how long is my boat??

[jwilson]

As someone who works in a marina I just love customers like you. Our business is to rent you a space to moor your boat, that is your boat in its entirety including any pulpits, davits and swim platforms and anything else fixed to the boat which sticks out front or back. It doesn't matter what it says on your part one document, your bill of sale, your small ships document, your BSS, the original build papers or even on the side of your boat, we are interested in what the tape measure says. I always offer my customers to hold the end of the tape measure to ensure they are happy with the measurement and 99% of them are usually accurate with how long it is. Funny, you always know which customer is going to quibble when he comes in and says "I have a Turbo 36 which is 36' long for a berth, that's 36' did you get that, 36'..." Yes mate, I got that and I've got your number! I maybe female and I maybe blonde, but I wasn't born yesterday. If paying to keep your prized boat is too much for your wallet it's time to look for a new hobby!!

So do I get a pontoon fully the length of my boat, or a finger berth 20-25 ft long for a 35 ft boat. What I object to is paying a 35 ft berthing charge to get a short finger with very tight access.... Several marinas I know offer this but charge full length.

 

[Tranona]

So do I get a pontoon fully the length of my boat, or a finger berth 20-25 ft long for a 35 ft boat. What I object to is paying a 35 ft berthing charge to get a short finger with very tight access.... Several marinas I know offer this but charge full length.

Pontoons are never as long as the boat moored to them, but typically 75-80% of the maximum length of boat allowed in them. Marinas are laid out to accommodate a range of boat sizes with space to enter and exit. Charging by the space you occupy is the most logical way of being fair to the user. The alternative of charging related to berth size will disadvantage all those with boats smaller than the rated berth size

 

[dunmor]

As someone who works in a marina I just love customers like you. Our business is to rent you a space to moor your boat, that is your boat in its entirety including any pulpits, davits and swim platforms and anything else fixed to the boat which sticks out front or back. It doesn't matter what it says on your part one document, your bill of sale, your small ships document, your BSS, the original build papers or even on the side of your boat, we are interested in what the tape measure says. I always offer my customers to hold the end of the tape measure to ensure they are happy with the measurement and 99% of them are usually accurate with how long it is. Funny, you always know which customer is going to quibble when he comes in and says "I have a Turbo 36 which is 36' long for a berth, that's 36' did you get that, 36'..." Yes mate, I got that and I've got your number! I maybe female and I maybe blonde, but I wasn't born yesterday. If paying to keep your prized boat is too much for your wallet it's time to look for a new hobby!!

youre missing the point. my boat is bang on 32ft. measured end to end, no bowsprints etc, they have measured it and made it over 33ft which is wrong.
they will measure it again with me there, but i thought it would have the measurement of 32ft on the part one. speaking to other guys in the marina who have seen them doing it, they are measuring them from the pontoons, which are not as long as the boat,[about 6ft shorter] so you can see why they are getting
so many wrong! im not complaning about paying for the full length but im buggered if im paying an extra £120 for a foot that doesent exist.

 

[bbg]

Again I ask - how do you know it is bang on 32 ft?

I am not saying it isn't, I am asking how you know and where you measure to / from.

Others have answered your original question regarding the length stated on the Part I cert.

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

I had a ketch ashore once and got into an argument about length ... until I figured it out and hiked the mizzen boom up! They measured them ashore by tying/taping a plumb-line to the extremities and measuring the distance on the ground.

 

[dunmor]

Again I ask - how do you know it is bang on 32 ft?

I am not saying it isn't, I am asking how you know and where you measure to / from.

Others have answered your original question regarding the length stated on the Part I cert.

we used 2 sprit levels, stood upright on the outermost ends of the boat, this way the tape was in a straight line across the
wheel house roof.

 

[xeitosaphil]

youre missing the point. my boat is bang on 32ft. measured end to end, no bowsprints etc, they have measured it and made it over 33ft which is wrong.
they will measure it again with me there, but i thought it would have the measurement of 32ft on the part one. speaking to other guys in the marina who have seen them doing it, they are measuring them from the pontoons, which are not as long as the boat,[about 6ft shorter] so you can see why they are getting
so many wrong! im not complaning about paying for the full length but im buggered if im paying an extra £120 for a foot that doesent exist.

