Dry Stacking...........

adrianb

adrianb

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 Mar 2005
Messages
900
Location
Hants
Visit site
Experiences? Good/bad etc

Pricing?

Seems a good idea for up to 9m or so.

Hamble Point/Drivers/Saxon preferred area.

Cheers all..................
 
MDL into this big time, with a very slick operation at Hamble Point and Saxon Wharf. Premier Gosport have been threatening to do it for ages but not actually come up with anything yet.

Southampton Dry Stack are cheaper than the big players but offer less in the way of facilities. Drivers (next to SDS) are even cheaper if you dont mind being in a real boatyard.

The other option is Hamble Boat Services out of Universal who also have new stacks and very good equiptment.

I looked into this when I was looking around for somewhere to put the W24. The thing was, it isnt any cheaper than a marina berth. The benefits are not having to lift at additional cost each winter, not having to change annodes as often and most Stacks request that you dont antifoul.

For me, the down sides where it wasnt possible to just go and sit on your boat, as on the stacks they are inaccessible, and once launched they want you to take the boat away as there is limited pontoon space for the DS boats. Also, if you boat is on the top level, you still have to have it moved down for any work to be done on it. SDS and MDL provide areas for doing this, though there is no getting away from being charged the 'Engineer Tax' that the big boys employ because, well, you have to ask them to put your boat in a maintenance bay.

All in all, I felt it wasnt for me because I couldnt just pop down to the boat and lounge for the day or tinker with bits and bobs. Its a good idea, but to my mind it should be about 20% cheaper than a marina berth in the same area and it isnt...
 
I use Yacht Haven Quay in Plymouth for a Falcon 27

Down here its cheaper than a marina (£325 per metre all year vs £385/m), no antifouling, unlimited lift in and out, no cost lifts onto covered "tinker rack" for servicing etc, a slight smug feeling in the recent weather of your pride and joy being safe in a shed, max 2 hour notice to put in, no need to put the covers on at the end of a trip as its going straight into the shed, should have longer life from covers and canopies.
Even if I go boating 60 days a year, the other 304 days my boat is in a locked shed rather than bobbing on Plymouth sound or propped up on logs in the boat yard.

Down sides are you cant go and sit on the boat in a marina, you need to give some notice that you want to go boating

Works for me
 
Well mine is not quite on a dry stack, its kept on a custom made launch trailer in the boatyard and launched by a huge yellow tractor. I can go and sit on the boat in the boatyard and do work to it, but it isn't the same as being in the marina. Huge advantage here is that it is around a 6th of the cost of a marina berth plus the boat doesn't sit in the water all season so I save the cost of anti-fouling and anodes and the outdrive isn't sitting underwater all the time. There is no lift-in/out charges at either end of the season either.

Another advantage is there is no messing about with locking in/out, no tying the boat up to the pontoon and I can flush the engine with freshwater after every use. So here at least it is a really good option.
 
I'd vote for Saxon as they have pontoons that you can use if you want to stay out over the weekend. No problems with getting the boat either into the water or onto a working platform for fettling.

Less wear and tear than on a pontoon, no worries when the weather turns nasty.
 
OK,

Was at Hamble Point. They know how to run a proper dry stack. Only need 30 mins warning and boat would be waiting in the water. Also had about three tinker racks for those days of tinkering and again needed about 30 mins notice (though liked a few days to make sure one was available. With MDL they used to find me a berth if I wanted it in the water but bobbing around and they had the 15 days overnight berths as well. Not cheap but worked well for us.

Positives were full marina facility use, slightly cheaper than berth, no antifouling, reduced anodes, less maintenance, better security (on top rack) and great service.

Downside was that you do not meet your neighbours (as you have none) and, well that was it!

Also use a drystack in Spain (La Duquesa) which is great, but they do not understand how to run one! However a lot cheaper than berth, no antifouling and boat in better condition.

Yes, I love them and I can only think of positives! However I would use a full service facility like Hamble Point!

Paul
 
laup said:
I use Yacht Haven Quay in Plymouth for a Falcon 27
Down here its cheaper than a marina (£325 per metre all year vs £385/m)..
Click to expand...

I looked at moving from Sutton Harbour to Yacht Haven Quay but the dry stack worked out £600/year more for a similar size boat (yours would cost £2100 at Sutton). I also decided that the advantages you state were outweighed by not being able to sit on the boat in the marina, last minute whizzes around the Sound and after speaking to people already on dry stack the 1 hour launch promise goes out the window on sunny Sunday mornings etc (ie when you actually want to use it).

If I lived further away from the boat it might be different but all things considered 2010 will be spent in Sutton Harbour.
 
Thanks all.

The dry stack would be for a RIB, should have made that clearer, apologies.

Still doing the homework, but pricing seems to be about £800 "less expensive" than a full on Hamble/Itchen berth.

Dry stacking would work for this setup, just need to decide on location.
 
