Does your boat shrink?

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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I am sure we all agree that Marinas here and abroad are too expensive, especially when staying over for just one or two nights. When you trudge up to the harbour masters office and are asked what the length is does your boat ever shrink, do you give them the waterline or overall length and has anyone been caught out?
 
shrinking boats

Our boat shrank many times in France but it became more difficult in Portugal/Spain as most marina's will ask for the ships papers where they take the boats length etc
In Spain the mooring charges are for either a 12m or 15m mooring so although we are 12.9m we pay for a 15 metre berth
 
A gaffer I used to sail on used to give the ex-bowsprit length. When they invariably objected, skipper went into a litany about discrimination against older boats, and offered to take it in, but it sometimes scuffs the deck when they do, etc etc. They'd normally relent at that point to get hm out of their office.
 
sighmoon said:
A gaffer I used to sail on used to give the ex-bowsprit length. When they invariably objected, skipper went into a litany about discrimination against older boats, and offered to take it in, but it sometimes scuffs the deck when they do, etc etc. They'd normally relent at that point to get hm out of their office.
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I always give the ex bow sprit length. After all that is what is marked on the Part I registration next to LOA (which every harbour master understands).

Only once ever, have I paid for having the bow sprit out. That was at Alucidamar in Mallorca - which I had to sail into as the engine start motor had caught fire as they did not want to send out a marinero to help.

I think they were not happy having a working boat parked next to those really shiny superyachts - we certainly seemed very out of place. One of the mobos who came in, filled up with 9800 euros of Diesel.
 
Little Five said:
After a few in the pub, mine apparently expands
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I was in the pub and upon returning to the boat and feeling practically randy I reached across for the Viagra but picked up the Tipex by mistake.
I woke up with a huge correction!

Also why when the boat alongside of me (which is the size of my tender) both take up one berth each do I have to pay multiple times more? He could take up his berth for a week for what it cost me for one night.
I don’t get charged more in the cinema or on the bus because I am bigger than my wife. I don’t get charged more on aeroplanes. I don’t get charged less in car parks because I have a small car.
Is slipping your boat into a berth the only place where size matters?
 
Nostrodamus said:
I was in the pub and upon returning to the boat and feeling practically randy I reached across for the Viagra but picked up the Tipex by mistake.
I woke up with a huge correction!

Also why when the boat alongside of me (which is the size of my tender) both take up one berth each do I have to pay multiple times more? He could take up his berth for a week for what it cost me for one night.
I don’t get charged more in the cinema or on the bus because I am bigger than my wife. I don’t get charged more on aeroplanes. I don’t get charged less in car parks because I have a small car.
Is slipping your boat into a berth the only place where size matters?
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Certainly is, I rather cynically group marina operators in the same category as bankers!!

Our previous boat was 10.5m but I had to pay for an 11m berth, our boat now is 12m but they dont charge me for the 11m berth, I have to pay for the 12m length of the boat.

So if you can get away with shortening the length of your boat do it every time!!
 
Yes, my boat regularly shrank, especially in Holland. Only got caught out a couple of times, once as we left Middleburg the HM said we had grown alot overnight, the other time we got stuck entering a box - the HM was OK about it but said we would fit if we were the size we said we were....

Spotted our marina guys taking a tape measure to some boats last year whilst they were on the hard !!!
 
Mate of mine complains constantly about this, his ssr states 12.45m, so he gets charged for the fact he is over 12m.

I wonder if it is worth getting a new ssr that states 12m ? is this possible ?
 
You would think that boat designers would take this sort of thing into consideration when starting their designs. After all the motor industry was able to reduce engine sizes to make motoring cheaper when legislation came in punishing engines with capacity over 2 litres, suddenly there were loads of engines of 1996cc capacity. So why can't boat designers make their creations fit into the standard size slots operated by marinas rather than making them slightly oversize.

My boat is 11.04 metres LOA and as a visitor I begrudge having to pay for another whole metre in a 12 metre slot for the sake of 4 cm.
 
Nostrodamus said:
I was in the pub and upon returning to the boat and feeling practically randy I reached across for the Viagra but picked up the Tipex by mistake.
I woke up with a huge correction!

