Mooring in a dutch harbour.

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101304

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First of all, my apologies for my bad English.
For a recent non-commercial study, I'm looking for boat owners who would like to share their thoughts about a permanent mooring in a Dutch harbour.
I allready read a lot of threads on this forum, but I couldn't find one concerning this subject.

Several boat owners on this forum have their motor or sailing boat permanent in a haven in the Netherlands. Unfortunately theír motivitation to do so is not obvious to me. We both got the same miserable weather.;)

Anyway, if these people would like to argue this with me, it would be appreciated.

Besides that, I'm curious about other opinions from people who planned to do the same or from those who did consider this option and decided otherwise.

As a reciprocate I will inform this forum's members concerning the Dutch marinas if they want to.

Thanks in advance for sharing your opinion.
 
A couple of friends of mine have kept their boats in Dutch marinas for a few years now and their motivation is two fold - cost saving compared to UK Marinas and being in a different cruising area.

Cannot say it appeals to me as a lot of my sailing is just for the day / weekend so travelling to the boat and back needs to be a sensible compromise of available time. The friends with their boats in Holland are retired from work so time is less of an issue as they will go to their boats for 2or 3 weeks at a time rather than the 2 or 3 days I tend to manage.

Hope this helps.
 
All that they said... plus...the low cost of Ryanair or Easyjet flights to the netherlands (or Germany, France, Denmark, Spain...). It can cost less to fly out to Amsterdam, say, and get a train to the boat that it would to drive down to the south or southwest coast. Once you take the cost of the mooring into account, then for those who can spend a few weeks at the boat (rather than just the weekend) it makes good sense. The NL have a nice combination of sheltered inland water and open sea sailing, lovely small towns, good facilities for boats and friendly people - what more could a sailor want!

And your english, like that of most of your compatriots, is excellent. Welcome to the forum - we hope to meet you sometime.
 
Although I have never kept my boat abroad I often pass through the Netherlands going to and from the Baltic, and often cruised there when I had less time. A major point for many is simply to avoid a North Sea crossing which generally means an overnight sail. This can be stressful to family crews and we older folk, and you are at the mercy of the weather.

Thus, people who want a short, 2-3 week, cruise can be sure of getting their full sailing time. Those with a taste for sea sailing can then cruise the Frisian islands or even further with little risk of not getting home. Older people with enough time to cruise the Baltic will find that they have broken the back of the journey out, and as others have said, do it economically in pleasant surroundings.
 
Hello all, thanks for your answers so far. So, based on your opinions we can conclude the following;

- sailing in Holland is attractive for those with plenty of time
- prices are lower than in the UK
- service is good (language and facilities)

Is sailing across the ocean for more people an issue? Is it more dangerous for less experienced sailors or is it the nighttrip that makes it difficult?
Because, to me it seems an adventure. There must be some kind of organisation which organise joint tours crossing the ocean under experienced guidance?

I'm not too familiar with waterrecreation in the UK, but I know that in Holland the possibilities for boat owners are enormous. Many sailing areas are adapted to tourism (and not full like I read on this forum). Futhermore it's more like a vacantion when you're abroad. Even though it's just 75 miles away.
 
I agree about the service - very helpful and prices are good. The ability to either go sailing out at sea or through canals is good. Personally I like the North Sea crossing to Holland.
 
Hi 101304,

Yes, for some the north sea crossing is a challenge... but for many (perhaps most) its realistic after a few seasons of boat ownership.

Here on this part of the ybw forum, we do organise trips across to the continent, especially to Belgium, and offer support and encouragement to new skippers, and where neccessary, experienced crew to help. But its not normally formally organised, just a group of friends helping one another.
 
As yet we have not done this, but it is something we would like to do in the future.

We are motor-boaters and have a sports-cruiser and have visited the Netherlands 3 times (from Lowestoft). As others have said, the journey is a challenge, and it does feel like a huge achievement the first time you make it. But we find that the 2nd week of our holiday is always blighted by the thoughts of the journey home, and what the weather conditions will be like for the sea trip etc. Our thoughts then turn to 'wouldn't it be nice to have the boat here all the time' .

For us at the moment this isnt practical as we both work, and enjoy using the boat each weekend during the season; if the boat was overseas we wouldnt be able to do that and it would only really be feasible to use it for at least a week at a time. Once we are able to retire and spend extended periods on the boat, thats exactly what we'll do.

