Raft up ripoff

[tom52]

Over recent weeks I have read with interest the complaints about ripoffs by marinas.
IMHO harbour authorities and town quays are worse.
Why do six yachts all have to pay the full charge when they are rafted up to one berth?
Now that is a ripoff !

 

[mickshep]

Those responsible for Whitby marina should be able to answer that one as they seem to think it quite normal, The first (and last) time I stayed there was in the August of 2001. we were rafted up 5 and 6 deep with the added attraction of paddling through 2 inches of urine in the filthy toilet block to use the showers. of which only half worked, This combined with half the keel boats grounding at low tide and security that is none existant probably accounted for the Dutch couple in a large cat who described it as the worst marina they had ever stayed in, and that included eastern Europe, Me I left and when the bill arrived it was returned unpaid. I love Whitby but the marina stinks. Mick.

 

[Jacket]

Ah, but at least rafting up is "real sailing". Having to clamber over 10 other boats to get ashore, and waking up at 6am to let the keen people on the inside boat leave is surely why we're all sailing? To escape our usuall cosseted lives ashore.

I don't mind the price, just the fact that there are fewer and fewer quaysides where we can moor up left. They were always much more interesting places to stay, and I always liked the fact that anyone could wander up for a chat, unlike marinas with their security gates and bouncers.

 

[max_power]

I agree. Rafting up is much more fun and you meet so many more people. Who cares about pubs ! Make your own fun with who you meet. Just bring enough grub and booze. Trouble is, when you start sailing it's very hard to cope with the freedom. I no longer go to marinas.

 

[tom52]

As a visiting sailor I prefer town quays to marinas as well.
What I dont like is the same 32 foot of wall being sold 6 times over !
There should be one mooring charge divided by the number in the raft.

 

[BrendanS]

So where do they get the rest of the money to pay for staff, maintenance, toilet facilities, once you have taken this ability to charge off them? It all has to be paid for somehow.

And at what point do you calculate when to divide by the number in the raft, and collect the money? at 10pm when the 5 inside rafters have all buggered of to the pub, or at 6pm when there are only 2 on the raft.

They don't usually all turn up together, and sit tight waiting for the money to be collected.

 

[Gunfleet]

You wouldn't like it if they said, shove off the wall's full, go and bob up and down in the channel all night. This happened to me in St Servan marina. I simply ignored them (!).

 

[montezuma]

Jacket, having carried 600ltrs of diesel across 4 others in Funchal in monsoon conditions, I cannot agree that this is "real sailing". Nor does "real sailing" involve being turfed out of bed at 5am because the guy on the inside has decided to catch the early tide despite his assurances the previous evening.

As to paying - well, if you want a cheap town quay berth, this is surely one of the penalties. After all the the inside boat has as much hassle as the outside ones - he has to put up with other peeps' noise and muck all over his foredeck!

I hardly dare raise it again, but as for outsiders and shorelines, etc, etc.....

 

[tom52]

They have no trouble collecting the full price as each additional boat shows up.
You could call at the office for your rebate before you leave.How much you get back depends on the number of full charges that have been collected for that bit of seawall.
Where there is a will there is a way!
The facilities usually consist of a toilet block, often just the town centre public bogs, cleaned once a day if you are lucky.
This is a fixed cost irrespective of the number of users.
If the facilities are sufficiently grand to include a shower block these invariabley have to be paid for as you use them.

 

[Jacket]

I guess its down to personal taste. Mine are for anchorages and quaysides, and marinas only as a last resort, or once a fortnight to top up with Diesel. However, I can understand why you like marinas (and when moving the boat at 5 am I occasionally wish I was in one), and I'm glas you do, else there'd be 7 boats rafted up, not 6!

 

[BrendanS]

My point is, they have a fairly good idea how much money they are going to take over the course of a year. If you suddenly divide the peak summer time takings by six, they have lost a major portion of their revenue.

That revenue will have to be made up in other ways.

How do they make up the shortfall?

