South coast Cruising ?

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victorm

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Hello,

hope you may be able to help, I am thinking of getting a cruising boat, I would like to get one before I retire, however I am not sure if you can sail from your home port and stop over at other ports for a week or more, then move on.

I would need to return to work for a week or two and return to move onto another port. I can see visitor moorings are available in most ports but they seem to be up to 24 hours and can be expensive, the next tariff mentioned is an annual birth, can you get a mooring for a week or two in most places?

Would membership of the RYA help in this area, are there associated clubs that may be able to provide a mooring that can be used in this way?

I can see that if I purchase a boat, it may not be on the south coast, I may not have enough time off to get it to my home port in one trip, so may need to stop over on this journey as well.

How do you all get about to other places if you have to work between cruising?

Is this going to stop me in my tracks with getting a boat?

Thanks for your help.
 
No - you can poke up anywhere provided you are happy to pay the marinas. You can take a berth for as long or short a time as you like. It's as well to radio ahead to book in and get advice on entry.
 
Welcome to the forum

What you are proposing is possible. However, you have already identified the barriers. You can always find temporary short term berths, but they tend to be expensive, particularly if you want easy access. You don't say where you are located but in general public transport can be a problem, and many marinas or moorings are in places that are not easily accessible except by car.

The norm is to find a permanent base where you can keep your boat when not using it. There are many choices - moorings, clubs, marinas at different price levels with corresponding facilities. You can then go cruising as you describe, but return to your base. Some people do spend all their time cruising from place to place, but it requires a lot of organisation if you want to return home for work, plus ofcourse most sailing stops in the winter.

RYA membership is useful, but not in the way you think. Provides lots of information on sailing, but at a high level rather than the type you need to support cruising. This is provided by things like pilot books, charts, almanacs, dedicated cruising books for specific areas, local publications etc - much of it now available on line or in electronic form.

A good start would be to take an introduction to sailing course with a sailing school to see if you actually like sailing. That will clarify lots of things for you to help you choose a suitable boat and appreciate what is involved in cruising. You can build on this in many ways, such as joining a club to get experience of crewing for others, or taking more advanced courses leading to RYA qualifications.

Others will be along soon with other ideas and experiences.

Plenty of books, magazines, blogs, forums, youtube videos etc to whet your appetite.
 
Reminds me of a lubber we were talking to. We mentioned that we sailed across the North Sea to the Netherlands and it could take up to 30 hours. "Where do you stop for the night?" was the question.
 
Can you smell posts? In polite company only if you are a dog, I suppose.

What exactly does a troll smell like?
 
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Thank you for your reply, unlike some of the others I have seen, this was very useful.

I am not sure that the information I am asking is anything un usual

I do not feel very welcome here !







Tranona said:
Welcome to the forum

What you are proposing is possible. However, you have already identified the barriers. You can always find temporary short term berths, but they tend to be expensive, particularly if you want easy access. You don't say where you are located but in general public transport can be a problem, and many marinas or moorings are in places that are not easily accessible except by car.

The norm is to find a permanent base where you can keep your boat when not using it. There are many choices - moorings, clubs, marinas at different price levels with corresponding facilities. You can then go cruising as you describe, but return to your base. Some people do spend all their time cruising from place to place, but it requires a lot of organisation if you want to return home for work, plus ofcourse most sailing stops in the winter.

RYA membership is useful, but not in the way you think. Provides lots of information on sailing, but at a high level rather than the type you need to support cruising. This is provided by things like pilot books, charts, almanacs, dedicated cruising books for specific areas, local publications etc - much of it now available on line or in electronic form.

A good start would be to take an introduction to sailing course with a sailing school to see if you actually like sailing. That will clarify lots of things for you to help you choose a suitable boat and appreciate what is involved in cruising. You can build on this in many ways, such as joining a club to get experience of crewing for others, or taking more advanced courses leading to RYA qualifications.

Others will be along soon with other ideas and experiences.

Plenty of books, magazines, blogs, forums, youtube videos etc to whet your appetite.
Click to expand...
 
victorm said:
Thank you for your reply, unlike some of the others I have seen, this was very useful.

