Swinging vs Marina Moorings

[Little Dorrit]

Given that the price of swinging moorings is considerably below the price of a marina berth (as much as £2,500 p.a for a 27 foot boat) I decided to make a list of the disadvantages of a swinging mooring over a marina berth and thought I might enlist some help!

I can understand that if you're driving down from London to the South Coast on a Friday evening for a weekend then a swinging mooring that does not have easy access at all tides is going to be unsuitable. However lets assume you can plan around tides and that you can be flexible with departure and arrival times - that's one big disadvantage dealt with. And lets also assume you are within reasonable reach of a marina or other location with a jetty and power for any ongoing maintenance.

This seems to cover most swinging mooring situations so I was just looking for some help drawing up a list of the slightly less obvious disadvantages before I commit.

 

[JumbleDuck]

This seems to cover most swinging mooring situations so I was just looking for some help drawing up a list of the slightly less obvious disadvantages before I commit.

I keep my boat on a swinging mooring, which costs me £200 per annum in Crown Estates fee, maintenance and replacement. Apart from the access issue, I don't think there are any disadvantages at all. I generally only take the boat off the mooring five or six times a year, so each return trip in the dinghy saves me about £500 compared to the costs of the adjacent marina. I generally spend a night in the marina before and after a long trip.

If I was using the boat a lot more frequently then I would certainly consider a marina, but as well as the cost I think there are more things to worry about there: fenders, chafing lines, larcenous passers-by, cack-handed visitors and so on.

The one big thing to consider, is, I think, convenient dinghy storage. If you've got a plan for that, swinging is fun!

 

[Seajet]

As for the tide / time thing, my club has half tide moorings - but in fact the boats are accessible by dinghy a lot more than half the time, one only needs a few inches of water to get to and fro in the tender - we do indeed have members who live and work in London who come down on a Friday evening; if one can't get on the boat immediately it's just a case of waiting in the club or pub for a while.

A mooring is ' yours ' all the time you pay for it, unlike a marina berth it would be highly unusual for a club or yard etc to sub-let it the moment you are away on your boat.

Moorings are very much easier to approach in strong winds inc gales, as one can usually approach from any direction.

A lot more privacy on moorings, you can be in the cabin starkers and people won't walk past peering in.

If you're into wildlife there's usually a lot around moorings.

At my all-volunteer club we form working parties to maintain the moorings, nothing beats having seen oneself that everything is secure in good condition; this doesn't just apply to professionally supplied moorings where one has to take their word for it, whole marina pontoons can and do break adrift !

I'll think of a lot more pro's re moorings the moment I hit ' send ' !

 

[wizard]

Given that the price of swinging moorings is considerably below the price of a marina berth (as much as £2,500 p.a for a 27 foot boat) I decided to make a list of the disadvantages of a swinging mooring over a marina berth and thought I might enlist some help!

I can understand that if you're driving down from London to the South Coast on a Friday evening for a weekend then a swinging mooring that does not have easy access at all tides is going to be unsuitable. However lets assume you can plan around tides and that you can be flexible with departure and arrival times - that's one big disadvantage dealt with. And lets also assume you are within reasonable reach of a marina or other location with a jetty and power for any ongoing maintenance.




Your location states Portsmouth and Gosport boat yard runs a launch service 7 days a week with late nights on friday and sunday to their moorings. This removes the big inconvenience of getting to and from the boat in a dinghy (and storage or transporting said dinghy). Some yacht clubs along the south coast run similar schemes.

Pros: Your boat on a swing mooring lays head to wind, no fenders rubbing and you can come and go without the rigmarole of ropes and fenders.

Cons: unless you are on a serviced mooring as above you may well worry when back at home and the wind is howling, is anyone going to break into/ bash my lonely boat, and if in the wrong location how much bird carp will I need to clean off before I can set sail.

No doubt others will be along soon to add to the pros and cons.

 

[Little Dorrit]

...The one big thing to consider, is, I think, convenient dinghy storage. If you've got a plan for that, swinging is fun!

Yes I agree with that point and my new potential mooring has just that and is probably within rowing distance.

The Crown Estates moorings are very cheap; I would suggest you keep the cost a secret as anything that helps reduce the defect is going to get some attention!