Probably too far for you, but I work for the brokerage within Parkstone Bay Marina, Poole.

They offer dry berthing (not stacking).
Boats are kept at low level on yard trailers.
When you want a launch, the marina team hitch up the trailer with a fork lift and tow it to the launch area where a very large forklift (Wiggins Marina Bull) lifts the boat into the water.

In my mind this system far outweighs traditional stacking.

1) No need for advanced notice.
Turn up, load your gear, inform the marina you want a launch and pretty much by the time you have walked to the waiting pontoon your boat is just bieng lifted in.
2) You can still get on and off the boat without any issues.

Your boat will stay clean and tidy and the service is a little cheaper than a pontoon, but with zero hassles with weed and electrolysis etc.

I moved my own boat here from Weymouth Marina and what a difference to how she looks.
She always looks clean and is always ready to simply jump on and go.

Tom
 
For what it's worth, we use the facilities at Saxon Wharf for our bigger boats and the whole team there are first class. NOthing is too much trouble for them.
Some of my customers now use them as a result of our suggesting they do so and all are very happy.

I also intended to keep my sports boat on the dry stack at Saxon Wharf but it got sold before we moved there.

My choice would be Saxon Wharf simply for the excellent staff and good facilities there..........it is next door to the scrap yard and at times there can be some issues with cr*p in the air settling on boats but in my opinion it is the best place on the whole of Soton Water in terms of service.

Mike.
 
Thanks all.

To clear this one down, as it's come back to life recently - I will be going to Saxon Wharf when the Rib deal is done. I visited all the main dry stacks - some were really rather rubbish too. After Saxon, Southampton Dry Stack would be my choice.

Meanwhile I have a Ribeye 650 Sport via a Ribshack owner, which has a berth included.
 
Nautibusiness said:
Probably too far for you, but I work for the brokerage within Parkstone Bay Marina, Poole.

They offer dry berthing (not stacking).
Boats are kept at low level on yard trailers.
When you want a launch, the marina team hitch up the trailer with a fork lift and tow it to the launch area where a very large forklift (Wiggins Marina Bull) lifts the boat into the water.

In my mind this system far outweighs traditional stacking.

1) No need for advanced notice.
Turn up, load your gear, inform the marina you want a launch and pretty much by the time you have walked to the waiting pontoon your boat is just bieng lifted in.
2) You can still get on and off the boat without any issues.

Your boat will stay clean and tidy and the service is a little cheaper than a pontoon, but with zero hassles with weed and electrolysis etc.

I moved my own boat here from Weymouth Marina and what a difference to how she looks.
She always looks clean and is always ready to simply jump on and go.

Tom
Click to expand...

What is the boat size range that this facility caters for Tom?
 
The dry berthing boats are typically up to 8m, but we have a couple of 9m boats and are about to put a Sunseeker XPS 34 on dry berthing.

The Wiggins will easily lift up to about 12 tonnes (we have two, a big and small one) and regularly lift the likes of Targa 34's, Prestige 32's etc for survey inspections. But, bigger boats do become more of a handfull when it comes to launch and recovery and where a typical sports cruiser will take 2 or 3 minutes to launch or recover a larger craft can take a shortwhile longer.

In the marina we can take boats up to +/- 50' although the biggest currently is only 43', but we can lift upto 40 tonnes for maintenance with our sublifts.

Tom
 
Sampled/researched/visited MANY dry stack venues for our old boat, 22' cuddy.

Moved from Mercury, Hamble where she was on a trailer to MDL's flagship marina (Hamble Point) to give the dry stack a go. Very disappointed with the service we received here. Marina paid for more meals and drinks in the bar than i can remember due to various issues with why they couldn't lauch the boat. Cost me extra with service engineers and valet companies arriving to carry work out on her only to find she hadn't been moved to a work rack as we advised. After a non busy weekend we returned to the marina to have her lifted out, low and behold...no room to leave the boat in the small area designated for the dry stack. Lots of boats moored alongside and not a great deal of care taken when moving them around to recover them either.

Universal Marina - Someone moves the boat from where they launch to the small waiting pontoon for the drystack. Not the easiest to move the boat between the two pontoons either by a side tow or at the helm of your boat.

Southampton Drystack - Very nice people and punctual with boat lifting both ways. Downside being the compound is secured at night so no access or staying on the boat in the compound out of hours.

Hamble Yacht Services - Similar prices as others on the Hamble (NOT Hamble Point) and for what i can make from users it's not a bad choice.

Best would probably be Saxon as mentioned above...pretty profess outfit and have the overflow room too. More research required before handing over my heard earned money though.

MDL Mercury was fantastic and was there for 4 years. MDL HP experience pushed us too Premier Marinas! It was that good :rolleyes:

As i said, just my two cents worth from my experiences. I'm sure others received better/different in their times.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

O
One for the plumbers
Replies
9
Views
371
Overandunder
O

Share this page

Top