Santa Eleni marina Venice. Anyone been there recently? I need a bit of help.

[Bertramdriver]

I'm well into writing my next book. Much of the action (one kidnapping and two murders) takes place on a mobo and a Bavaria 50 moored in Santa Elani Marina Venice. Problem is I've never been there (yet) so I'm looking for someone to fill in the details for me and help me avoid a boo boo. Action then spreads out around the island with much skulduggery and dirty doings.
The book will be called "The Silverfish Conspiracy'" and it's the sequel to my recent book "Phoenician Bay: Death by Sword" out now in all good book sellers.
I hate the idea of writing about a place I haven't actually been but this was the only suitable location I could find that drives the plot forward, so help would be appreciated

 

[Sticky Fingers]

I've been there on foot (well, vaporetto) in the last 8 weeks, I can maybe answer some simple questions.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Thanks for the offer. Questions I need answers to
Is the marina as empty and neglected as the Google photos show?
Is there an easy access for a van from the bridge to the island to the north entrance to the pontoons?
Is the height of the marina walls low enough for you to easily step down onto the deck of a moored boat?
Is there much of a current running through the marina. What's the tidal range?
Would a vaporetto drop a customer inside or against the outside wall of the marina?

I know it's a long shot but every neglect of info helps

 

[Roberto]

The correct name is "Sant'Elena", even better, "Porticciolo De Zottis"; it's not a proper marina but under management of a club named "Diporto Velico Veneziano", it is often full if your pictures show it empty they were probably taken during holiday season (or wintering)
Web site:
http://www.dvv.it/16/welcome
Narrow entrance with cross current, I doubt very much any public means might do it except a taxi.
My info is rather dated, contact user "jaba", Venitian he kept his boat not far from there.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Adding what I can to Roberto's post:

Is the marina as empty and neglected as the Google photos show?
Not empty at all, was probably at least 90% full and was not neglected. Maintenance guys in action when we were there, watering, grass, flowers.

Is there an easy access for a van from the bridge to the island to the north entrance to the pontoons?
You can get to the Church easily with a vehicle. Here
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.4...4!1s4SPVW2oHY_E22S31ZsD5jg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Is the height of the marina walls low enough for you to easily step down onto the deck of a moored boat?
By walls I assume you mean the dock side. Not easily. Could jump? Pontoons fine.

Is there much of a current running through the marina. What's the tidal range?
Don't know about current. Minimal tidal range. Under 20cm I'd guess. Winter you get the raised water level problem (acqua alta), 1m or more of rise.
https://quickvenice.com/more/acqua-alta.htm


Would a vaporetto drop a customer inside or against the outside wall of the marina?
Not a vaporetto. A water taxi would def drop you inside if you wanted.

Hope this helps!


Graham

 

[AndrewB]

I visited there for a week both in 2016 and 2017. From the best of my memory, the answers to your questions are:

1. It was indeed fairly empty on both occasions (not surprising at €100 per night for an 11m yacht), though this was in May and September, not high season.
2. The only way to get a road vehicle to the marina would be to have it landed on Sant'Elena island. Given you've plotted that in, you can drive it fairly easily to Sant'Elena Church along the pedestrian streets and over the bridges. The main way into the marina is a footpath beside the Church, which passes through a gate. I doubt a van could make it through that, so it could not get closer than about 100m to the nearest docks. But it would be no problem for a motor-bike.
3. The dock height is such that you could step aboard a small yacht or motorboat if it was moored close-to.
4. There is no perceptible current within the marina, but quite strong across the entrance. Venice tides are notoriously variable. Average range about 0.5m, but can be much greater during an 'acqua alta' event.
5. It's not a regular vaporetto stop (Sant'Elena stop is about half a mile away). I seem to recall it is shallow on the outside (except through the entrance). Water taxis drop inside, and if your plot requires it there would be room for a vaporetto to do so on the outer wall just inside the entrance, though there are usually superyachts in the way.

As Roberto says, the correct name is Sant'Elena (sometimes written as one word).

 

[RichardS]

We stayed there for 4 nights in July 2016. The marina was still being built then and there was a toilet and shower block which we still not quite finished. The reception was finished and there was an open air bar but no cafe or restaurant.

It was a about half full of boats but, apart from us, there was hardly anyone around. No noticeable tide.

Richard

 

[BrianH]

There may be some confusion with the new marina at the southern end of the island of Sant'Elena, 'Marina SantElena Resort' and the club marina Diporto Velico Veneziano', The former is very new with many spare berths while the latter is full with club-members' boats and where I would always find a spare mooring in the season when there were often spare berths available for a limited period when the club-member would be away cruising. I paid €30 a night for a 10m berth, while the new marina, as RichardS points out, is very much more expensive.

In the chart below the new marina is shown as VEN59 and the Diporto Velico Veneziano basin is the southernmost part of VEN23 only, with its entrance from the Canale delle Nave.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Gentlemen. Thank you for your help and advice. Two more questions
Can you describe the smell around the marina (ven59 on the now invaluable chart)?
Are you aware of church bells ringing?
Are there any other sights, sounds smells or events which stick in your memory?
I cannot tell you how helpful your contributions have been. I should have been there but fate has decreed that for a while I should go blind with sudden onset cataracts and damaged corneas which have cost me my boat and two years of my life. We only got as far north as Corfu before my wife put her foot down and the Bertram had to go.
However now waiting for final eye op to heal and hoping to get in a weeks visit to Venice during October, so I can at least honestly say I've been there.
Once more thanks.

