Rafting

[jimi]

Is it just me? Entering Weymouth on Saturday evening every raft we approached seemmed to have someone leaving at 3 in the morning and twice recently when we were on the end of a raft preparing to leave we have been rafted onto despite telling the raftors (in both cases they looked like charter groups) that we would be leaving in 10 minutes & there being plenty other places to go. Any hints on dealing with these people?

Jim

 

[JeremyF]

Better to be told, than not, that someone plans to leave early. When Bembridge used to cram people in 4 across, and 6 deep between two pontoons, someone in the middle, and two back from the front, decided to depart at 5.00 am one Sunday. Oh joy!

A bit of decent communication normally avoids problems. Avoid Sunsail groups at all costs.

Jeremy Flynn

 

[jimi]

Absolutely, however I'm sure it is used as a ploy to try & stop people rafting on them and also as a consequence when you are actually genuine then people take what you say with a liberal dose of salt! Perhaps there should be a pontoon in these places devoted to early departures.

Jim

 

[JeremyF]

Perhaps there's a simple solution. The Berthing Master should ask about intended departure time when booking them in. If there are plenty of pontoons (i.e. Yarmouth) that should keep the early folk together. If someone claims an early departure, but is still there when the Berthing Master comes on duty the next morning, the mooring fee is doubled. What d'ya think?

Jeremy Flynn

 

[Twister_Ken]

Love it.nm

§

 

[bigmart]

I seem to remember Libby Purves suggesting that, Hanging rows of Nappies down the side of you boat, is an excellent way of ensuring that you dont get any unwanted guests attached to you.

Martin

 

[jimi]

Would that be before or after being washed?

Jim

 

[Rob_Webb]

If you are actually on the outside of a raft preparing to leave then you are within your rights to ask the approaching boat to hold off for a few minutes to give you a chance to leave - in extremis, you can simply refuse to take their lines and keep them off what is, after all, your private property. If you are really about to leave in a short while they should happily dolly about until you slip out. Don't be shy!

 

[iangrant]

I always take up on the "oh we are leaving at 3 AM" - "OK I'll be up and we'll move out for you" - or, "well do you mind if we slip on your inside?" normally works. Nice fella in Gosport swapped and the fella on the inside of him agreed to slip out and secure us later! I've found most people friendly, about 90%.

I normally have had too much beer on sailing trips and am awoken by a full bladder very early in the morning anyway. I'm always tempted to wake the "awkward boat leaving at 3AM" to ask if they had overslept, because they are normally still there!

I don't have a problem with rafting up I hate:
Black/dirty shoes on my decks
People walking through the cockpit (a couple insisted on this route once in Lymington even after we had pointed out the etiquette) they did hit the kids head on the boom though, so that made me feel better.

Ian

 

[bigmart]

I would suspect that you can guess which would be most succesful.

The two pronged assault on the visual & olfactory senses has to be a real detterent.

Martin

 

[mldpt]

How about this for a great Idea, the inside boat pays the marina, and all the other boats negociate mooring fees with the boat they are laying alongside, should make for some interesting chat amongst crews.
Mike

 

[Rob_Webb]

I definitely think that all the boats on the raft should receive a proportional discount against the solo rate e.g. if one boat comes alongside you both only get charged 50%!

 

[jimi]

I think thats an excellent idea! I was rafted outside at East Cowes a few weeks ago & we were charged the same as if we had a pontoon to ourselves. Not fair!

Rafts should be primarily constructed on departure times rather than boat size.

Jim

 

[Rob_Webb]

Being sensible for a moment, the marinas would understandably argue that 2 boats equals twice the number of people using facilities, therefore they are jsutified to ask for 2 full baot charges.

But given the inconvenience, there might be a compromise formula whereby each boat pays 2/3 of the full price?!

 

[jimi]

If that were the case then charges ought to be based on the number of people on the boat!

Jim

 

[Rob_Webb]

Well, yes, strictly speaking that IS probably the fairest method, I suppose!

Number of people is certainly a good indicator of the facilities used, but it's a bit more difficult to enforce especially with people coming and going at different times. So I guess length is the next best indicator of the level of facilities used in that a larger boat is PROBABLY more likely to have more people onboard, use more water and electricity etc.

But length isn't a foolproof method is it? I mean, once a berth is taken it doesn't really matter whether it's a 30ft or 45ft boat in the berth - it's used. Only if you get really extreme and talk about the smallest boats (e.g. 22ft) when you might be able to squeeze two of them into a large boat's berth - but pretty rare really.

Thinking about it more, carparks tend to just charge per car don't they? You don't pay more for a longer car do you? And some of the ferry tarrifs charge just for the car whilst others charge per person - they only charge based on length when it gets extreme e.g. towing trailers.

And what about charging based on beam? Cat's DO use more space than the same length monohull, but then again unless they block 2 berths do they actually cost the marina more to accomodate?

Oh dear, maybe we've (re)opened a big debate about pricing....?

Rob

 

[jimi]

Yes .. its about time there was a decent argument about someting other than sailing boats v motor boats! I do wonder why I pay more for my home berth as I'm longer than the boat next door when in reality I'm just taking up a unit of boat space!

Jim

 

[Rob_Webb]

Exactly! Right, I sniff a fresh thread about best approach/options for berthing charges etc. I'll write something now and see how it goes. I just hope it's not something that has already been discussed to death and people are bored by it - but as a realtively new user I would welcome people's views, so here goes.....

Rob

 

[tony_brighton]

Cats typically pay 50% extra.

 

[Rob_Webb]

Really? I didn't realise. Is that for visitor's berths and permanent moorings?