Have you been into Yarmouth Harbour in the last two weeks?

Seven Spades said:
I am so sorry to hear of the incidents involving your boat, it always looks lovely in the harbour. I hope that you can get it "invisibly repaired", I guess you will now have to get a fender mat and some large fenders or find a finger berth somewhere.

Bad Luck.
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Thanks. I am on a finger berth!

Last year on a pile mooring. Had over £2k of damage from visitors rafting next to me, damaging the boat and not owning up. This year I thought it would be better as I am on a residents finger, with another resident alongside. I know him and he is a very good boat handler and uses his boat locally only, so he is always alongside.

Anyway, he went away for a few days and a visitor has used his finger berth. hopefully the CCTV will identify them.
 
Shame your boat has suffered damage.
But to echo seajet. I'm surprised you don't have fenders out already.
Whenever we leave the boat in a Marina all the fenders are deployed including a few on the offside in case someone makes a horlics whilst coming in.
 
fireball said:
Shame your boat has suffered damage.
But to echo seajet. I'm surprised you don't have fenders out already.
Whenever we leave the boat in a Marina all the fenders are deployed including a few on the offside in case someone makes a horlics whilst coming in.
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Thanks, but perhaps you misunderstood me. Of course I have loads of fenders out between me and the pontoon.

However, I don't have any on the offside as the berth is very wide and I have a smallish resident motorboat in the space next to me. He doesn't go out very often and I have no concerns about him.

The berth is so wide that putting fenders out on the offside is going to help very little. Clearly the guy leaving that berth lost control of his bow and it swiped down the side of my boat. A fender on my boat would not protect against that. The only saving fender for those situations is a crew member on the bow of the departing boat with a roving fender that can be deployed as required.

In fact, a fender on the static boat can be a hazard. I have seen departing boats get snagged and ripping fenders and guardrails off the static boat.

I am going to investigate some "stinger" mat, like the ones they lay across roads to puncture the tires of cars in those action films. Either that or the old tender alongside trick. The berth is certainly wide enough.
 
SB

Sorry to hear your woes.

1. Surely, especially as a resident, you can prevail upon the HM to check his records as to which visitors were allocated the adjacent berth over the last two weeks. That would at least give you a shortlist of boats to track down and attempt to contact. Any luck yet with the CCTV (assuming it has the storage capacity to go back that far)?

2. Can you futher prevail upon the HM to get his staff to routinely check the walk-ashore pontoons, keeping a special eye out on resident boats?

3. Do you have a resident's association, which might give you more weight in your dealings with the HM?
 
SolentBoy said:
Thanks, but perhaps you misunderstood me. Of course I have loads of fenders out between me and the pontoon.

However, I don't have any on the offside as the berth is very wide and I have a smallish resident motorboat in the space next to me. He doesn't go out very often and I have no concerns about him.

The berth is so wide that putting fenders out on the offside is going to help very little. Clearly the guy leaving that berth lost control of his bow and it swiped down the side of my boat. A fender on my boat would not protect against that. The only saving fender for those situations is a crew member on the bow of the departing boat with a roving fender that can be deployed as required.

In fact, a fender on the static boat can be a hazard. I have seen departing boats get snagged and ripping fenders and guardrails off the static boat.

I am going to investigate some "stinger" mat, like the ones they lay across roads to puncture the tires of cars in those action films. Either that or the old tender alongside trick. The berth is certainly wide enough.
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boy are you angry ... understandable .... but

calm down!

Oh and don't go swiping past my boat this week .... you won't want the tongue lashing from the inhabitants .... ;)
 
I was in Yarmouth last week (not rafted up and not in a finger berth either). Upon leaving, the combination of wind, tide (& current) and the fact that other visitors were rafted up to three deep conspired to prevent me turning in the river and I progressed sideways past the fuel barge using my engine to keep me away from other boats (long keelers do not go well in reverse at the best of times). At least the harbour was big enough for me to complete the turn there.

The berthing master asked me to moor "stbd side to" which on reflection was a bad move but in a busy harbour, it's best to do as you're told first and ask questions after. I'll know next time to swing it round so I face the river if I'm ever put on that berth again. I'll certainly know better when the boats are tightly packed in like that in future and keep my own council, but I still think the new layout's OK if there's only one boat deep on the pontoons.

BTW the WiFI's rubbish.
 
Topcat47 said:
...Upon leaving, the combination of wind, tide (& current) and the fact that other visitors were rafted up to three deep conspired to prevent me turning in the river and I progressed sideways past the fuel barge using my engine to keep me away from other boats (long keelers do not go well in reverse at the best of times). At least the harbour was big enough for me to complete the turn there.