I am not sure that the information I am asking is anything un usual

I do not feel very welcome here !
Click to expand...

Don't worry ... there are pompous know-nothing gits on every forum who think it's amusing to take the mickey out of beginners. They're the losers.
Welcome to the forum and I hope you find out how much pleasure boating can give you ... :encouragement:
 
A further suggestion is to berth with a major marina chain like MDL and use their Freedom berthing package. http://www.mdlmarinas.co.uk/freedom

Several of my near berth holders use this to move from Chatham to the Solent for 3 months every summer. This means they pay less than half of what a Solent berth holder pays, but they have to keep moving the boat regularly. This might suit you very well.
 
victorm said:
Hello,

hope you may be able to help, I am thinking of getting a cruising boat, I would like to get one before I retire, however I am not sure if you can sail from your home port and stop over at other ports for a week or more, then move on.

I would need to return to work for a week or two and return to move onto another port. I can see visitor moorings are available in most ports but they seem to be up to 24 hours and can be expensive, the next tariff mentioned is an annual birth, can you get a mooring for a week or two in most places?

Would membership of the RYA help in this area, are there associated clubs that may be able to provide a mooring that can be used in this way?

I can see that if I purchase a boat, it may not be on the south coast, I may not have enough time off to get it to my home port in one trip, so may need to stop over on this journey as well.

How do you all get about to other places if you have to work between cruising?

Is this going to stop me in my tracks with getting a boat?

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

welcome to the forum, it all depends on your budget, most marinas allow days, weeks, months, annual stays. if you know how long your staying in advance say a month you can usually get a discounted daily rate.

when i was looking to buy a boat i considered the journey back and would have just booked a week or two in a marina along the way, luckily i found my boat in the solent and also took over the mooring which has served me well so far

as for cruising i tend to sail in loops, would be nice to afford leaving the boat in a marina while continuing on but its costs a pretty penny and transport to/from the boat can become troublesome.

^^ i ve resigned to the fact until i retire i have to remain static somewhat within a set area this way i can plan on getting back within 2-3 weeks but to be fair from the solent thats isle of scilly to Dover, the channel islands, northern France and everything in-between so theres plenty to go at. so yeah 2-3 week chunks or as much time as i can get off in one sitting :) my work is also flexible should i book 2 weeks off and the weather is crap so i need another 1-2 days to get home

if you've not been sailing before - give it a go, plenty of people doing day sails, weekend tasters etc, this will give you a feel for what its all about, and perhaps answer the question of how often you will actually use the boat.

if you don't use your boat its better both financially and time spent fixing stuff to just rent one :), if like me you love the sea and are out every chance you get boat ownership is wonderful and the best thing i ever did.

you can also join sailing clubs etc plenty of people offer to take anyone out sailing for free, i do it for our club when i can, its an excuse to get out on the water!

this forum is a funny place though, don't take it to heart
 
Hi,

Thanks for the replies, I have done some sailing many years ago (25+), it was a small 19ft monohull, so have some experience, I have found a potential mooring in the river Hamble, so would be looking to be sailing around the Solent and maybe down as far as Falmouth, I will have to contact some Marina's and see what they can offer.

Currently looking at a Catamaran lying on the east coast, so the first adventure would be getting it to the solent, may get some practice with it on the east coast first.

Thanks again.

Vic
 
With a cat you have the benefit of being able to put it on a drying berth, which tend to be a lot cheaper.

When cruising around, decide where you want to go, and then look and ask around as to where the best place is to leave a boat for a week or two. Someone local will usually point you in the direction of a boatyard or club that can accommodate your boat without paying marina fees.
 
johnalison said:
Reminds me of a lubber we were talking to. We mentioned that we sailed across the North Sea to the Netherlands and it could take up to 30 hours. "Where do you stop for the night?" was the question.
Click to expand...
When I visited Portsmouth Historic Dockyard a nice lady volunteer told us in the days of sail ships worked their way up the coast by going into harbours each night. I said nothing but my companion said 'your face was a picture.'

ps 'good luck with your project' to the original poster.
 
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