Marina north of Lowestoft?

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TangaraToo

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Planning a trip from SYH to Lowestoft on friday. Saturday explore north, sunday return to SYH.
original plan was to spend saturday night at Lowestoft after exploring but wondering if there is another marina not to far north of Lowestoft? Dont have my ECP handy.
Is there a marina at GY? Draft is 2mtr fin
 
There is no marina at GY. It is possible to moor alongside the quay that is to stbd just before the Haven Bridge. I don't think there are any 'facilities' there.
Some might say that the only merit of the place for small leisure craft is access to the Broads...
 
TangaraToo said:
Planning a trip from SYH to Lowestoft on friday. Saturday explore north, sunday return to SYH.
original plan was to spend saturday night at Lowestoft after exploring but wondering if there is another marina not to far north of Lowestoft? Dont have my ECP handy.
Is there a marina at GY? Draft is 2mtr fin
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Yarmouth / Gorleston no real facilities tie up alongside town quay, ( unless you go up to Goodchild Marine on the Broads, need to book bridge )then nothing to tidal harbours on North Norfolk coast Lowestoft best bet
 
Cantata said:
There is no marina at GY.
Some might say that the only merit of the place for small leisure craft is access to the Broads...
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Then some may well be missing out.

GY is an infinitely nicer and more interesting place than Lowestoft which is just an utter dump. Despite the industrial pilings you have to moor to and the strong current (no worse than Southwold) it is at least free. A fender board is essential. The architecture of that part of the harbour is very attractive and interesting as is much of the rest of the town which boasts the fascinating Time and Tide museum as well as numerous excellent eateries and even some fine ones. There is a substantial Portuguese community due to the fishing connections which provides some really nice cafes, small restaurants and interesting produce (inc. fresh Pasteis Nata) and a fabulous tapas place called The Patio. The market is still interesting. The seafront is a must to visit if only to remind you of the ghastly side of british "holiday"-making - and makers.
Unlike the Nobs and Snobs the mooring in GY is not blanketed in the stink of rancid chip fat and blaring "music" from the peir area, nor the 24/7 clanking and banging of traffic on the bridge. Granted the yeodelling of all-night drunks may be similar but again the RNSYC seems to suffer badly from that. GY also never has a rolly swell.
GY also, as mentioned, offers access to the southern Broads system as far as mast constraints allow. That is Breydon Water and the Yare to Norwich (Postwick bridge has an air draft of about 9m iirc) and the Waveney as far as Borough St Peter. 2m draft should not hinder progress (certainly not on the Yare which is wide enough to sail and deep throughout) nor affect you on most moorings. Breydon is one of the great birding estuaries and the rivers are attractive with 5-6 pubs on the bank on the way up to Norwich. Sadly the iconic Berney Arms is still all but derelict but now with an apparently not-so-good portakabin cafe attached and appears to have fallen into the hands of chisellers who try to charge for mooring there! Free morrings are 100m upstream...Very sad.

The two bridges in GY are dead easy to book but you must be punctual. Peel Ports Operations staff are very helpful.

Give GY a go, I don't think you'll be disappointed, but two days in Lowestoft voluntarily? I admire your fortitude!
 
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I know nothing of the area but it seems to me that tying up to the quaywall is preferable to marina pontoons, and if not, then still worth it for a night to compare and contrast.

Actually, if I come down the east coast next month on my trip to essex from cumbria, I rather fancy stopping at gy, and taking her into the broads on a pub crawl for a bit :)

Fin keel ketch with mast height approx 13m and draft 1.5m, can I get far enough in her to make the diversion worthwhile?
 
I salute NormalforNorfolk. I've never, ever seen anyone enthuse about Great Yarmouth as a place to visit by boat!

Can't agree that the market is interesting, but the wider marketplace is impressive. He's right, though, about the fine buildings etc. among the tat. In terms of museums alone, there's
- actually tied up to the town quay is the Lydia Ann (IIRnameC), the last steam drifter, Volunteers on it will take you on a really interesting tour. Free entry,, but you'll want to make a donation.
-Elizabethan House Museum just across the road facing, and and another (forgotten what it is) a hundred yards further, in addition to the Time and Tide he mentioned.