 

[Little Dorrit]

Yes the birds are a problem but for some reason they leave some boats alone - I have never understood why? I have seen two boats side by side which to me appear quite similar but birds there seems to some big difference. I guess I will not know if my boat is bird friendly or not until I try it out.

 

[LadyInBed]

I would lookat the pros and cons under these headings:
Cost
Convinience
Access
Parking
Security

 

[Kelpie]

Moorings are easier to sail on and off- we often go for a day sail without even turning the batteries on, let alone the engine.

Two things I like about a berth are the social aspect, and knowing that there is more than just one bit of rope stopping my boat from drifting away in the next storm...

Most insurers won't cover you through the winter on a mooring.

 

[vyv_cox]

Your age has a lot to do with it. We kept boats on swinging moorings for years and although there was hassle involved we had no objections because it was the only berth we could afford. Now, with dodgy knees and backs there is no way we would go back to dragging the dinghy full of gear 100 metres down the beach, motoring for more than half a mile and clambering on board in the pouring rain. Fortunately we are now better off than we were then, so a pontoon berth is affordable.

 

[Bodach na mara]

The Crown Estates moorings are very cheap; I would suggest you keep the cost a secret as anything that helps reduce the defect is going to get some attention!

I don't know about where you are, but the Crown Estates does not own or provide any moorings anywhere that I have looked. What they do is charge you a not inconsiderable sum (£70 last time I looked) for the privilege of laying a mooring. As in YOU provide the gear and lay it, or pay someone else to lay it. If you join a mooring scheme (often through a club) the charge falls to around £40.

And for this you get nothing. Someone uses your mooring? Tough luck. Someone else lays foul of yours? Not our problem squire. Unlicensed moorings where yours should be? We'll look into it and try to charge them. But don't expect them to do anything practical like removing the offenders.

Cheap-skate robbers they are. Cheap they are not.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Shame on you, Vyv, motoring? what's wrong with rowing? Mind you mines not half a mile away!

Your age has a lot to do with it. We kept boats on swinging moorings for years and although there was hassle involved we had no objections because it was the only berth we could afford. Now, with dodgy knees and backs there is no way we would go back to dragging the dinghy full of gear 100 metres down the beach, motoring for more than half a mile and clambering on board in the pouring rain. Fortunately we are now better off than we were then, so a pontoon berth is affordable.

 

[TonyBuckley]

Your location states Portsmouth and Gosport boat yard runs a launch service 7 days a week with late nights on friday and sunday to their moorings. This removes the big inconvenience of getting to and from the boat in a dinghy (and storage or transporting said dinghy). Some yacht clubs along the south coast run similar schemes.

I am now in Haslar, but used to be a swinging mooring with Gosport Boat Yard in Spider Lake for several years.

The taxi service is very good but it could add upto an hour (worst case) of time to get onboard. And VERY frustratingly there was no VHF contact so if you missed your pick up slot, you had to swing by Hardway and make sure they knew you still needed the taxi. That was sometimes tricky (or rather nerve wracking) at Low Water. And one of the taxi pilots was the most miserable and unhelpful blokes anyone could wish to meet, but probably changed now.

Best bit about Haslar, is I know I could go there at ANY time in any weather condition, but used to stay at hotels if necessary ready for an early morning get on board. Begrudged the hotel costs but happy when factored against the much higher marina costs.

 

[C08]

I think apart from the concept of getting a dinghy down to the water, all your stuff and other people the key thing in my mind is the distance and nature of the journey to the moored boat by dinghy. All the real scares I have had have been dinghy trips to or from my mooring. I was swept backwards at about 5knots under the bridge at Conway after my outboard failed and rowing just reduced the speed backwards. A dark night at Red Wharf Bay at Anglesy the tide was ferocious and me and SWMBO realised there was no way and just managed to create an angle on the outgoing tide and beach the tender just before the open sea. Portmadog I was struggling to row and could not understand why-the double skin on the Bic tender had filled with water and weighed a ton and was dangerously unstable even on a 200 yd trip. I never had a problem at Beaumaris as I was only 50 yds from the road and there was little tide there. I was on a club mooring at Fareham and only 400 yds from the club pontoon but against the tide and wind getting to the boat was heart attack material without any people, dogs or load.
The bottom line is that if you go for the swinging mooring option it is important where it is, how far and how the tides run and what risks you are prepared to take. You only need the outboard engine to stop or break or lose an oar on a wild night in the wrong place and at best some very hard work to retrieve the situation and worst your in the oggin with all that entails.
If you sail solo it is much easier to drop and pickup a swinger or trot mooring than a pontoon and for many that tips the balance.
I hope you make the choice which is right for you as every individual requirement is different eg we have 2 dogs getting old and rounding them up to take ashore 3 times a day is a chore I can do without. Ideal for us is a club pontoon without the frills of a marina but at a quarter marina rates.

 

[vyv_cox]

Shame on you, Vyv, motoring? what's wrong with rowing? Mind you mines not half a mile away!

We are talking Menai Strait, tides up to four knots where we had our mooring, almost always windy as the Strait lies SW-NE, four people in the inflatable. There have been occasions when even our 4 HP outboard struggled to get back to the shore. When we had an inflatable with rather small tubes that was mostly left on board I recall several times when it was totally swamped with only two of us on board. Nowadays when we normally anchor not too far from the shore and there are no tides we only use the outboard maybe three or four times per year.

 

[pvb]

If you sail solo it is much easier to drop and pickup a swinger or trot mooring than a pontoon and for many that tips the balance.

I really can't agree with that. I often single-hand, and much prefer the simplicity of pontoon mooring.

The real danger of swinging moorings, as you've identified, is getting to and from it. For me, the marina fees are well worth it for that reason alone - not to mention infinitely better convenience, better security, shorepower, fresh water, 24/7 hot showers, etc.

 

[pyrojames]

I have a big heavy boat that I can comfortably single hand off the mooring. It is a very fraught process doing that from a marina berth. I use a decent rib to get out to her, so tides/weather don't play so much of a part.

 

[FWB]

The reason I'm in the marina now is because it's winter. I can hardly wait to get back out to my mooring. The marina is safer this time of year for the nightly trips to the pub but it's so much easier to go sailing from the mooring....no fenders, warps, shore power to undo and stow, just plop and away!

 

[blackbeard]

Currently I have a Club (=less expensive) pontoon mooring but for several years I had a swinging mooring. There's no doubting the convenience of a walk-ashore pontoon mooring, but I rather enjoyed my time on the swinging mooring. There is one disadvantage which needs watching though - Vyv has alluded to it - which is the physical difficulty of transferring from yacht to dinghy or vice versa. I never had a problem with getting me on the boat (outboard motor was another matter) but for many people, the step up from the dinghy on to the yacht will be impossible even with flat water, and getting from yacht to dinghy can be a controlled (or otherwise) fall. So, even if you can nimbly get from the one to the other, consider whether crew, or potential crew, can do this. Will depend on the yacht to some extent (is this a reason for sugar scoop sterns?).

And on dinghies - need to row well (in case you can't start the outboard motor) and be reasonably stable. Some dinghies verge on the lethal.

 

[pyrojames]

I have always had swing moorings, but combined them with a yacht club that has a pick up/drop off pontoon. If I am taking a group sailing, or provisioning for a week or evening just a weekend, then I will get the boat and bring her alongside the hammerhead for half an hour to load. I find it the best of both worlds at a fraction of the cost of a marina berth.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I don't know about where you are, but the Crown Estates does not own or provide any moorings anywhere that I have looked. What they do is charge you a not inconsiderable sum (£70 last time I looked) for the privilege of laying a mooring. As in YOU provide the gear and lay it, or pay someone else to lay it. If you join a mooring scheme (often through a club) the charge falls to around £40.

And for this you get nothing. Someone uses your mooring? Tough luck. Someone else lays foul of yours? Not our problem squire. Unlicensed moorings where yours should be? We'll look into it and try to charge them. But don't expect them to do anything practical like removing the offenders.

They used to be pretty bad, but where I am they are actually pretty good now. A couple of years ago they did a major sweep of the bay and removed all unlicensed and abandoned moorings, and they put a fair bit back through the Coastal Communities Fund. I can't say that I pay my forty quid with unalloyed joy, but it doesn't worry me too much.