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sailorman

sailorman

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NEW FERRY SERVICE AT WEST MERSEA
A new water taxi service is to run in West Mersea at weekends.
Operated by Stacey Belbin, the ferry will run from the West Mersea pontoon and the hours of operation will be 9am to 6pm Saturdays and Sundays with evenings by prior arrangement.
The fee, during normal hours of operation, will be £2 per person per trip.
Call ‘Lady Grace’ on VHF Ch 72 or ring Stacey on 07791 859624 for evening bookings

so for a couple thats £8 on top of the new mooring charge :rolleyes:
 
From the Tollesbury Marina site:

Daily summer rates for 24 hours including VAT are:
£17 to 8 metres LOA
£19 to 10 metres LOA
£20 to 11.9 metres LOA
£21 for 12m and over

Which includes free wifi and use of swimming pool.
 
Black Kipper said:
From the Tollesbury Marina site:

Daily summer rates for 24 hours including VAT are:
£17 to 8 metres LOA
£19 to 10 metres LOA
£20 to 11.9 metres LOA
£21 for 12m and over

Which includes free wifi and use of swimming pool.
Click to expand...
.....and if you happen to reside in another marina belonging to the transmanche scheme you can halve those prices...
makes you appreciate even more that being charged £10 or more for a buoy is taking the miss
 
nigelm said:
so for my family of 5 its £10 cheaper to stay at tollesbury with a free pool .

A no brainer then .....
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Best of luck to Stacey, but I reckon that a blanket charge of £2 per person per trip is going to put off a lot of people who only have a short distance to their boat, BUT those who are allocated a mooring up towards the Strood or out in the seaward side of the quarters will see it as something of a bargain basement!

If she hasn't got her sums right it could be a VERY short lived venture!
 
It's the same charge as the Yacht Club launches. She does not aim to compete with the YC launches (she was one of the launch'men' last year) but will be available and will also be doing trips during the day from the hammerhead which is enormously busy during the school holidays. It remains to be seen how the evening service works but if it does it will be an asset. Most of the forumites would be surprised by the volume of visitors who are apparently content with this year's arrangements.
 
At the risk of reigniting the debate that we had earlier this year on the legitimacy or otherwise of the mooring charges being imposed at West Mersea, can I point out that this new water taxi service is a commercial operation and is not connected with either the West Mersea Yacht Club or the Dabchicks Sailing Club.

The mooring charges at West Mersea remain but despite them we still seem to have welcomed many, many visitors to West Mersea this year. Perhaps they all realise that (a) there are very few places where one can go and pick up an overnight mooring for nothing (b) West Mersea has all tide access, which even the most fervent advocate of the delights of Tollesbury Marina would have to concede is an advantage that West Mersea has over Tollesbury and (c) there are many other reasons to come to Mersea.

The WMYC launch will take visitors ashore for a charge, but can I remind visitors that if you spend money at the WMYC bar or in the WMYC's excellent restaurant (open every day for lunch and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for dinner) you get the launch fee back. Of course if you use your own dinghy you pay only the mooring charge. The Dabchicks Sailing Club welcomes visitors and the bar is open every evening in the Summer and weekend lunchtimes, there are also showers that visting yachtsmen are welcome to use free of charge.

I've just come back from a week's cruise on the East Coast and had to pay for a mooring or marina berth everywhere I used one - but anchoring overnight was of course free. As I said in earlier posts, I have yet to find this Elysium where overnight moorings are free, no-one charges for a launch service to take you ashore, and so on.

However here's an offer - if anyone can genuinely prove that their home port provides all tide access overnight moorings, suitable for reasonably deep draft fin keelers to stay afloat 24/7, with decent access to a town/village with pubs, shops and a Yacht Club or two, and where it's all provided to visitors free of charge, then I'll ask the 'Mooring Holders Committee' to grant free moorings to them, as a 'reciprocal arrangement'. No guarantee of success but I will do my best.