The town quay is a bit grim, and the combination of projecting wooden baulks, very strong tide and large range make protecting your topsides a challenge. As said, no facilities: no water, electric, toilets or showers. (There are toilets in the town hall across the road office hours.) Not even a notice board to tell you where things are or how to find out when bridge might lift. Bridge lifts have to be booked the previous working day. (I found out arriving on a bank holiday weekend!)

Once you get through the bridges you can get up the Yare to the outskirts of Norwich, and a modest way up the Waveney. Those without masts have 200km of rivers and Broads to play in. Bridge heights and other info on the Broads Authority website, but not in a particularly easily digestible format. Ringing 'Broads Control' (number on website) will usually get helpful advice.

p.s. You've just missed the annual Maritime Festival at Great Yarmouth (last weekend). They had a tall ship or two and the world's largest motor trimaran, I understand.
 
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ChrisJBSC said:
You can get up the Waveney to Beccles, Well worth exploring...
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But not from Great Yarmouth with a mast, IIRC. You have to come in to the Waveney from Lowestoft, unless you can get under the non-lifting bridge(s) around Somerleyton. If you can do that, you can get beyond Beccles (another low bridge) up the Waveney, I think.
 
ChrisJBSC said:
You can get up the Waveney to Beccles, Well worth exploring...
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Not from Great Yarmouth with a mast up. From GY you can only get as far as St Olaves bridge on the Waveney. You can get nearly to Norwich,on the Yare, the Postwick bridge is just too low for most yachts.
To explore the Waveney with mast up you must go in via Lowestoft, then enter the Broads via Mutford Lock.

Not mentioned so far on this thread is the fact that you will need to buy a Visitors licence to be in the Yare and Waveney, details on the Broads Authority website.

Little Sister just beat me to it! Must type faster. :D
 
tillergirl said:
There is an update today in the Temporary List regarding the semi submerged pipes in Lowestoft Harbour: http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page9.html
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Thanks for the link, finally solved my mystery from sail the other week at night past Lowestoft and saw the unusual ( at least to me) flashing box with what looked like four corners of a box with brightbthen dim green lights, now know is the wreck markers for "Tug Ella" actually blue and yellow alternating, never seen these before and was very confused but decided to stay clear anyway. At least they were not a floating alien ship as my crew suggested.
 
Leighb said:
You can get nearly to Norwich,on the Yare, the Postwick bridge is just too low for most yachts.
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We got under the Postwick bridge, and as far as Whitlingham (nice park with lakes, waterbirds, cafe, longish walking distance from Norwich city centre).

I've just checked on the Broads Authority website (which looks more informative than it used to, by the way) which states Postwick Bridge has 10.67m (35 ft) air draft 'depending on tide'. I had a dim memory of the figure of 37', so the BA figure may be the minimum air draft (i.e. at high tide), I'm not sure. (We approached at high tide, not sure of our exact air draft, bottled it and had a night a little downstream (Bramerton) and came back when the tide was lower.)

I seem to recall that if you can get under Postwick bridge you can, in principle, get into centre of Norwich, but some of the lifting or swing bridges involved rarely open, and the rail bridge opening mechanism is frequently out of order (or at least that's what Network Rail would have you believe!).
 
ChrisJBSC said:
You can get up the Waveney to Beccles, Well worth exploring...
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and beyond to one of the most utterly wonderful pubs in the entire country, the Locks Inn. If you don't have a mast. The riverside pub and it's surroundings, in the middle of marshes and 1/2 mile from the nearest road is utterly divine, right down to candle light only on the bar. Shame about the landlord/customer care though.
The bar to the Waveney for masted boats is St Olaves road bridge or if you take the Yare to just below Reedham and double back along the "New" Cut it's Haddiscoe bridge, air draft c. 7m.

Little Sister adds some good points to a vist to GY. The Lydia Ann not only does free tours around the vessel but you can book steaming trips - and shovel coal and play McAndrew in the boiler room if you so wish. High on my wish-list!

