Cardo
Well-Known Member
We've been to Portsmouth quite a few times but in the past have always berthed on the Gosport side of town. This time as we had some guests on board we decided to berth at Gunwharf Quays marina itself for the added convenience of not having to take the ferry to get to the shops/restaurants.
However, our experience wasn't exactly awe inspiring.
Pros:
- Right next to the shops/restaurants. You can't really get any closer!
- They've got this "Q" Pontoon thingy with seating, a gas barbecue and an ice maker for berth holders to use at their leisure. Looks promising for pontoon parties. However, they were taking this away for the winter whilst we were there. It'll be back in March.
Cons:
- Even though I'd called up and booked a berth around 3 weeks prior, they had no record of my booking. However, they did state they could accommodate us and put us on an outside berth. More on this later!
- The facilities, whilst new and clean, are opposite the entrance to the Spinnaker Tower. This means one has to exit the marina and walk through all the people on the waterfront to use the loo or have a shower. No popping to the loo in your dressing gown!
- The berths are pretty exposed to wash from ferries/other big boats. The inside berths don't look too bad, but as mentioned we were plonked on the outside of the outer pontoon. During the day this wasn't too bad as we were "in line" with the wash so we only suffered a gentle fore/aft rocking every now and then. However, during the night things were much, much worse. We were woken up numerous times by quite violent rocking of the boat, hearing some nasty sounding scraping at times. I even got up on one occasion to check the boat and make sure it was ok after I thought the fenders might have popped out. Fortunately, it turned out to be the fenders rubbing against the pontoon that were making the noise. Don't know why the wash was so much worse at night, but I do wonder whether we would have been in one of the more protected inner berths had the marina not lost our booking.
This was the first time some of my guests had been out on a yacht. Unfortunately, I don't think they left with a particularly positive image after a pretty bad night!
Sadly, I don't think we'll be returning. We paid a premium to be close to the shops, but we would've been better off at Haslar. Would've ended up paying about the same after the costs of the ferry but we would have had a much better night.
However, our experience wasn't exactly awe inspiring.
Pros:
- Right next to the shops/restaurants. You can't really get any closer!
- They've got this "Q" Pontoon thingy with seating, a gas barbecue and an ice maker for berth holders to use at their leisure. Looks promising for pontoon parties. However, they were taking this away for the winter whilst we were there. It'll be back in March.
Cons:
- Even though I'd called up and booked a berth around 3 weeks prior, they had no record of my booking. However, they did state they could accommodate us and put us on an outside berth. More on this later!
- The facilities, whilst new and clean, are opposite the entrance to the Spinnaker Tower. This means one has to exit the marina and walk through all the people on the waterfront to use the loo or have a shower. No popping to the loo in your dressing gown!
- The berths are pretty exposed to wash from ferries/other big boats. The inside berths don't look too bad, but as mentioned we were plonked on the outside of the outer pontoon. During the day this wasn't too bad as we were "in line" with the wash so we only suffered a gentle fore/aft rocking every now and then. However, during the night things were much, much worse. We were woken up numerous times by quite violent rocking of the boat, hearing some nasty sounding scraping at times. I even got up on one occasion to check the boat and make sure it was ok after I thought the fenders might have popped out. Fortunately, it turned out to be the fenders rubbing against the pontoon that were making the noise. Don't know why the wash was so much worse at night, but I do wonder whether we would have been in one of the more protected inner berths had the marina not lost our booking.
This was the first time some of my guests had been out on a yacht. Unfortunately, I don't think they left with a particularly positive image after a pretty bad night!
Sadly, I don't think we'll be returning. We paid a premium to be close to the shops, but we would've been better off at Haslar. Would've ended up paying about the same after the costs of the ferry but we would have had a much better night.
It can be very noisy @ night with Tiger Tiger just 100 metres away which is also open until after three in the morning. 
but would never berth on the outside pontoon as your boat would get wrecked with the ferries moving in close vicinity.
