Marina Charges

[andrewa]

I have been on my Marinas new revamped website and looked at the new charging structure. I have currently a 9m berth with a 8.5m boat in it, fine. However they have now changed the system and all boats between 8.1m and 10m are charged the same. What! I call the marina and am told correct sir and? If I change my boat for a 10m I get better value because the amount is not much more than 10m last year. My point is that there is no way my berth will take a 33ft boat with say a 10ft beam, this becomes especially true if my neighbour does the same and the berth holders opposite. I am at Chichester which is pretty tight anyway and was wondering if any other marina has such large bandings, i.e a catch all. Also if they do can you actually fit the size of boat into it. I am being asked to find another £300.00 on renewal which I think it is outragous for a berth which potentially cannot handle the maximum size of boat being charged for.

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[hlb]

But if you had a bigger boat. They might find you a bigger hole to put it in. Not siding with them, you understand.

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Haydn

 

[Sybarite]

What annoys me is that they really charge for overall length including the pulpit. In my case they looked it up in some old yachting magazine. I contested the length they had selected and so they went out and measured the boat. The result was it came down by one category. I have a non-standard pulpit although not for this reason.

It might be worth considering however if you are marginally over the limit.


John

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[NorthernWave]

I guess what they are trying to achieve is 100% revenue from the space they have, so this should make them more money and in some cases make our moorings better value (i.e. if your almost on the limit in length). We actually got a bigger boat in time for these changes, but if I work out the costings as per the old structure the costs are near enough the same. Not bad cosidering some marina fees have gone up by 20%. The way I look at it is chichester is a nice, well run marina and they have kept the mooring fees at a reasonable rate, so many marinas now treat their customers as if they are doing them a favour letting them more in THEIR marina. Chichester have always been very helpful and I hope they keep it up.

Chris

<hr width=100% size=1>Logged Sea Miles wanted for masters. Send PM if your on south coast and want skipper or crew.

 

[Happy1]

Try MDL, they are very helpful, I have been given a 10mtr berth for a 6.1mtr boat because I kept nearly crashing /forums/images/icons/wink.gif It is much easier to have a couple of spare meters each end for beginners like us.

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[andrewa]

Hi Happy

Did you have to pay for a 10m berth though? If not good for you. I am Solent based and MDL are dearer than Premier. Still nothing I can about it. Will look around for another berth fancy a change of scene in a way. would be nice to have somewhere with no lock.

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[Deleted User YDKXO]

My last boat was measured by my marina and a nominal 37' boat suddenly became a 46 footer. I insisted on being present for another measuring and on holding one end of the tape. Funnily enough the second measurement was 4' shorter and the marina apologised profusely
My advice is always to hold the other end of the tape

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[ccscott49]

Sneeky aren't they. "We didn't put our prices up 20%, we re-organised the berthing structure" Bas...ds eh!

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[andrewa]

It takes a lot for me to get the hump but this certainly did. When down in the marina office next I am going to demand my 10m berth, i'm paying for it so I want it. I will just be waiting for the 'can't have one of them sir, you only have an 8.69m boat'!

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[Guest]

I can see their side of this argument (well I would, my boat is 9.9m).

The marina is letting a berth. It doesn't cost them any more or less whatever you put in it. If you rented a garage for your car you wouldn't expect a variable price depending on the length of the car or to find one that exactly fitted. If it was a very big car you would pay more for a giant garage.

On the other hand I would be a bit upset if my boat just fell into the next price bracket (an extra £1100) in which case I expect I would be looking for a marina which charged the old way.

If this policy became universal, perhaps it would distort the market for boats, bit like council tax has done for the housing one.

Geoff

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[duncan]

I absolutely see your your point geoff, and agree with it. I think Andrew is unlucky in this instance and I would like to think the marina would agree that for 2002 he pays only 60% of the increase and full 10m price in 2004 - both parties shake hands smile and offer the other a beer. The concept of phasing in the bad news is not new - had the marina anounced it was going to do this 18 months ago andrew could have budgeted for it or even arranged for the 9.9m boat to be delivered.
However, and a biggy, if the berth for which he is now expected to pay at the rate equivilent to an up to 10m will not take such a boat then someone is taking the piss.
Either he pays for the boat he has, and the marina allocate him a berth for it, or he pays for the berth he has on the basis of boat that could and would be allocated it. I realise that I am taking at face value andrew's statement that a normal 9m+ boat won't fit it.

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[andrewa]

Thankyou for all your replys, I will approach the marina with my concern and get an explanation, raising some of the points posted here.

Many Tks
Andy

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[Calluna]

If they have any spare 10m berths they should let you move - if they are anything like Port Solent.

We thought the charging system was unfair, because we were squeezed into an 8m berth, but as the boat is also 8.7m would be charged the same as if it was a 10m berth. I tried to argue that as we were in an 8m berth we should only pay for 8m, but that failed, so I then asked if we could move to a 10m berth and there was no problem with that. In the end we decided that being in a marina during the summer wasn't worth the money and left.

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