Lakesailor??

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Swanrad2

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Hi

Went to Windermere with the kids today and rented a motor boat, so I'm sold. On my way up there with my Centaur next season I think. Looking for hints:
1. How/where do you park?
2. Sea toilet, does it need to be removed or just not used?
3. Transport, what/who is the cheapest to transport from Conwy to Windermere, where do we launch etc.
4. Anything I haven't thought about?

Ta
 
I can't answer all your questions - it's a while since I had a boat on Windermere (before the sped limit) so "parking" might have changed significantly. In the time I was there, it was at a bit of a premium though! I assume you mean parking for the boat rather than the car when you visit? If so, he choice is either a swinging mooring or one of the marinas.

We removed our sea toilet and put a chemical one in its place but left all the piping and seacocks in place - just blanked them off.

For transport, I've used Gilbery Brown (he's based in Hawkshead) a couple of times and ben very satisfied. 015394 36480

As for where you launch, I guess that depends on where you want to keep the boat and where they can get the truck to. It's best to talk to whichever place you're keeping the boat (and the truck driver). They might well know of somewhere that's hired a crane to do a mass lift-in on a particular day, in which case, you can arrange to share the cost.
 
I'm a bit bored so if I may ?

1. Parking can be at several places around the lake, depends on where you want to moor. Parking and dingy storage available at Ferry Nab (Can be quite expensive), this is just below Bowness. You can also store a dingy and Park on the opposite shore on the National Trust land, again with a fee. If you get a mooring at the North end of the Lake then you would need to park on one of the public car parks in Ambleside, I don't think there is any dingy storage.

2.No need to remove the sea toilet, just dont use it. My dad has both a sea toilet and a porta potti on his and just swaps as required.

3. Gilbert Brown (015394 36480 ) seem to do most of the transport round Windermere, Shepherds use them to shuttle boats between Liverpool/Conwy and Windermere. Cheapest way is to try and get aback load if you are not bothered about time.

4.Probably, but Windermere is a freindly place even without a lot of us powerboaters /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
We have been on Windermere for 5 years. It has it advantages (and some disavantages). Talk to the Lake wardens on 015394 42753 and get a map of the mooring locations and the byelaws. Access to the lake is very restricted because it mostly surrounded by private and commercial property. Where you park depend on where your mooring is and what arrangements you can make to launch a tender. There are also marinas, Marina Village, Windermere Aquatics and Low Wood Hotel (new marina).

I would recommend going up talking to people on the jetty at Ferry Nab and to the wardens, people will tell you the pros an cons of various locations.

The byelaws will tell you about the sea toilet. I think they have to be locked off. There are pump out facilities at Ferry Nab and portaloo emptying facilities at Ferry Nab and Fell foot.

Don't know about transport.

Think about cost.

Registration of boat, Cost of mooring licence, cost of mooring, parking costs.

Anything specific you want to ask please feel free.

David
 
Hundreds, and I'll probably come back to you. Most of them around I cant afford the marinas so practicality of getting to my boat with wife and two kids without rowing/rowing for hours?
 
Next year Registration goes up to £9 a metre and in 2008 £11.50 a metre. That's paid to the LDNPA.
Moorings, which you pay to the council, are charged at £86 per metre (almost) and you have to provide your own mooring gear which means having it laid by a contractor ( about £300) unless you can buy some existing gear on a mooring you are offered.
The wardens assign moorings, Travis is the moorings officer (well he was last year)
They are getting near the limit on moorings (the number that the LDNPA will allow them) but there are always ones coming up that have been vacated. There is one on our moorings which has been vacant all year and another which he has lost the gear for (it's down there somewhere) so may be up for sale. Each mooring site has some seemingly vacant. The wardens will tell you they are not available as long as the owner has paid his fee, but in reality if you get a number off the buoy and ask them to call the guy, many are for sale.
Tenders on shore are very much a matter of arranging it with a local landowner, the council (at Ferry Nab) or the National Trust at Fellfoot and behind Belle Isle. Our landings are owned by the Steam Boat Museum (in a roundabout way) which is all changing in the next few months, but it seems the places are safe, don't know if the fees are though.
If you are worried about car parking, it's the moorings that are the bother. Sort out the car afterwards. Ours have facilities, Old Fallbarrow Hall (not the caravan park) have space, at Ferry Nab you have to pay at the National Trust places join the Scottish National Trust (it's cheaper) and use NT car parks for nowt.
Don't know about toilets. We day sail and hold our water (or bucket, but don't chuckit)
Transport is down to getting a price. Gilbert Brown do a hell of a lot around here. A centaur can launch from Ferry Nab slipway (or LowWood) if you can get hold of a trailer. Otherwise Maiden Marine or Shepherds for a lift and drop.
Stuff here Windermere registration
 
[ QUOTE ]
Next year Registration goes up to £9 a metre and in 2008 £11.50 a metre. That's paid to the LDNPA.
Moorings, which you pay to the council, are charged at £86 per metre (almost)

[/ QUOTE ]

I was under the impression the mooring fees go to LDNPA and that the registration fees go to SLDC (South Lakelands District Council) as do car park charges hence the hike in registration fees to replace the income from slipway fees due to lack of use since the speed limit. It makes no real difference because it all comes out of the same pot and is all collected by the wardens. The only time it may make a difference is when complaining about charges.

