Marina charges

Slow_boat

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What are the most common length 'bands' in use by marinas both in UK and abroad?

By 'bands' I mean under 7mtrs pays so much, 7-10m so much, 10-15m so much or whatever.

It may come in handy when buying the next boat as it would be a shame to pay the same in a marina for a 10m as a 15m boat, for instance.

The next boat being the long-term cruisin' boat.:-)
 
My boat is 10.1m, I pleaded my case to a few UK marinas but would always be charged for the 10 - 15m band. It's accurate but not very sporting.
 
Size doesn't matter!

When we were cruising the UK I remember that our twenty seven footer 'shrunk' by 0.23m down to 8.00m as most places seemed to charge 'up to 8m' and then '8.01 - 10.00m'. Once we crossed to France and similarly in Spain, we shrunk a further bit to 7.93 (26 foot) as there the charges seemed to go 'up to 7.99m' and then '8.00 - 9.99m'. Portugal was harder as one always had to show the SSR document.

As a general rule, from the UK through to the eastern Med, it appears that the next band up generally goes from 10.00 - 12.00m; so once you're beyond thirty two feet, it'll not usually cost you any more until you reach 39+ feet - we have a friend with a thirty-three footer who gets very upset about this.

My favourite (probably not the right word) harbour was Cadaques in NE Spain, where despite the boats all being berthed on identical buoys, they charged differing prices for the various boat sizes and were even surcharging catamarans!
 
When visiting, rates tend to be finely stepped at fractions of a meter or length x beam in parts of France.

Annual berths are sometimes priced according to the rated size of the pontoon (which is not the actual finger pontoon length). In the Solent area 10m and 11m rated berths predominate.

Things vary according to demand, for 2010 Port Solent split one of their larger bands because a large number of boats just nudged into a big boat band.
 
I have been collecting prices in France and Sardinia

Here are some examples

Port de Bormes-les-Mimosa price bands in individual metres, ie 10,11,12,,13 etc
Marina Cogolin 5,6,8,10,12.5,15,17.5m
Port Camargue 5-6.49, 6.5-7.99,8-9.49,9.5-10.99, 11-12.99 etc
Porto Cervo 8,10,12,15,18,25m
Marina d'Olbia 7.5,9,10.5,12,15,16,18......................


So marinas vary!

TudorSailor
 
No bands

Never heard of bands for UK marinas. Only ones I've used charge a per-metre price by the exact length rounded up to the nearest 0.1m

Only time bands seems to come is for additional services such as boat hoists/moves when boats over a certain length (or weight) get charged a suplement on top of the normal per-metre charges for that particular service.
 
I'll second that, no bands just have price per meter where I've been, although often there's a minimum charge - I think in my marina it's based on 6m. same applies to lifting and storage ashore.

So I'd check out the marinas in the area you're planning to keep her.
 
I am glad you are not the only one..

SSR is self certifing, so my 33footer got converted to 9.97 mtrs on the SSR form ;)

My 33 foot cat is 9.98 m on it's SSR - it's never mattered yet but thought it might be useful one day.

I decided 9.99 m looked suspicious ;-)

If you look up the exact calc 33 feet is 10.0584m - so I am guilty of stealing 7 cm. Sue me.
 
So on the whole, marinas charge the same for a 10m (34ft) boat as a 11.9m (39ft) boat?

That makes a lot of difference in the choice of our next (sailaway) boat.

Two contenders were a Westerly Seaquest and a Countess 37. The Countess is in the lead now:-)

Don't think trying to optimise marina banding is a sound basis for boat choice!

As already indicated, practice varies so enormously - narrow bands, wide bands, individual (registered or measured) boat length, calculated berth size either overall max boat size or finger length and area (L*B) plus, no doubt others, that you would need an expanding/collapsing boat to get the best deal! Add to that the charges are not always linear to the bands - ie the incremental change from 10m to 12m may be more or less than from 12m to 14m. Actual prices also vary - two ports about 10 miles apart in Majorca last week - 33 Euros and 67 Euros for the same boat.

The only thing that is true is that costs rise with the size of boat - but not in a linear (to overall length) way and arguably the most popular boats for extended cruising are in the 10-12m size with perhaps a bias to the larger size.
 
The marina where I am has bands of 0.5m from 5.01m upto 12m. Then the bands are 12.01m to 13m, 13.01m to 15m and 15.01 to 18m. This is for LOA and in my case does not include the bowsprit!

Most places I have parked in, in Spain and France just use the LOA on the registration document (and my bowsprit is for free even though it is not particularly well hidden!).
 
Never heard of bands for UK marinas. Only ones I've used charge a per-metre price by the exact length rounded up to the nearest 0.1m

Me neither, though many of the small number of marinas I have used have had different per metre pricing bands. So, for example, at Largs, annual berthing is...
  • £1148.43 for up to 6m
  • £292.58 per metre for 6.1 to 7m
  • £364.25 per metre for 7.1 to 12.1m
  • £370.12 per metre for more than 12.1m
I presume that this is because they have wider berths for longer boats.
 
Granville in Normandy has charged based on length and beam for ages. I have always answered 10m when asked for the length of my 33ft boat. Portishead charge £1-65/m but have a minimum of £16-50.
Allan
 
My 33 foot cat is 9.98 m on it's SSR - it's never mattered yet but thought it might be useful one day.

I decided 9.99 m looked suspicious ;-)

If you look up the exact calc 33 feet is 10.0584m - so I am guilty of stealing 7 cm. Sue me.

That made me smile! I had a Quest 33 and did the same with the SSR only to find when I measured the boat that it was below 10m anyway! :D

The 33 bit by Prout was optimistic to be polite.
 
That made me smile! I had a Quest 33 and did the same with the SSR only to find when I measured the boat that it was below 10m anyway! :D

The 33 bit by Prout was optimistic to be polite.

I am going to have to go an measure now ! ;-)

What LOA did you come up with them (can't get to the boat right now)

I might start saying I am a 32 footer in marina's ;-)
 

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