We enjoy the freedom and choice of cruising in the Netherlands - if based around the Markermeer for example there are a number of towns within easy reach; you could spend a week there and visit a different place every day. We also like the buitenhaven moorings (town quay) as this is not something you really find in the UK - we just tend to travel from marina to marina and after a while they all look the same! So the novelty of being moored right in the centre of a town is lovely.

hope this answers some of your questions

regards
Barbara
 
Muddy Paws said:
Personally I like the North Sea crossing to Holland.
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Yes, I do too, but now I'm getting older I find I'm anticipating it with less pleasure and have to struggle to keep my wife's morale up by either agreeing to do a short crossing or borrow a crew member. Most forum members will be a lot younger and I hope they continue to enjoy the trip.

We've always divided our attention between the Netherlands and the Channel & Channel Isles and found enjoyment in each. In Holland we missed some of the things we'd enjoyed in the Channel, such as good cheese, on the whole better weather, and an easier trip home, but many of our friends with "ferry wives" preferred Holland where they could relax.

Not everything in the Netherlands is wonderful of course, and you can meet crowding at certain times in places like Goes, Willemstad, the Sixhaven and around Harlingen, and my impression has been that it is harder to get affordable good food in restaurants than it used to be.
 
I get the impression that 10134 is unaware that the Channel and the southern North Sea can be truly horrible if caught in bad weather.
The appeal of a direct hop from home (Swale in our case) to, say, Vlissingen, is considerable in view of the time saved. However with just 2 of us I am not inclined to attempt it in view of my wife's relative inexperience and (probable) lack of confidence in standing a night watch on her own.
We take the less challenging option of a much shorter cross-Channel hop from Ramsgate to Niewpoort or Oostende and then along the coast to the Netherlands and just accept that the extra ports visited are all part of the holiday.
We love Holland, brilliant place to cruise around and the Dutch are so welcoming and hospitable.
 
Cantata said:
I get the impression that 10134 is unaware that the Channel and the southern North Sea can be truly horrible if caught in bad weather.
The appeal of a direct hop from home (Swale in our case) to, say, Vlissingen, is considerable in view of the time saved. However with just 2 of us I am not inclined to attempt it in view of my wife's relative inexperience and (probable) lack of confidence in standing a night watch on her own.
We take the less challenging option of a much shorter cross-Channel hop from Ramsgate to Niewpoort or Oostende and then along the coast to the Netherlands and just accept that the extra ports visited are all part of the holiday.
We love Holland, brilliant place to cruise around and the Dutch are so welcoming and hospitable.
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We love Holland, brilliant place to cruise around and the Dutch are so welcoming and hospitable

If they did good food too that would be a bonus :o
 
sailorman said:
We love Holland, brilliant place to cruise around and the Dutch are so welcoming and hospitable

If they did good food too that would be a bonus :o
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Bit unfair - you simply can't expect French cooking everywhere :D
Especially not in a somewhat culinary challenged country like Holland. ;)

Tradewinds said:
The Indonesian restaurants seem pretty good to me & there are plenty of places to get a doner kebab - wot more do you want :D.
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Like visiting Britain for the great Indian or Chinese cooking :D
 
"They do a wicked Chicken Satay and Nasi Goreng in KMJC, Den Helder "

Agreed!

It's just the thing with a huge beer after crossing the North Sea, or before crossing - we have been there, and had it nearly every time we've been to the Netherlands, and we are expecting to stop there this July too.
 
We keep our boat on the Veerse Meer and this season will be our sixth season. We were originally seduced by the fantastic cruising oportunities and a good exchange rate which made the marina fees a lot cheaper. The latter is less of a benefit these days although we still save about £500 a year compared to the East Coast (compared to the Solent? well it's considerable). The cruising still enchants us - Veere, Goes, Zeirikzee, Willemstad, Numansdorp, etc.

We are fortunate to live only 10mins from the Channel Tunnel so weekend trips to the boat are very much a way of life for us. We manage about 10 to 12 weekends a year plus a couple of one week trips.

A typical weekend sees us on the boat by 10.30pm Friday night, Saturday afternoon we are in Zeirikzee, Sunday afternoon back in our marina and Sunday night back home in Kent.

The place is fantastic, the people so friendly (the Dutch that is) and it is always a couple of degrees warmer on the Veerse Meer than it is in Kent.

Roll on retirement when we can spend even more time there.
 
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