Laying my own mooring -Portsmouth Harbour?

[wizard]

The technical side of the actual sinker and buoy - I am ok with.

But how do you go about the legal and permissions stuff with a harbour like Portsmouth - is it still possible to do your own here?

All help grately appreciated

 

[oldharry]

Contact QHM (Queens harbour master), but be prepared to be disappointed. Most Solent harbours stopped laying new moorings many years ago, but its worth a try. They may have a mooring licence or two available for existing unused private moorings. It took me 12 years to track down and buy a private mooring licence in Chi Harbour. Mooring now costs me £150 a year for the licence.
The exception is Langstone Harbour. The Harbour Board specify type and weight of permitted mooring tackle, and will want to inspect the tackle before you lay it, but last time I was there they were still licensing new mooring sites.

Why? - something to do with the proximity of the local sewage farm, and the interest taken in the boats by yobs from Leigh Park I guess.....

 

[wizard]

Thanks for the reply.

With the swinging moorings charges rising steeply every year I thought that this was well worth looking into.

Pretty soon they will be what I was paying for a pontoon mooring a few years back
/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[boatmike]

If it was that easy we would all be doing it but OH is right. QHM licences the right and most rights are given to private operators already. A phone call to QHM willconfirm

 

[oldharry]

Does it have to be Portsmouth? Chi Conservancy seem to be holding their mooring fees to a reasonable level still - best to go to the Office at Itchenor. Turn up with your boat and they will 'fit you in' somewhere rather than put you on the waiting list. I sold my boat earlier this year, and the new owner apparently was able to get a mooring almost immediately for it at Westlands

 

[William_H]

Just as a matter of interest here on the Swan River (oz) the mooring sites are licenced by the local authority (State government) with a licence fee of nearly 100 squid per year. There aree several thousand licenced moorings.
However it is almost impossible to get a new site licenced but wners can sell their rights to a site. About 5 years back a typical value was 450 squid and now this has doubled or trippled with 2 receently changing hands for 7000 squid because they were suitable for a 12 metre boat. With small size moorings going for 1200squid.

It has become a really good real estate investment. You can often end up buying a mooring with a boat thrown in. This is because you can't own a mooring without also being the registered owner of a suitable boat for the mooring. If you sell your boat they put pressure on you to sell the mooring. good luck olewill

 

[oldharry]

Sounds much the same as over here in the Solent. There are a few (a very few!) places left in the UK where you can just turn up and do your own thing - mostly in the more remote parts of the Irish Sea, but they are disappearing rapidly when the potential income from the increasing boat population is realised.

Round Chi you may be lucky to pick up a small drying mooring giving around 2 hrs each side of HW and >6m loa for around £750 - £1500. A C3 (>8m loa) half tide mooring usually changes hands around £15-£2500 and considerably more in a prime position, and if you happen to be around at the right time. I have not seen a deep water mooring for sale in the 17 years I have been here. Probably have to know the seller well before he decides to part with it!

Oz is probably a bit far to go from Croydon for a weekends sailing! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif