Sutton marina

I had a forced stay there for three nights. Very convenient and as always the staff and marina is excellent but the price has crept up yet again to £4 a metre.
Qab isn’t much cheaper I wonder if there is some sort of cartel system in operation here?
I used marinas extensively when cruising but not now. I’ve reduced it to about 30% of my previous stays. Good business?
If it’s full then yes but I’m not so sure as to the empty berths available.
Chatting with with a berth holder who confirmed a big exodus to the haven marina and mayflower due to price hikes by Sutton holdings.
 
For up to 12.5m:

Sutton Harbour: 4.00
QAB: 3.90
Plymouth Yacht Haven: 3.60
Kings Point: 3.50
Mayflower: 3.40

QAB is 4.90 for 12.6-18m. Sutton is 4.40 for 13.4m+. QAB is the only one not offering 7 nights for 5 (they do 7 for 6 with their cruising club) making it the most expensive option for a week (and you're rafted up).

So what's with Plymouth? This is more than the Hamble. QAB is more expensive than Hamble Point, also owned by MDL. At hamble point at least they'll give you your own finger berth. House prices in plymouth seem substantially less than south hampshire. Cost of living in plymouth is lower: Allspars at QAB charge less for labour than Allspars at Swanwick (marina berthing 3.25/m/night in summer).

Is the Royal Western conspiring to keep the riff-raff out?
 
laika said:
For up to 12.5m:

Sutton Harbour: 4.00
QAB: 3.90
Plymouth Yacht Haven: 3.60
Kings Point: 3.50
Mayflower: 3.40

QAB is 4.90 for 12.6-18m. Sutton is 4.40 for 13.4m+. QAB is the only one not offering 7 nights for 5 (they do 7 for 6 with their cruising club) making it the most expensive option for a week (and you're rafted up).

So what's with Plymouth? This is more than the Hamble. QAB is more expensive than Hamble Point, also owned by MDL. At hamble point at least they'll give you your own finger berth. House prices in plymouth seem substantially less than south hampshire. Cost of living in plymouth is lower: Allspars at QAB charge less for labour than Allspars at Swanwick (marina berthing 3.25/m/night in summer).

Is the Royal Western conspiring to keep the riff-raff out?
Click to expand...

No, but all Plymouth marinas offer a 50% discount for anyone with an address in Devon................if only:)
 
laika said:
For up to 12.5m:

Sutton Harbour: 4.00
QAB: 3.90
Plymouth Yacht Haven: 3.60
Kings Point: 3.50
Mayflower: 3.40

So what's with Plymouth? ........

Is the Royal Western conspiring to keep the riff-raff out?
Click to expand...


It's getting on for 40 miles to the next marina going west or east so if you must visit a marina (arguably many people now do little else) Plymouth has something of a monopoly. Same thing if you want to base a boat in the area.

They may feel the pinch in the coming years, none of them is rammed and a number seem to be kept going by Princess Yachts. King Point is very thinly populated and there always seems to be bags of room at Mayflower.


I have never heard of this 50% discount for residents, if it existed I might be able to afford a marina berth.
 
doug748 said:
It's getting on for 40 miles to the next marina going west or east so if you must visit a marina (arguably many people now do little else) Plymouth has something of a monopoly. Same thing if you want to base a boat in the area.

They may feel the pinch in the coming years, none of them is rammed and a number seem to be kept going by Princess Yachts. King Point is very thinly populated and there always seems to be bags of room at Mayflower.


I have never heard of this 50% discount for residents, if it existed I might be able to afford a marina berth.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of a 50% discount for Devon residents either. It's certainly never been offered.

I work overlooking King Point Marina. At the moment it's about 50% full (or 50% empty, depending on your outlook). When I last asked, they have a 30 foot minimum charge (as do Sutton, I think) and charge for an overnight stay if you want to stop for some food at the café. Since I sail a 21' boat, these places are laughably expensive.
 
longjohnsilver said:
Is there anywhere more expensive for a one night stay?
Click to expand...

Giblets said:
Nearly £5/m!!!

Ye gods that makes The Solent look quite cheap!
Click to expand...

clyst said:
£40 for an 11mtr boat in Darthaven Marina this week . Won't be going back .
Click to expand...

You should all think yourself lucky that St Kats in London is not on your door step. £104 per night for 12.5m. Yes, that is per night!

Rates start at £7.5 pm for sub 10m boats and go up to £9.10 pm for 28m+
 
ronsurf said:
I've never heard of a 50% discount for Devon residents either. It's certainly never been offered.

I work overlooking King Point Marina. At the moment it's about 50% full (or 50% empty, depending on your outlook). When I last asked, they have a 30 foot minimum charge (as do Sutton, I think) and charge for an overnight stay if you want to stop for some food at the café. Since I sail a 21' boat, these places are laughably expensive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we found that as well a couple of years ago. Mayflower and PYH (and even sometimes Royal William Yard if you get the right side of the ferry driver/"harbourmaster") are more than happy to let you in for free for a few hours over lunch if you are using the eateries, but King Point, "No sir", full rate even for a couple of hours stop to eat at the Dock or whatever it's called.
 
CLB said:
You should all think yourself lucky that St Kats in London is not on your door step. £104 per night for 12.5m. Yes, that is per night!

Rates start at £7.5 pm for sub 10m boats and go up to £9.10 pm for 28m+
Click to expand...

Try one of the marinas on Long Island, NY.NY. I’ve only yachted there once and remember it was expensive. I’ve just done a quick Google and week end rates for a 40’ boat are perhaps £180 per night Thursday through Sunday .
 
john_morris_uk said:
Try one of the marinas on Long Island, NY.NY. I’ve only yachted there once and remember it was expensive. I’ve just done a quick Google and week end rates for a 40’ boat are perhaps £180 per night Thursday through Sunday .
Click to expand...

I guess Monaco and St Tropez could be added to the list, but in terms of us UK boaters, is there a more expensive Marina to visit than ST Kats?
 
We had a great time and deal in Sutton. In there for a couple of weeks one being the fireworks and jazz festivals. We saw all the things around we wanted to and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. No queues at the showers as we chose our time to go. With power, water and all comfort of the marina and no tide run through it was good. Staff were great and helpful. I do my homework first so expected a cost, but compared to some places where you get nothing more than a buoy for £20 a night it was worth it. Returned home to Falmouth after five weeks away thoroughly relaxed.
 
CLB said:
I guess Monaco and St Tropez could be added to the list, but in terms of us UK boaters, is there a more expensive Marina to visit than ST Kats?
Click to expand...

Last (and only) time I went into Monaco I couldn’t get anyone to take any money for our stay. The 36’ twin engined powerboat was probably too small to raise the paperwork for?

Lots of Med marinas can be a bit pricey. Try Puerto Portals or some of the Palma marinas... or some of the Italian ones...
 
We stayed at Sutton for a couple of nights before leaving our boat at Torpoint for a month. On our return we headed back to Sutton for an overnighter and were allocated berth A4 - furthest point in and close to the wall. When I realised I asked whether they had anything easier (the marina was by no means full and we’d been on D the previous visit) but was told “No, A4 will be fine for you”. We never found out. We went back through the lock and across to PYH which will be our marina of choice when we visit again. Wasn’t price but the person that drove us away from Sutton.

BTW, Torpoint seems to be a great place to leave a boat for an extended period - secure moorings (10mm chain is unlikely to chafe), excellent ferry service and reasonable rates.
 
Another negative if planning to use a car for provisioning: Sutton Harbour charge £8 per day for car parking on top of the visitor berthing fee
 
Last edited:
All this is very sad, I always went to Sutton when in Plymouth, including for crew changes by car.

I haven't managed to get even that far west for a long time now for various reasons, and won't this year barring a miracle; by the time I'm that way again it sounds like Sutton will have driven themselves bust.
 
Tomaret said:
We stayed at Sutton for a couple of nights before leaving our boat at Torpoint for a month. On our return we headed back to Sutton for an overnighter and were allocated berth A4 - furthest point in and close to the wall. When I realised I asked whether they had anything easier (the marina was by no means full and we’d been on D the previous visit) but was told “No, A4 will be fine for you”. We never found out. We went back through the lock and across to PYH which will be our marina of choice when we visit again. Wasn’t price but the person that drove us away from Sutton.

.
Click to expand...
As a matter of interest, what was wrong with A4? I'm in Sutton now and it looks like a fine berth, plenty of room unlike the berth I've been allocated which just squeezes in between two mobos, and close to the shoreside facilities..,
 
Hmmm Why did we leave the UK?
Paid €17 @45' last week for an alongside berth with elec and water in the sunshine. Let me think about it for a minute...
 
freespiritdavid said:
We had a great time and deal in Sutton. In there for a couple of weeks one being the fireworks and jazz festivals. We saw all the things around we wanted to and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. No queues at the showers as we chose our time to go. With power, water and all comfort of the marina and no tide run through it was good. Staff were great and helpful. I do my homework first so expected a cost, but compared to some places where you get nothing more than a buoy for £20 a night it was worth it. Returned home to Falmouth after five weeks away thoroughly relaxed.
Click to expand...

Still expensive no matter how you look at it unless you have a small boat.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top