The Yare is unobstructed from the Yarmouth bridges to Postwick (see above) - that's "Pozzick" - no one will understand "Post-wick" I promise you - and then on to Narrich. Seriously, a fascinating trip easily done in a seagoing yacht. (4 hrs or so to Norwich) .The Yare is quite deep, 3m plus most of the way, ditto Breydon. No Norwich "lift" bridge has moved in years, the first one (Carrow?) will stop you if you can't get under it but if you can the river remains interesting and attractive right through the city with moorings available in the centre I believe. The Waveney may be a wee bit shallower but not by much. You can bypass St Olaves/Haddiscoe bridges for the Waveney by entering at Lowestoft - a lift bridge just inside the entrance and Mutford Lock at Oulton Broad. All detailed on t'internet.
There are few more remote and blissfully peaceful anchorages than by the good old Berney Arms at the head of Breydon Water - truly Big Sky Country.
Short of Norwich you can tie up at several pubs and fixed moorings, Broome build their hideous smog-making monstrosities at Brundall where even there the river is 60-70m wide and 3 + deep at low tide. It's tackable all the way up in a smaller handy yacht, though intense work.

Come on up and give it a go! PM me if you need any more info.

Better check what idiotic hoops the Broad Aurhority require you to vault before visiting though - see their website. Nuclear toilets, NASA gas installations and head outlets closed and signed off as sealed by Donald Trump himself might be a start. They're green dogma driven beyond belief so a healthy sensavumour is required.

I don't know much about the Bure and Northern Broads but they are limited by several low bridges, the first of which is at Yarmouth as soon as you've passed the Haven Bridge.

If you really want to see some spectacular yacht racing get between Coldham hall and the top of Breydon this coming Saturday - 16th?
The Yare Navigation Race is a handicap event with start times requested according to your boat's performance taking the tide down to Breydon and judging the arrival there to coincide with it turning to help you back. Expect 60 starters of up to 50ft, all traditional Broads yachts, some stick and canvas and some modern and not so modern derivatives with carbon spars and kevlar sails sporting vast tops'l gaff rigs and impossible sail areas (due trees). After dark finishes are the norm. Some of these boats are new, state of the art all carbon, kevlar and dyneema; some old, creaky and canvas with wooden spars and some like the huge and heartbreakingly pretty Maidie and the tiny but equally exquisite Zingara 100 years old but still all kitted out in carbon, kevlar and dyneema, and raced to the n'th degree!

View the race from the start at Coldham Hall or the comfort of various pubs at Reedham, Cantley, or better yet from a mooring on the river.
This event is cruiser/mobo nightmare territory. Anyone on the river and not racing is in for a very stressful day!

The timings have to be held at Reedham swing bridge and restarted beyond it as trains close the course in mid race! It's real sailing madness and huge fun. The sight of 20 or more boats, some almost half as long as the river is wide, some grossly overpowered all trying to avoid collisions in a mad melée until the bloody bridge opens is a sight to behold. The stampede through the bridge when it does open is even better!
No wonder it takes them a day or more to publish the results!

Normal For Norfolk.
 
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Some interesting and informative replies. Much appreciated.
Where we stop for night doesn't really matter but do prefer electric hook up to charge the batteries and heat the water for morning showers. We don't tend to motor unless we have to.
Sailing for us is all about sailing rather than the destination. We don't tend to arrive at destination much before 6pm and tend to leave around 6am so no time for sight seeing. Just shower, food, sleep then go.
I just like the challenge / experience of entering unknown marinas. We will be going up to haven rather than the YC.
 
It just occurred to me, in a moment of idle musing, that there are actually no marinas, and indeed no land or coasts, directly north of Lowestoft, it being the easternmost part of Britain. (I know that wasn't really your question.)

I guess that excepting the inland marinas, the next marina north of Lowestoft would be Den Helder (!) 118N away ENE, or the next in Britain would be Grimsby, 116Nm and roughly NW of Lowestoft.

You did say where you stop doesn't really matter!
 
Getting back from Den Helder on Sunday by 5ish could be tricky. Boat does have some big go faster sails now by warp drive wont be installed before next spring.
 
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