Happy sailing (maybe don't come to Mersea this week as it's Cadet Week and it's heaving.......!)
 
TimfromMersea said:
However here's an offer - if anyone can genuinely prove that their home port provides all tide access overnight moorings, suitable for reasonably deep draft fin keelers to stay afloat 24/7, with decent access to a town/village with pubs, shops and a Yacht Club or two, and where it's all provided to visitors free of charge, then I'll ask the 'Mooring Holders Committee' to grant free moorings to them, as a 'reciprocal arrangement'. No guarantee of success but I will do my best.
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For a start that will be all the members from the Medway Yacht Club then :rolleyes:

I also understand that one of your neighbouring clubs which offers full state of tide moorings free of charge to visitors has written to the commodore of WMYC express thier concerns and were still awaiting an answer.
 
We have had a reply and to paraphrase it, 'go forth and multiply'! Although I'm sure it was said very politely. But in keeping with East Coast traditions I am happy for anyone to use my mooring for free when my boat isn't on it, unless you are from WM when it's £20!
 
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As I said earlier, if Medway YC would like to contact us and confirm that they don't charge for overnight visitors on their moorings, then I will personally try to convince the relevant people to grant a reciprocal deal to Medway YC members. No guarantees, but I will try.

As for my friend from Woodbridge - I did say in my earlier post 'moorings where a reasonably deep draft fin keeler can lie afloat 24/7'. I was at Woodbridge last week, as it happens, and at low water neaps it did seem awfully shallow to me, which is why I went into the Tide Mill. That was a charming place run by lovely people, but well it might be, at £23 a night for a 28 footer, plus electricity at £3 a night. Made Ipswich Haven at £18.72 a night including electricity look positively good value.
 
TimfromMersea said:
As I said earlier, if Medway YC would like to contact us and confirm that they don't charge for overnight visitors on their moorings, then I will personally try to convince the relevant people to grant a reciprocal deal to Medway YC members. No guarantees, but I will try.
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No need - http://www.medwayyachtclub.com/visitors.html

You might want to add Marconi Sailing Club to the list as well - http://www.marconi-sc.org.uk/A4D70/About_MSC/How_to_find_us/How_to_find_us_from_the_water.aspx

No doubt there will be others.
 
TimfromMersea said:
As I said earlier, if Medway YC would like to contact us and confirm that they don't charge for overnight visitors on their moorings, then I will personally try to convince the relevant people to grant a reciprocal deal to Medway YC members. No guarantees, but I will try.

As for my friend from Woodbridge - I did say in my earlier post 'moorings where a reasonably deep draft fin keeler can lie afloat 24/7'. I was at Woodbridge last week, as it happens, and at low water neaps it did seem awfully shallow to me, which is why I went into the Tide Mill. That was a charming place run by lovely people, but well it might be, at £23 a night for a 28 footer, plus electricity at £3 a night. Made Ipswich Haven at £18.72 a night including electricity look positively good value.
Click to expand...

'Your friend from Woodbridge' actually keeps his boat at Marconi SC, where there are lashings of deep water, FREE moorings for visitors and a warm welcome.
 
Dazedkipper said:
We have had a reply and to paraphrase it, 'go forth and multiply'! Although I'm sure it was said very politely. But in keeping with East Coast traditions I am happy for anyone to use my mooring for free when my boat isn't on it, unless you are from WM when it's £20!
Click to expand...

Will be there Saturday night. Look forward to it. BBQ on the sea wall methinks.
 
Cobra said:
Best of luck to Stacey, but I reckon that a blanket charge of £2 per person per trip is going to put off a lot of people who only have a short distance to their boat, BUT those who are allocated a mooring up towards the Strood or out in the seaward side of the quarters will see it as something of a bargain basement!

If she hasn't got her sums right it could be a VERY short lived venture!
Click to expand...

It's the same charge at Felixstowe Ferry. Probably good value as we are furthest away from the jetty but I rarely use it as it becomes expensive if you have a full crew, but OK if you have a lot of kit.
 
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