Price differential in Marinas

OK if they were out checking the river moorings, I doff my cap 'at em!

I do see what your getting at, if you are paying high marina prices you should expect quality service, I recall one or two people talking of visiting their boats over the weekend to check them. If your in a good marina its all been done for you!
 
I'd say that its what is 'hoped for' rather than 'expected' IME....

Ref Beauliu generally.... I liked the place a great deal when I visited to sail with Steve... the staff were friendly, the marina pleasant, and no one can dispute the utterly fabulous surroundings it sits in....

As an 'outsider' to the Solent, yet having been in most of the well known marinas over the years, Beaulieu is undoubtedly the marina I would place as my first choice.....
 
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You forget to add.... "especially the bloke that was beating 9 kinds of shite out of a dodgy (in more ways than one) spinny pole at 0730hrs in the trashing rain, thoroughly soaked to the skin, and wondering what the hell he was doing with a rotten old bit of aluminium to start with"

[/ QUOTE ] Can't exactly remember how this all came about, but didn't some plonker drive miles out of their way to pick up a kite from his boat, found that his transport for the weekend didn't have a spinny pole, so went off and nicked a dodgy one from round the back of the shed, which needed nine kinds of shite beating out of it, etc. etc.? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
No, you've got it all wrong! The geezer was supposed to be bringing his cruising chute, but when he opened the bag he discovered several species of moth that were, at the time, unknown to man and enough bedding to keep a hamster comfy for two life times. So the skipper spoke to a bloke in the pub who told him where he could find a spinny pole and the rest, as they say.... All seems reasonable enough to me.
 
Spent a night in BH on my Coastal Skipper course.

After having to find and negotiate the entrance in Rain/sleet/hail, 40kts of wind and an instructor who hated me I would want to be paid to keep a boat there.
 
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Spent a night in BH on my Coastal Skipper course.

After having to find and negotiate the entrance in Rain/sleet/hail, 40kts of wind and an instructor who hated me I would want to be paid to keep a boat there.

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On the other hand I once spent a night in BH in a severe gale. It was blowing the top end of F9 in the Solent, but getting into the river was no problem and once at BH you are very shetlered.

BH is particularly noted for its very quiet nights - little wind, no swell and a quiet location anyway - certainly the best nights I've spent on the boat.
 
Unbelievably, I am not the skintest on our moorings. Besides which I get £150 discount for being local.
The Marinas on the lake are more expensive of course. I expect there's lots of "How Much?"-ing going on at renewal time.
I'm not in favour of paying loads of money to keep a boat on the water, but - playing Devil's Advocate - I can't see what's purpose the comparing of value-for-money between different marinas, other than to decide which one you would see as affordable.
 
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BH is particularly noted for its very quiet nights - little wind, no swell and a quiet location anyway - certainly the best nights I've spent on the boat.

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Certainly is a lovely place to visit, but it has to be the pile moorings up river from the marina for me.
 
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Certainly is a lovely place to visit, but it has to be the pile moorings up river from the marina for me.

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Even better (IMHO) are the visitor buoys just up river of the piles. The problem there is that it is a pretty stiff pull back from the pub in the rubber duck if the tide is Ebbing (note to self - buy and outboard /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
 
There isn't much more than 1.2m depth there at LWS and even if you don't bottom out the rudder can drag on the bank as you turn to the tide. But it is lovely up there. We tied up to a buoy one evening before returning to our berth and lost count of the different species of wading birds that we spotted. The highlight was two young deer that came down to the waters edge to play, only 5-6 metres from where we were sitting in the cockpit.
 
Wine is fine, but I find it better with food.

In the old days the Master Builder used to do excellent food - and a meal there was a major part of the attraction of BH as an overnight stop.

It's gone through a bit of a poor period - perhaps that is why we didn't go there at all last season
 
Twenty years is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I would certainly say 9-10. I am told that there is a now a manager in place, who is trying to make the joint more welcoming.

We first started keeping a boat there at Bucklers Hard in 97 and at that time you could order pretty much whatever you wanted in bar snacks. There was a nice little garden area, behind the pub, where we sat with the kid's and you could get bowls of chips and that sort of stuff. Then they extended the Hotel by building over the garden, went all pretentious and nearly threw us out for being uncouth enough to ask for chips, we even tried to play along and referred to them as french fries, but that didn't work! My last visit suggested that a thawing out might be on the way, they seemed to have raised the lighting levels, had got a blazing fire going and put a few flowers on the tables, not much I know, but noticeable. Unfortunately , the restricted bar menu was still the same, so I will watch developments with cautious optimism.
 
Steve

I Shouldn't really complain, the last time we ate at the MB was about two years ago. The six of us had already polished off a couple of bottles of wine plus other drinks between us during 'pre-dinner drinks' aboard. When we sat down to order our food we bought more wine etc. Heh! We were enjoying ourselves!

The evening wore on and still no food, many apologise from the staff, there was all sorts of noise coming from the direction of the kitchen, load voices included.

Then a manager(?) came around all the tables in the bar, to anyone who had food orders, offering free drinks to offset the delay! So not wishing to be rude, more wine!

Two hours after ordering, the food finally arrived to cheers! We didn't bother drinking wine with the meal, just water, all six of us were pretty well pissed when we started eating! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
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