Moving to the East Coast

[maby]

Perhaps something I didn't make clear. I am not interested in swinging moorings unless they offer some kind of deal for year round use; moorings only usable from March-October are out. Fambridge offers a deal which allows year round use (they put you on a pontoon in the winter), but of course most moorings are uninsured and uninsurable for the winter months. Capricious is Coppercoated, and so should only require a lift and hold or the use of a scrubbing grid to keep the bottom clean(ish). And I've been afloat in December in Scotland, with ice on the surface of the marina!

Fambridge is quite nice, but it is a hell of a long way from anything like open water. You have quite a few miles of narrow river to navigate before it even begins to open out - expect to put quite a few hours onto your engine!

 

[ditchcrawler]

I left my boat in this winter at Levington(Suffolk Yacht Harbour).In the summer (June to Sept) they do a quicklift and jetwash off which for the M31 was £110. I arranged mine at lunchtime so I got about an hour and a half out of the water,enough time to do an extra clean of the water line,check the anodes,rod the toilet outlet and grease my Kiwi prop before going back in.You can negotiate a longer time out,a friend of mine with Coppercoat has about a week out.
If you decided to come to Levington you could borrow my cradle for a time in the summer.
Levington also has a couple of grids if you want to clean off between tides.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Fambridge is quite nice, but it is a hell of a long way from anything like open water. You have quite a few miles of narrow river to navigate before it even begins to open out - expect to put quite a few hours onto your engine!

I'm several miles from "open water" where I am - James Watt Dock opens onto the Clyde ship channel, and it's quite a distance to open water - it looks open, but outside the channel there are miles of water with depths around 0! And sadly, those waters, which might be navigable for small craft otherwise, have a large chart notice pointing out that surveys in the region are not consistent :-(

 

[Laurin]

I know people have slated it but we're happy in Burnham Yacht Harbour, nice town with quirky cinema if the weather's not kind. Not so far to the Blackwater over ray sand. £310 per metre but £400 to a current berth holder who recommends you so assuming that person would split the £400 it would come in cheaper than your current berth.

 

[maby]

I know people have slated it but we're happy in Burnham Yacht Harbour, nice town with quirky cinema if the weather's not kind. Not so far to the Blackwater over ray sand. £310 per metre but £400 to a current berth holder who recommends you so assuming that person would split the £400 it would come in cheaper than your current berth.

I quite like Burnham - but it is still further from open water than I would willingly choose. We have recently moved after spending several years well up a river - we realised that we were simply not using the boat enough. Now we are sailing again almost every week.

 

[Bru]

Fambridge is quite nice, but it is a hell of a long way from anything like open water. You have quite a few miles of narrow river to navigate before it even begins to open out - expect to put quite a few hours onto your engine!

It really isn't as bad as people make out. The river is plenty wide enough to sail, it's only an hour and a half down to below Burnham where it does open out and although the Whitaker can be a bit of a slog in a stiff wind over tide breeze it's not always like that!

We more often than not sail downriver, but I'll grant that we almost always end up motoring the last eight miles or so back up (cos I'm too idle to beat upriver against the prevailing Sou'westerlies! ). That last hour and a half in flat water is, though, put to good use packing up and putting everything straight for leaving for home

I know people have slated it but we're happy in Burnham Yacht Harbour, nice town with quirky cinema if the weather's not kind. Not so far to the Blackwater over ray sand. £310 per metre but £400 to a current berth holder who recommends you so assuming that person would split the £400 it would come in cheaper than your current berth.

Burnham is a nice town. BYH is a decent marina. Must be cos we seem to spend quite a lot of time there! Everything that's a plus for BYH is a plus for Fambridge too cos it's only an hour or so away

Mind you, I am a bit miffed. We only get £200 for introducing a new customer

 

[maby]

It really isn't as bad as people make out. The river is plenty wide enough to sail, it's only an hour and a half down to below Burnham where it does open out and although the Whitaker can be a bit of a slog in a stiff wind over tide breeze it's not always like that!

We more often than not sail downriver, but I'll grant that we almost always end up motoring the last eight miles or so back up (cos I'm too idle to beat upriver against the prevailing Sou'westerlies! ). That last hour and a half in flat water is, though, put to good use packing up and putting everything straight for leaving for home


...

I guess it depends very much on your pattern of usage. We tend towards day sailing and when we were ten or fifteen miles up river, we found ourselves only really seeing the same ten or fifteen miles of river bank - by the time you get to open water, it's time to turn round and head home!

 

[Malish]

Personally I wouldn't stay on the Crouch, too many memories of slogging up and down the ditch, the Orwell and the Blackwater area have more going for them for day sails

One last comment - swing moorings might be more of a challenge but with the economy as it is I bet most marinas have space for a 31' boat, so you can always move after a year.... A few 'phone calls would confirm.

 

[Bru]

To be fair, it's true that we rarely if ever day sail. If we go out, it tends to be for at least two or three days, usually longer. Plenty of folk hereabouts do though so it's not as if it can't be done

 

[maby]

To be fair, it's true that we rarely if ever day sail. If we go out, it tends to be for at least two or three days, usually longer. Plenty of folk hereabouts do though so it's not as if it can't be done

Indeed it can - we day-sailed up and down 12 miles of river for seven years - but the novelty was definitely wearing off after a few years! Even with favourable tides you spend close to four hours looking at the same river bank every day.