The easiest way to imaging it is the way a marina told me how they measure it, that is, what size shoe box will it fit in!

As I understand it boats are measured from bow to stern perpendicular glass to glass, mine is 30' o/a with a WLL of 24'-0" but the registered Lloyds Blue Book registered
length is only 8.83mtrs.

When a friends 29 ' Halberg Ratsey was measured by the Harbour authority for Inner harbour eligibility / qualification, they measured it at 31'-6". and said he didn't qualify. Not best pleased he then took his anchor off the stem head and a few bits off the Pushpit to qualify. This got me thinking about my own boats length so I measured it. Overall the pulpit which overhangs the bow, and the solar panel it measures 32'-0"

My berth is a 10 mtr berth, but it actually only measures 24'-0" end to end, hence I have about a 6'- 8' overhang on the stern, but I still have to pay for a 10mtr Berth!

May I suggest you check the shoe box size analogy and see if your sizes match?

 

[No Regrets]

As someone who works in a marina I just love customers like you. Our business is to rent you a space to moor your boat, that is your boat in its entirety including any pulpits, davits and swim platforms and anything else fixed to the boat which sticks out front or back. It doesn't matter what it says on your part one document, your bill of sale, your small ships document, your BSS, the original build papers or even on the side of your boat, we are interested in what the tape measure says. I always offer my customers to hold the end of the tape measure to ensure they are happy with the measurement and 99% of them are usually accurate with how long it is. Funny, you always know which customer is going to quibble when he comes in and says "I have a Turbo 36 which is 36' long for a berth, that's 36' did you get that, 36'..." Yes mate, I got that and I've got your number! I maybe female and I maybe blonde, but I wasn't born yesterday. If paying to keep your prized boat is too much for your wallet it's time to look for a new hobby!!

You are my new best friend.....

 

[The_man_from_ABBA]

So do I get a pontoon fully the length of my boat, or a finger berth 20-25 ft long for a 35 ft boat. What I object to is paying a 35 ft berthing charge to get a short finger with very tight access.... Several marinas I know offer this but charge full length.

+1

My pet marina peeve.
Probably why we don't bother with them much - give me a mooring any time.

 

[Moodyjim]

Quite right Steve mate! Doesn't get much more accurate than that.
Jim

 

[howard easton]

the marina i am in, is currently going round measuring boats, i know for a fact that my boat
is bang on 32ft. it has always been on the part 1 reg. when i looked in this so i could take
it to the office to prove it is 32ft, it doesn't say 32ft but is as follows.
length from fore-part of stem to the center of the middle stock. 30ft. and 5.0 tenths
what exactly does that mean?

Dont even worry about it. You are wasting your time. The yard will measure the dimension that they want, most likely the maximum length of box that the boat could be put in without removing apendages. So you can argue the toss about how accurately they have measured what they want to measure but your registration is irrelevant.

Which is not to say that it isnt worth trying on.

 

[Norman_E]

Watch out that the marina does not have its own special tape measure!

 

[William_H]

Our Yacht club marina charge by the size (area) of the pen ie between the 4 posts that you moor to. If your boat is smaller than the available pen then you can take it and pay for it or leave it risking not getting another. Obviously they look darkly on boats that project beyond the pen. Mainly because it then becomes a danger to other boats passing by.
As for finger jetty lenght. You only need a jetty long enough for your needs so why demand longer. olewilll

 

[bbg]

we used 2 sprit levels, stood upright on the outermost ends of the boat, this way the tape was in a straight line across the
wheel house roof.

I don't really want to quibble and it is probably only a matter of a couple of inches, but surely they should have been held to the outer surface of the outermost projections of the boat rather than stood upright on the boat itself? So if anything overhangs the hull you hold it to that, and if nothing overhangs the hull then you hold it to the hull surface?