 

[tcm]

Re: Voice of reason

Ah you're being very sensible here BrendanS.

It would be better if there was a slightly reduced rate for rafter-uppers, if only because them people would be actively keen on having raftees join. However, like yourself it seems, i don't quite see how it would work - the tight gits that we all are would then form monsrous 20-deep rafts and refuse to attach to a new bit of wall.

INterstingly, UK marinas seem tocharge the same winter spring or summer- possibly cos the weather is permannetly shite. But the lower "cost" out of summer high season is achieved by having more space - the nasty rafting in summer means you still pay the winter rate, but it's more of a squeeze.

Incidentally, there is never ever any rafting up in the western med, ever, with one exception I can think of, in Cuitadella on Menorca.

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Voice of reason

Heck! I've obviously had too many drinks, we're agreeing on something /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

I suppose it would work if they did away with all their staff, and reduced costs that way. Then everyone could pay into an honesty box, and just let anyone that wanted to raft up do their own thing, rather than have the experienced staff in their little boats meet you and direct things.

How I would get past the Town Quay back into my own Haven Quay in Lymington would defeat me, as I've seen the idiots trying to raft so deep that they block the channel, but I don't suppose that would matter to the rafters if they've got themselves a tidy discount.

I suppose I can't really complain about this concept as I still like 'Anarchy in the UK'.

PS that's the 'Sex Pistols' for those that only ever listened to middle of the road

 

[tcm]

Re: Looking through Brendan S\'s Eyes

The anarchy aspect is attractive. If you play appropriate music you should get though, and for most close quater manoevres I tend to choose the music from the TV series Naked Gun gets most people hopping out of the way.

Ooh, and the title to my post is a reference to the single "Looking through Gary Gilmour's Eyes" by the Adverts, for those who can't remeber much about punk except the Sex Pistols, which were actually quite crap, fell apart after 1977 and were anyway nowhere near as good as the Stranglers, the Clash, Elvis Costello, and lots of others ;-)

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Looking through Brendan S\'s Eyes

The title track from Pulp Fiction which I always have with me when on the way to something interesting, as it always gets the blood pumping, would clear most out of the way!

Agree, the Sex Pistols quite crap really, but that wasn't the point at the time,
The Clash, Brill!, one of favourite groups of all time
The Stranglers were excellent until the time I saw them live, when they couldn't remember the opening riffs, kept getting them wrong, and kept trying over and over again <s> They totally lost credibility after that incident
Elvis Costello. Superb for first few albums, then went off into an abyss somewhere.
Then there was Billy Bragg. Still remember the lyrics from one track in his first album ...I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them, but they were only satellites. Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?

I think I'll make that my tag line

..and so many more...

Starting to feel old, the music then had something about it that's been lost these days

 

[tcm]

Ezekial 17:25

ooh vair good choices. We played pulp fiction on the hold music at work one Christmas, excellent fun.

 

[Viking]

Re: Marina & Harbour report back?

We've got a 'Pub, Restaurant report back'. Perhaps a Marina and Harbour factilies report back? 1 - may help improve matters and 2 - give a useful guide to others. I was thinking about coming over to Whitby but the thought of arriving after a couple of or more days at sea to what was discribed has put me right off.

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Ezekial 17:25

Can't find an Ezekiel 17:25, only goes up to 17:24, then chapter 18. What's the quote?

Pulp Fiction on hold would be brilliant, don't expect I could persuade my lot. Damn sight better than most of the rubbish you have to listen to <g>

 

[tcm]

Re: Ezekial 17:25

It's the pseudo-biblical quote that Samuel Jackson recites before blasting away his victims, notably at the druggies' flat. "The path of the righteous man is beset on sides by etc ...." might have been 25:17, but it's not actually diorectly from the bible anyway. Or mebbe your bible is a readers digest version?

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Ezekial 17:25

Oops!
I am the weakest link. Goodbye.

no wonder I couldn't find it. In the context, I really should have known that, I've seen the filum, and listened to the soundtrack enough times <s>