How many leisure boats never go anywhere?

[ffiill]

In asking this question I must admit at the moment to being the owner of such a boat.
Everyday I drive along various stretches of the Caledonian Canal and note many boats which never leave their mooring and havnt done so for many years.The same is true of the Muirtown basin in Inverness and I suspect many another marina or mooring nationwide?

 

[dslittle]

In asking this question I must admit at the moment to being the owner of such a boat.
Everyday I drive along various stretches of the Caledonian Canal and note many boats which never leave their mooring and havnt done so for many years.The same is true of the Muirtown basin in Inverness and I suspect many another marina or mooring nationwide?

As I write there are a couple of dozen boats here from Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Eire, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. A few of them you will have passed as you drove along the Caly Canal. I think that we have been here the longest (three days). Some boats do move around a bit...

 

[LittleSister]

I remember someone who worked at a marina (southern England) saying something like (I can't remember the exact proportions) 10% of the boats in the marina were regularly used, 50% were used occasionally, and 40% never left the marina during the year.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who could confirm or contradict this.

 

[William_H]

Buying a boat is buying a dream. For so many it is a case of "when I get around to it" Which then inevitably means never. The same person refuses to accept that the dream was just a dream and so will not part with the boat. Or they put it on the market at a price they paid for it not realising that it has deteriorated since purchase. So still it stays there.
Well every man to his own folly. I can claim my little boat has consistently done 26 or more outings per season for the last 31 seasons. This is largely to a commitment to race the little boat each Sunday afternoon. I have found others who love the racing with me and I let them share the skippering which makes good company. Perhaps I am lucky. By the end of the season I am "sailed out" and ready for a break. Then find after a few weeks I am looking forward to next season. olewill

 

[LadyInBed]

Mine so far this year. Thursday was the first night this year that I have spent on board

 

[Skylark]

Thanks for reminding me :sorrow:

Last season, my boat did 35 miles from hard standing to marina in April and 35 miles return to hard standing in October.

This year has been no better thus far.

 

[Kelpie]

Our boat must have looked completely abandoned until the last few days- she stays on the mooring through the winter and. I had not had time to beach her for antifouling so she had a huge amount of growth which was very much visible from ashore. Motoring flat out to the beaching spot I was making less than 1kt due to the growth!

 

[sprocker]

I remember someone who worked at a marina (southern England) saying something like (I can't remember the exact proportions) 10% of the boats in the marina were regularly used, 50% were used occasionally, and 40% never left the marina during the year.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who could confirm or contradict this.

I would say that sounds about correct for Torquay from what I've seen over the past three years there. The boat on the next pontoon to us has not move at all in that time, as can be witnessed by the large amount of weed growth around the outdrive and huge amount of seagull cr4p on its covers. Must be a real shame for the owners.

Luckily we're in the 10% bracket, possibly because we live locally and can get to our boat in 10 minutes.

 

[johnalison]

The unused boats are always a mystery. Some are owned by widows hanging on to their spouses' boats, others may have owners who lost their nerve, and others just false dreams. We have often seen boats on a mooring that we never seemed to see sailing, but when I kept a boat on a mooring we would sail every possible weekend, but since I worked alternate weekends, the owners of many nearby craft might have never seen us move.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I only go sailing once a year. I set off in May & keep going until all my clean underpants have run out, which given that I take 3 spare pairs is usually about mid September.

 

[ctva]

It may be an apocryphal story, but I remember a BMF / RYA survey about 10-15 years ago which showed that the average UK pleasure boat was used ONE day a year!!

Sad but my anecdotal evidence would certainly support it.

 

[Robert Wilson]

I only go sailing once a year. I set off in May & keep going until all my clean underpants have run out, which given that I take 3 spare pairs is usually about mid September.

You could infinitely extend your season by taking just two pairs - a pair on and a pair off in the wash/on the line drying :encouragement:

As to the OP, I keep Khamsin in front of my house, immediately ready for "putting to sea" but in reality I probably only sail her once or twice a week (locally). As a result, numerous passers-by tell me they saw her on the mooring, how nice, but don't you sail her?
I suppose it's often the case with many boats being erroneously considered "going nowhere"?

 

[bitbaltic]

In Cardiff I reckon there is berthing for around 1200 boats. Even though the marinas are not all full there must be close on 1000 boats in there. The sheltered sailing of the Bay does encourage a bit more use (perhaps) for the nervous or those with boats in poor condition, but on a sunny day it's rare to see more than ten or so vessels out and about and a lot of those will be fishing boats. There's a fair traffic of visitors from elsewhere in the Britsol channel, but at least 50% of the resident leisure boat population is effectively laid up afloat I reckon.

 

[DanTribe]

I only go sailing once a year. I set off in May & keep going until all my clean underpants have run out, which given that I take 3 spare pairs is usually about mid September.

You can extend your underpant usage by turning them inside out.

 

[macd]

Luckily we're in the 10% bracket, possibly because we live locally and can get to our boat in 10 minutes.

I'm sure that's one of the big factors (other than unrealistic dreams). I seem to remember a magazine survey done a decade or more ago, which claimed that the average UK owner lived 90 miles from their boat. At the time I was fortunate in living about 90 metres from mine, which obviously makes a huge difference to all aspects of ownership, quite apart from the opportunity of taking it out on a whim.

 

[KellysEye]

There was a survey in the Solent where at the time there were 9,000 boats on moorings and marinas, 98% of them never sailed and the marina boats were used as weekend caravans. It was the same Burham-on-Crouch marina.

 

[jac]

As to the OP, I keep Khamsin in front of my house, immediately ready for "putting to sea" but in reality I probably only sail her once or twice a week (locally). As a result, numerous passers-by tell me they saw her on the mooring, how nice, but don't you sail her?
I suppose it's often the case with many boats being erroneously considered "going nowhere"?

I'm reminded of the boat that used to be next to us about 12 years ago. We were pre children and would head down to Shamrock Quay after work on a Friday - getting down there about 8pm. Leave the boat about 6pm on sundays. Lovely Sadler 29 - a little tired on the mooring next to us, always there, always seemed to be in the same state on Friday as she had been on the Sunday. I always gave her a quick check.

One day we arrived late morning on Friday and found retired couple in cockpit of the Sadler with some bags. Asked if they were going out - "No - coming back" they said. Turned out they felt the solent was too busy Friday - Sunday so they sailed Monday to Friday and spent the weekend at home, doing the chores, seeing friends etc then back the following Monday. They did far more miles than we did and yet because they were so practised and put the boat back in the way that they always had done for years, we didn't really notice.

Now I know that many sat there are just slowly rotting through neglect but many may just have a usage pattern that differs from ours. Our neighbours sadler probably needed water tank refill by the Friday, a good period on shore power to recharge the batteries together with some domestic time for shopping and clothes washing. Hard to see that they could have done much more!

 

[Sandy]

I heard of some research done on boats on the Dart some of the Mobo's had run their engines for as much as five hours in a season.

 

[ghostlymoron]

You can extend your underpant usage by turning them inside out.

Or going commando.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I think under use is a major feature of boating in general. Many sailors in my area belong to the 'Brumagem navy' and are 2-3 hours away from their boats which I think is the reason that they don't sail much. I sailed (motored) about 1 mile last year due to mechanical and mooring problems, this year with a new boat I haven't even launched yet due to family problems and it looks like I may not sail at all this year. The weather is not encouraging either.