Also why when the boat alongside of me (which is the size of my tender) both take up one berth each do I have to pay multiple times more? He could take up his berth for a week for what it cost me for one night.
I don’t get charged more in the cinema or on the bus because I am bigger than my wife. I don’t get charged more on aeroplanes. I don’t get charged less in car parks because I have a small car.
Is slipping your boat into a berth the only place where size matters?
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So you're quite happy to pay exactly the same amount as a boat 2 or 3 times the size of yours then?
Unless I am sorely mistaken, you cannot take a lot of large vehicles, like lorries into an NCP car park? Certainly not for the same amount of money. That's why lorry parks exist.
 
Rather than risk getting caught out we give the correct length of 10.2 something and smile sweetly. We gain more from the number of HMs who undercharge us than we lose. Many are very happy to encourage visitors by being generous.
 
strakeryrius said:
My boat is 11.04 metres LOA and as a visitor I begrudge having to pay for another whole metre in a 12 metre slot for the sake of 4 cm.
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The Hunter 19/Europa was superseded by the Hunter 701, which never did as well - 82 built against 782 for its predecessor. This is probably in part because it was 1cm into the territory that needs coloured navigation lights and encounters various other regulatory hurdles. I don't think it's any coincidence that the Anderson 22 - also by Oliver Lee, and very similar in appearance to the Hunter 701 - is just a smidge under seven metres long.
 
Everyboat I have ever owned has shrunk, to the effect that I've needed to replace each of them with a larger model after 3 to 5 years.
I started with a 20 foot dayboat, it shrunk and had to be replaced with a 34 foot boat, the 34 footer shrunk little by little over the next five years and so needed to be replaced with a 40 footer, well really its a 38 foot boat with overhangs, so it has already shrunk.
Extrapolating this trend in ten years the current boat will have shrunk and need to be replaced with a 52 foot boat. To accomplish this my house will have to disappear entirely.
I'm hoping that when the kids have all left home the effect will be reversed and the boats will start expanding. I'm not sure kids leave home anymore though.
There is empirical proof of this, it can be seen if you go below on older yachts a twenty year old 30 footer is certainly smaller than a brand new one. Wooden yachts clearly shrink even more than plastic ones.
These are sailboats I'm talking about, I suspect motorboats shrink as well but I suspect they may shrink more slowly but this may be in inverse proportion to the owners' bank accounts.
 
Ubergeekian said:
The Hunter 19/Europa was superseded by the Hunter 701, which never did as well - 82 built against 782 for its predecessor. This is probably in part because it was 1cm into the territory that needs coloured navigation lights and encounters various other regulatory hurdles. I don't think it's any coincidence that the Anderson 22 - also by Oliver Lee, and very similar in appearance to the Hunter 701 - is just a smidge under seven metres long.
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A key point - under 7 metres you can use an all-round white while motoring so e.g. a Sonata carried only a combined masthead nav light - tri colour for sailing, all-round white for motoring. Under 12 metres you can use an all-round white to act as both steaming and stern lights when motoring. Also nav lights only need to be 10w whereas over 12m you need separate lights of 25w. Quite a few other regulations kick in at 12m so a 40 footer is bad news.
 
snowleopard said:
A key point - under 7 metres you can use an all-round white while motoring so e.g. a Sonata carried only a combined masthead nav light - tri colour for sailing, all-round white for motoring.
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There is also the very useful Rule 25 (d) 1:

A sailing vessel of less than 7 metres (23.0 ft) in length shall, if practicable, exhibit the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) or (b) of this Rule, but if she does not, she shall have ready at hand an electric torch or lighted lantern showing a white light which shall be exhibited in sufficient time to prevent collision.​

which I once had to explain - tactfully - to a Modplod launch as I crossed from the Cloch to the Gareloch in the Jouster (no reasonable offer refused). It was my first season in her and I wasn't expecting to be out late, but the BFO torch shone on the sail was pretty visible. I fitted a combined tricolour/anchor light the following year with the all-round white bulb upgraded to make it a sub-7m motoring light.
 
Nostrodamus said:
I am sure we all agree that Marinas here and abroad are too expensive, especially when staying over for just one or two nights. When you trudge up to the harbour masters office and are asked what the length is does your boat ever shrink, do you give them the waterline or overall length and has anyone been caught out?
Click to expand...

Of course it shrinks. Mind you we sailed down the French coast in company with a pal on a 10m boat called Puffin. By the time we reached La Rochelle it was "rubber puffin" and a claimed 6m! Mind you it depended on getting to the capitainerie before the yoof in the marina rubber dinghy.

Mind you got caught once in my first boat. I told the HM stood on the pontoon it was 23ft. He asked me then why it had graphics saying Hunter 26 on the side. So now I quote metres instead of feet.
 
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