If the above is true then LDNPA charge the most for the least service.

The hike in registration fees has killed off the casual trailer sailor bringing their boat up to the lake for the weekend. Unless it has changed you can only pay the annual fee there is no day rate. You then have to pay a launch fee, rent the use of a visitors buoy and pay for car and trailer parking.

Consequently the trail sail association who have met on Winderemere for the last two years after having had a break for a while went back to Ullswater where it cost them £25 all in for the weekend as opposed to £100 plus. So SDLC you lost out to the tune of £500 at last years more reasonable rate (Registration fees, Launch fees, Mooring fees, Parking betc. for about 10 boats) Waters Inn Hotel you lost out to the tune of £500. Maiden Marine you probably lost out on bit as well for bits and bobs, and the atmosphere of the lake was the poorer.

Don't get me onto National Park Authorities I have lived on the edge of one, live on the edge of a second and keep my boat within the boundary of a third.

Regarding transport, again ask the wardens, there is a chap who occasionally brings boats up to launch at Ferry Nab with a landrover and large trailer who I think does it commercially. If the wradens can't help try Preston Marina I think he may have some tie up with them.

There are restrictions as to what can be launched at Ferry Nab. It has to be by private car (includes 4 X 4) and boat and trailer have to be below a certain weight I believe.

Otherwise boat will have to be craned in at Maiden Marine or Shepherds (Check what draught they can accommodate).

Winter storage and trailer storage is getting to be a problem.
Some of the land the wardens use at the end of the car park is ear marked for a roundabout, Shepherds have moved out of Bowness, much of the land at Marina Village has been built on.
 
Bugger me! The SLDC have been pinching my mooring fees!
Nope. SLDC run the slipway and administer the lake bed so launch fees and mooring fees and car parking fees go to them.
LDNPA are the Planning Authority for the Park so the Registration fee goes to them.
The restriction on trailer weights are in line with the legal position that it must be under 3500KG all-in. Above that it would need a plated vehicle, tacograph etc. which would make it commercial. I think that's the situation.
Many people take their trailers home after launch. I leave my boat on the water all year and only slip her every 2 years to antifoul.
There's no problem with draught, plenty of big boats launch. Jack is a Hanse 53 and although it's the shoal draught boat it's still 6 ft.

I agree that the LDNPA do their level best to discourage boating visitors. They appeared to have allowed casual visitor registrations when the Steam Boat Association got an arrangemnt for their rally. But then it turns out it only works for batches of 10 boats (I think it's £100 for 10 boat for a week) As they come 3 times in a year that's still £30 per head if they can get a round number.
Also it's only available to recognised associations, so a small club is unlikely to get the deal unless the RYA could be persuaded to get involved. But that would mean joining if you aren't all members - and so it goes on.
 
Pretty complrehensive that!

Also looking a bit pricy (adding up in my head 300 for tackle, 52 for registration, 800 for mooring, 400 for transport and 200 for cranes at each end!! 1752 !!), dont get me wrong i'm not tight, just for that kind of money i'd expect a dusky hand maiden thrown in for free.

Is Ullswater any cheaper do you know?
 
I looked at Ullswater before we went to Windermere. It would have been handier for me but they have a 25' LOA limit on the lake. Has that changed since?
 
"Yachts new to the moorings must not exceed 24 feet or 2.5 tons without prior consent from the Estate Office."
That applies to Dalemains moorings. I'm not sure about the marinas. I think not as I saw a lovely Crabber type boat there, but longer.
 
For transport speak to Nick Lancaster based at Preston marina.He can handle up to 30ft on his trailer. very reasonable. As he launchs straight into the lake you save on craneage. Nice bloke. Nothing seems to be a problem. Probably a lot cheaper than the others but also will not charge for extras(sleeping overnight in his truck, supervising craning mast, storing boat in transit at Preston, Bleeding diesel system.All things he has done for me) Give him a call. I would expect somewhere in the region of about £400.
07850911816
 
Make sure you have access to a trailer. There's no tide on Windermere, (!) so it's impossible to dry the boat out without a trailer or a crane, so can't do maintenance on hull without paying for a lift out and transport to somewhere that will let you work on the boat. I was quoted £600 by Maiden Marine.

So if anyone has trailer for a bilge keeler that they are not using next spring, I have loads of jobs to do.

But all the other hassles are solvable, and it's a lovely place to sail.
 
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