
The makers, well Marlec anyway, recommend NOT to tie them off, because the spinning helps to keep the rain out. That's my excuse.
 
Don't understand 'frapping lines'.

I thought that the action one takes to stop halliards from 'flapping' is to 'frap' them, tightening and securing them away from the mast. :confused:

Perhaps some older sage could come along and put me right.
 
What a bunch of whingers!

I can't hear my neighbours Eber once below, even with the washboards out. Nor the Maersk Rapier's generators for that matter. Even if I do choose to sit in the cockpit in single figure temperatures, which is unlikely, the two together amount to little more than a hum. Hardly an annoyance.

Laughing children. I suppose you sterile silence fetishists would like them silenced too. :rolleyes:
 
Simondjuk said:
What a bunch of whingers!

I can't hear my neighbours Eber once below, even with the washboards out. Nor the Maersk Rapier's generators for that matter. Even if I do choose to sit in the cockpit in single figure temperatures, which is unlikely, the two together amount to little more than a hum. Hardly an annoyance.

Laughing children. I suppose you sterile silence fetishists would like them silenced too. :rolleyes:
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One is noise made by human beings serves a purpose of expressing pleasure or at least communication.

The other's are left by inconsiderate people created by machines or equipment, that frequently serve no useful purpose unless they have started talking to each other :eek::eek::eek:.

Which sounds like a good reason for them to be silenced to me :D:D:D
 
So you'd be offended by a heater, which serves the rather useful purpose of keeping people warm, when you can't hear it from inside your boat?

If so, then that's just plain odd. You'd be choosing to be offended by, well, nothing at all. Bizarre. :confused:
 
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With some wind generators they are pretty quiet and I have no problem with that. The problem I have is the older ones that generate more noise than electricity. The owners leave them on even though they are hooked up to electricity and never visit their boats over winter. No doubt they will be the same ones who complain when someone in a quiet anchorage puts a portable generator on for 30 minutes... :rolleyes:
 
chinita said:
Don't understand 'frapping lines'.

I thought that the action one takes to stop halliards from 'flapping' is to 'frap' them, tightening and securing them away from the mast. :confused:

Perhaps some older sage could come along and put me right.
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I'm almost certainly older, although no sage. And you are perfectly correct, a line is frapped to stop it slapping the mast. I have given up posting to correct this common error but couldn't resist this time to support you.

Last time I wrote on the subject was in response to someone in the Liveaboard forum who wrote how he loved to hear his halyards banging on his mast in his marina when the wind got up. I had to remind him how unsociable for his neighbours that was.

A lifetime ago when I was allocated a berth in Whitby harbour the club secretary warned me it was conditional on frapping every conceivable line that could move so not to annoy the townspeople living around the harbour - and that was a time when most masts were wooden and we did not have the loud clanging that metal ones can produce.

I now have to keep a selection of unwanted pieces of line to flit about my Italian marina frapping off my neighbours' halyards in the night.
 
I've skimmed through the pages, but pretty much all of the comments above annoy the cräp out of me...
God I must be an 'umpy git... or maybe, so it seems just normal:)

And I'd like to add, THAT'S why I anchor all the time when out on the boat..!!!
 
I must admit sometimes in the small hours I am woken by a noise from a halyard, or a wind-genny or a squeeking fender or such... Then my mind focusses on the sound to the exclusion of all else and it keeps me awake...

The more you try and ignore it... the more you hear it and it drives you mad:mad::mad:
 
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