In principle it does indeed sound like a pretty accurate way to measure length, assuming you have three people and you truly hold the spirit levels to the outermost surface of hull/projections.

Let us know how the remeasure with the marina goes.

 

[longjohnsilver]

As someone who works in a marina I just love customers like you. Our business is to rent you a space to moor your boat, that is your boat in its entirety including any pulpits, davits and swim platforms and anything else fixed to the boat which sticks out front or back. It doesn't matter what it says on your part one document, your bill of sale, your small ships document, your BSS, the original build papers or even on the side of your boat, we are interested in what the tape measure says. I always offer my customers to hold the end of the tape measure to ensure they are happy with the measurement and 99% of them are usually accurate with how long it is. Funny, you always know which customer is going to quibble when he comes in and says "I have a Turbo 36 which is 36' long for a berth, that's 36' did you get that, 36'..." Yes mate, I got that and I've got your number! I maybe female and I maybe blonde, but I wasn't born yesterday. If paying to keep your prized boat is too much for your wallet it's time to look for a new hobby!!

Or time to find a new home for the boat?

 

[R1chB1ch]

I can't speak for other marinas, but most of our berths are linear berths so accommodate all of the boat length. We do have a dozen finger berths, but these only take boats up to 24' and I would try and measure these before they go on the berth. I think it is maybe the way your boat has been measured which has caused the upset. As I said I offer my customers to help measure their boats and it's very rare I get an unhappy customer, and if I do I point out if I have got to pay full length for my boat, why would I do them a deal!!

 

[Niander]

we used 2 sprit levels, stood upright on the outermost ends of the boat, this way the tape was in a straight line across the
wheel house roof.

That I can relate too...ok use this method and double check the measurement just need a few guys or dolls...who can hold a level steady on a moving boat

 

[ghostlymoron]

Surely if you don't agree, the marina would re-measure it with you present if you asked them. If you approached them with a simple and polite "are you sure your measurement is correct, I make it exactly 32 feet".
You seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill! I agree that it is irrelevant what any paperwork says, "to measure is to know".
Incidentally, don't forget to do your temperature and catenary corrections if you want an accurate figure.

 

[xeitosaphil]

Re thinking about this post, I had a similar experience back in the summer. I wanted to come out on a summer special at a local boat yard facility to antifoul and was told they would have to measure the boat.
I also said for pricing purposes that she was 30’-0” long but the guy said they would have to measure her.

While I can see that in the winter months with the quarries absolutely jam packed, end to end, staggered, with not a cigarette paper between them as they usually are, I can understand the need to go the shoe box route because it affects the amount of boats you can get in and revenue generated, but in the summer with 98% of the quarries empty I questioned the need. After all once the boat was ashore the extra air space taken would only affect the birds flying by!! You would have thought that they could have cut a little slack as a new customer to encourage new business? As a result they lost the business.
At the end of the day I returned to where I had spent a whole summer and winter when doing a major refit on the boat when it was first purchased as they seemed to have a more realistic approach, and was better value for money, even if it was a little less convenient.
Yes I know Marina’s and service providers need to make money, but why do they always think that people who have a boat must be loaded and an easy target, and the general concept of “ well if you can’t afford it take up another hobby “ I find is just offensive, and an excuse to justify their actions and costs. It’s almost like saying I’m going to fleece you because you have a boat and you can afford it, but if you can’t take a walk, as there are lots of other people waiting who can.

At the end of the day people have the option to “ vote with their feet “ so to speak, but I know supply and demand runs the market anyway.

The majority of this rant is only in relation to my summer deal ashore, and the statement of “ ----------------- Take up another hobby “.

I love sailing /my hobby, and at present can afford it, as I am lucky enough to be on a berth but not be in a Marina !!

 

[myquest]

You seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill!.

On the basis that marinas/harbours charge by the meter the difference between 32' (under 10m) and 33' being over 10m I would imagine that's a molehill that most of us would bump into and do our utmost to flatten! As richitch has pointed out the marina isn't going to round down.