 

[pvb]

Unfair and unnecessary comment on Brightlingsea. Ok you don't like it so don't go there. Others do like it. In the 10 years I kept boats there afloat and ashore I had no issue with security of the boat or my car.

Interesting that you said "unfair", but didn't say "untrue". As for "unnecessary", I was responding to MikeBz's comment that I was "blinkered". I'm sure Brightlingsea meets lots of people's expectations, it just depends on what you expect.

 

[pvb]

Indeed it can - we day-sailed up and down 12 miles of river for seven years - but the novelty was definitely wearing off after a few years! Even with favourable tides you spend close to four hours looking at the same river bank every day.

You did well to last 7 years! Our first boat was on the Norfolk Broads, and after one summer my wife was complaining that it was "all going and coming back". We moved.

 

[Bru]

Indeed it can - we day-sailed up and down 12 miles of river for seven years - but the novelty was definitely wearing off after a few years! Even with favourable tides you spend close to four hours looking at the same river bank every day.

Wouldn't that kind've apply anywhere though? OK, so maybe you can vary it to two stretches of the same river bank (Orwell and Stour!) but if you only venture two hours out and then two hours back from any mooring or marina it's gonna get a bit same old same old after seven years!

Actually, after five years of sailing out of Fambridge the river is like an old familiar friend now, especially inbound and doubly so after a rough trip. It greets you boisterously like a naughty puppy between the Buxey and the Inner Crouch, hastens you on your way up past Burnham with a rolling swell and then calms down and welcomes you back into its gentle embrace once upstream of Creeksea. Rounding the last bend into Shortpole Reach the moorings hove into view and you know that your home again until the next adventure

Sorry, came over all poetic for a moment there! For me. Fambridge (and especially Fambridge Yacht Station) is a magical place where I'm very much at home and from whence we set out on our (for us) epic voyages and to which we're always happy, and even perhaps slightly relieved, to return

 

[Bru]

And in defence of Pvb, he's not the only one to feel that way about Brightlingsea. I really don't get the attraction of the place. Unless circumstances prevent, I'll always favour anchoring in the Pyefleet to paying good money for sod all in Brittlesea

 

[Athene V30]

Wouldn't that kind've apply anywhere though? OK, so maybe you can vary it to two stretches of the same river bank (Orwell and Stour!) but if you only venture two hours out and then two hours back from any mooring or marina it's gonna get a bit same old same old after seven years

2 hours out from Brightlingsea you could be at anchor in Pyefleet, up stream at Rowhedge and Wivenhoe, or up the Blackwater at West Mersea or Bradwell, through the wallet spitway or over the RaySand towards the Crouch, part way up the wallet off Clacton. Lots more options than a river where you can either go upstream or down stream!

As for this general "we hate Brightlingsea" trend, good, leaves it for those of us who do like it! Personally I find the Crouch from Holliwell up mind numbingly boring but that is just my opinion. ;-)

 

[maby]

Wouldn't that kind've apply anywhere though? OK, so maybe you can vary it to two stretches of the same river bank (Orwell and Stour!) but if you only venture two hours out and then two hours back from any mooring or marina it's gonna get a bit same old same old after seven years!

...

We're on the Solent now and there are a lot of options. We still have half an hour of river to negotiate but once we get down to the mouth of Southampton Water, there are many places to go. Add to that the fact that most of the marinas in the area are MDL and anyone paying their MDL bill annually can go to any MDL marina, and we have the freedom to go all over the place.

 

[Athene V30]

We're on the Solent now and there are a lot of options.

Do you have to book up front in July / August? Was last in Solent in 2010 and have to say singlehanded sailing wasn't enjoyable. Hardly had a spare moment to put the kettle on when underway!

 

[maby]

Do you have to book up front in July / August? Was last in Solent in 2010 and have to say singlehanded sailing wasn't enjoyable. Hardly had a spare moment to put the kettle on when underway!

Not in our experience of this year - we've called marinas to ask if we could stay for a week or two and everywhere has had space for us. I did hear from friends that a few of the Hamble marinas have been full on occasions in August, but if you are prepared to phone around there does not seem to be any difficulty finding space.

 

[Bru]

2 hours out from Brightlingsea you could be at anchor in Pyefleet, up stream at Rowhedge and Wivenhoe, or up the Blackwater at West Mersea or Bradwell, through the wallet spitway or over the RaySand towards the Crouch, part way up the wallet off Clacton. Lots more options than a river where you can either go upstream or down stream!

Well yes but the premise was a four hour day sail and I venture to suggest that two hours out and back again from anywhere is going to get a bit boring (unless your "thing" is purely sailing as opposed to getting to places by sail - a subtle difference perhaps but a significant one)

Anyway, each to their own and long may it remain so! After all, if we all wanted to be in the same place at the same time it'd get a bit crowded. Sort've like the Solent really (sorry Maby, only joking! )

 

[Lucky Duck]

Lymington town quay was surprisingly empty this bank holiday weekend;

However any enthusiasm I had for MDL marinas in Lake Solent ended once I received their quote for £8.7k for a year's berthing!