The berthing master asked me to moor "stbd side to" which on reflection was a bad move but in a busy harbour, it's best to do as you're told first and ask questions after. I'll know next time to swing it round so I face the river if I'm ever put on that berth again.. and keep my own council...
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Also a long-keeler, and it's similarly been on leaving tidal pontoons that we've experienced such problems. Whereas one comes in stemming the forces of nature to all round applause, its when one's ready to depart that everything has flipped into the headache scenario.

I therefore try to anticipate all contingencies before agreeing to a berth, and have been known to decline the first offer made. Failing that, one can always take the opportunity at a convenient slack-water prior to departure to turn the boat around.
 
Babylon said:
SB

Sorry to hear your woes.

1. Surely, especially as a resident, you can prevail upon the HM to check his records as to which visitors were allocated the adjacent berth over the last two weeks. That would at least give you a shortlist of boats to track down and attempt to contact. Any luck yet with the CCTV (assuming it has the storage capacity to go back that far)?

2. Can you futher prevail upon the HM to get his staff to routinely check the walk-ashore pontoons, keeping a special eye out on resident boats?

3. Do you have a resident's association, which might give you more weight in your dealings with the HM?
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Good questions.

1. Surprisingly, the harbour does not keep records of who went where. Understandable on the new rafted visitors section, but unforgivable IMHO for the fingers. So easy to do, many other marinas do.

2. No chance. There are not enough of them and too many boats. Having said that, noone is supposed to go into the residents section unless directed to by the staff, so it shouldn't be that hard to get them to keep records.

3. The harbour commission is a self-appointed body. It takes input from an advisory committee, but for some strange reason resident berth holders do not have a seat on this committee.

It's a difficult problem. Lots of boats, small spaces etc. For visitors damage is clearly an issue, as well, as seen from the replies above. However, as a visitor you may well be on your boat, or know who is next to you. As a resident we have to rely on the harbour staff and records.
 
lustyd said:
innesker said:
Why would that impress you. I get the impression that grabbing the cash is all Yarmouth are interested in. Contrast this with Berthon who wouldn't even take my money when I went into the office to try and pay! I guess some marinas assume you'll pay because they are worth it, and some assume you'll do a runner because you found no value there...
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Was it the very tall chap? :rolleyes:
ROTFLMHO
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Solentboy

We went into Yarmouth last Friday night and the place was gridlocked. We were on the piles and were rafted 6 deep. It seems like their marketing plan is working and attracting more visitors. We did witness several mooring mishaps especially the boat that rafted up to us with no fenders out!

The harbourmasters seemed to have more comprehensive, new technology for taking fees and knowing who had and who hadn't paid. I am surprised that it doesn't record who is where on which nights. They seemed to have all our details on their system from previous visits including contact details.

I entirely understand your annoyance about the damage.

We were damaged three times on our last berth in Port Hamble (visitors x2, charter boat x1). Whilst the harbour office did call us with contact details for one which were passed to them, they didn't want to get involved in the argy-bargy of sorting responsibility for the damage, and they were unwilling to move us onto a pontoon that was long enough for our boat to prevent further damage. We decided that it was best to move marinas in the end.

Another friend of ours said that they witnessed many mishaps on the finger pontoons in Yarmouth a month or two ago when visitors first started using the new walk ashore pontoons and fingers. It would seem like visitors find the current much more difficult to deal with than the residents.

Anyway, I hope you find the culprit and get them to pay. I only caught one of mine and he tried to leave before 7 am to avoid me!

Cheers

Garold
 
I take it all back!

Well, well, well.

Despite me asking in the harbour office, it seems that the incident was reported by one of the berthing masters and the owner of the offending boat.

I have now received the incident report and have spoken to the "culprit".

Nice as pie, and happy to pay for the repair.

Renews your faith, doesnt it! :)
 
SolentBoy said:
Well, well, well.

Despite me asking in the harbour office, it seems that the incident was reported by one of the berthing masters and the owner of the offending boat.

I have now received the incident report and have spoken to the "culprit".

Nice as pie, and happy to pay for the repair.

Renews your faith, doesnt it! :)
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and a massive weight off your shoulders no doubt........great result:)
 
SolentBoy said:
Well, well, well.

Despite me asking in the harbour office, it seems that the incident was reported by one of the berthing masters and the owner of the offending boat.

I have now received the incident report and have spoken to the "culprit".

Nice as pie, and happy to pay for the repair.

Renews your faith, doesnt it! :)
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Excellent news!

There was a recent thread on a similar subject (I forget the details) wherein - eventually - the forumite in question was contacted by the 'culprit' boat, all apologies etc.

Long may this trend continue.
 
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