 

[RichardS]

There may be some confusion with the new marina at the southern end of the island of Sant'Elena, 'Marina SantElena Resort' and the club marina Diporto Velico Veneziano', The former is very new with many spare berths while the latter is full with member's boats and where I would always find a spare mooring in the season when there were often spare berths available for a limited period when the club member would be away cruising. I paid €30 a night for a 10m berth, while the new marina, as RichardS points out, is more expensive.

In the chart below the new marina is shown as VEN59 and the Diporto Velico Veneziano basin is the southern part of VEN23, with its entrance from the Canale delle Nave.

Indeed VEN59 is the Sant Elena Marina that we were in. I took a couple of photos around the marina.

To give a bit of context, this one is taken from the top of the Campanile in St Mark's Square over the top of the Doge's Palace. The vaporetto stop in the far distance on the right of the trees is Sant Elena. The marina is on the other side of the trees from the vaporetto stop. I thought that our mast might be visible over the top of the trees but I can't see any masts.

This one is our cat in the marina. The parasols are the outdoor bar, the white building just to the right on the far side of the grassy area is the reception and the white building to the right of that is the toilet and shower block. That's all there was in 2016.

The last one is our cat in the marina taken from a vaporetto as we drove past the marina heading towards the Sant Elena stop just around the corner. We disembarked at the stop but the vaporetto carries on along the main channel to San Marco. It's a 5 minute walk from the Sant Elena stop to the marina, passing through the wood, past a hotel and some homes and then passing between the walls of the Naval College on one side and a sports ground (Venice FC possibly) and then past the old church with the square tower. There a short dead end created by the long marina pontoon alongside which we are moored and I can imagine the some boats have turned into the marina from the channel and have gone down the dead end before realising their mistake.

You can see the square church tower which is right next to the marina in the first photo. Now I look again, I think you can see the top of our mast just to the left of the tower. I've never spotted that before.

Richard

 

[RichardS]

Gentlemen. Thank you for your help and advice. Two more questions
Can you describe the smell around the marina (ven59 on the now invaluable chart)?
Are you aware of church bells ringing?
Are there any other sights, sounds smells or events which stick in your memory?

The bells in the church campanile next to the marina do ring during the day, but I don't recall them ringing in the night although I do sleep soundly.

This is my Wife standing at the "dead end" created by the long pontoon. You can see where the bells are located.

This is the Naval College also taken from the vaporetto immediately after the photo I took of the marina. You can see the woods, and, of course, the campanile in the background.

Perhaps the Naval College (I assume that's what it is but I don't speak much Italian) could feature in the story?

Richard

 

[Roberto]

Perhaps the Naval College (I assume that's what it is but I don't speak much Italian) could feature in the story?

"Collegio Morosini", prestigious school, girls admitted only from 2009, pupils are called "Birilli" by Venetians (I don't know the English term, "birilli" are those pieces one tries to hit while playing bowling) because of the way they are taught to walk, keeping a straight up posture (sometimes referred to in a much less courteous ways).

Richard in one of your pictures, the red boat with the design of a lion head on the transom is "Moro di Venezia", challenger in one of the earlier AC, he lost the final to AmericaCube at the time.


(OP forget what I wrote, just referring to DVV)

 

[Sticky Fingers]

"Collegio Morosini", prestigious school, girls admitted only from 2009, pupils are called "Birilli" by Venetians (I don't know the English term, "birilli" are those pieces one tries to hit while playing bowling) because of the way they are taught to walk, keeping a straight up posture (sometimes referred to in a much less courteous ways).

Roberto, "Skittles" is the English term. Maybe "pins" in US English (as in "10-pin bowling")

 

[Roberto]

Roberto, "Skittles" is the English term. Maybe "pins" in US English (as in "10-pin bowling")

:encouragement:

 

[Old Bumbulum]

A 30sec google search revealed Ryanair offering a return trip Bristol-Venice for £45

Wouldn't that be a better way of doing it?

 

[Sticky Fingers]

The OP is / has become blind.

 

[Bertramdriver]

The OP is / has become blind.

Thank you for the concern. Following heavy surgery over the past two years I now have recovered sight in both eyes. Not good enough to drive/pilot but ok for writing with a v large VDU. I'm hoping that God will gift me improving sight enough for me to make the trip before submission date so I can check out the details.
The contributions from all of you are invaluable and really humbles me at your kindness. Thank you.
Ps currently struggling with how my two heroes manage to board a Pershing 84 without being seen when it's manoeuvring to leave the marina. (Start facing east) The time is sunset in June. They've been sitting on the pontoons in a Bavaria 50 opposite the Pershing which is moored on the outer southern mole when they witness a murder and the kidnapping of their friend.
Playing it through in my head is a bit like taking on an unwinable arcade game. How would you do it? And don't say I wouldn't start from there.

 

[AndrewB]

Playing it through in my head is a bit like taking on an unwinable arcade game. How would you do it? And don't say I wouldn't start from there.

We had a childhood story-telling game that went like this. We did a page in turn, and then the next player took over. Of course, the aim was to leave the 'hero' in an impossible predicament from which the next player then had to rescue him. Would you like us to try this here?

Yachts the size of a Pershing 84 generally moor alongside in the San Marco canal between Arsenale and Zaccaria vaparetto stops, not in a marina.

Good luck with your sight. Do visit Venice, which is inspirational (specially so if you sail in), and not only for writing a book.