Torquay Inner Harbour

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sprocker

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Do we have any members that use (or have used) the inner harbour in Torquay?

We have a potential opportunity to move from the marina to the inner harbour and just wondered what problems/limitations, if any, people had found with
the inner cill and tide times etc.
 
sprocker said:
Do we have any members that use (or have used) the inner harbour in Torquay?

We have a potential opportunity to move from the marina to the inner harbour and just wondered what problems/limitations, if any, people had found with
the inner cill and tide times etc.
Click to expand...

Perhaps have a chat with Nick Burnham - he started a series of articles for MBM with 'Oops - I bought a berth' which is in the inner harbour. I guess the rest of the series may not get published now unless MBY take them on? But I won't reveal the story just in case :) I think he's happy with the workings of it however - you just have to plan a bit around tides!

You can leave the boat on the visitors pontoon if you get back too late for the cill. Likewise if you know you want to go out tomorrow morning and tide is low, you either move very early or the night before - they're pretty flexible and there's no charge if you have a berth.
 
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Good evening,

Rob kindly pointed me in the direction of this thread and yes, I keep my boat in the new Inner Harbour marina. I also ran a brokerage office on Torquay Marina for twenty years (Torquay Marine Sales - happy days), so pretty familiar with that facility too.

The Inner Harbour pontoons are certainly not 'Torquay Marina light'. There's no posh private toilets and showers, no shuttered off private car park (albeit with tiny spaces), no 24 hour security, no 240v shore power, no hoses reaching every finger and of course no 24 hour access. As Kevin Mowat (the harbour master) said to me, they never intended for it to compete with Torquay Marina, it's three star to their five star.

But crucially, it isn't Torquay Marina money either. I pay less than £1,400 all up for an eight metre berth.

And actually, for what it is, it's brilliant! Well designed with nice stable pontoons, big berths and wide fairways. There are a couple of service berths with 240v power and hoses so if you want to wash your boat or use a power tool you just take it round there. It's part of my routine to always drop onto a service berth first after being out and either wash the boat or at least hose the salt off the topsides.

There's an under cover car park five minutes walk away behind the terrace that is £8 all day and never full, public loos (with showers) five minutes the other way, and although they're locked after 8pm we have a code to access them. And there's a coded access gate to the pontoons.

So for us, living locally and with a small boat with no shore power that we just come down to and take out, we really don't feel like we're missing out.

The only other big difference is, of course, the cill. There's normally five or six hours between opening, and once it is open they will lift the bridge for you if you need it any time. My boat slips under it apart from one one very high spring tide. The bridge and the cill are active at 7am and close at 9pm in the summer, dependant on tides of course. From October onward it is 8am and 5pm. If it's low water in the morning and we want to get out I just potter down the night before and move it out to the visitor berths. Same if we get back and it's shut. The only slight snag is the visitor berths can fill up in the height of season so you may have to raft.

Torquay Harbour helpfully publish a list of cill opening and closing times, you can find them here:

http://www.tor-bay-harbour.co.uk/cilltimes.pdf

We only got caught out once. We were going out with friends one Saturday morning, the cill was due to shut at 9:30am, I got there at 9:20am and it was up. Turns out the tides were lower than predicted. Felt like a disaster but a quick check confirmed that it was open again at 2:30pm so we gave the boat (another) clean, had some lunch and headed out for the afternoon. Since then we've always allowed 20 minutes additional time, just in case.

So, in summary I'd say if you have a small boat, live locally, and just want easy convenient (and superb value) boating it's fantastic. If you live further away, have a bigger boat with shore power, and use it as a holiday home as well as a boat (many do) then Torquay Marina is a far better bet as you'll really appreciate the extra facilities and it is a great marina.
 
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Quick shot of the bridge lifting the one time we needed it.

DSC_0422.jpg
 
Thank you Nick, that is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. I agree that the marina is excellent but as we are local we don't really benefit from the services.
We are looking to upgrade from our current 6m sport boat to around an 8m cruiser next year, and the difference in berth costs in the marina made my eyes water!

I think, with a little forward planning, the cill shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
It was my biggest concern, but the Town Dock is so full they've even closed the waiting list so it was Inner Harbour or nothing for me. But actually, even if I could get on the Town Dock now, I'm not sure I'd bother, I'm really liking the Inner Harbour.

Couple more benefits, very sheltered in a strong easterly that rocks the outer harbour about a bit, and great live music from one of the harbour-side bars in the summer!

One more downside, I believe that Torquay Marina fees include winter storage. Don't forget to factor in the cost of that if (like me) you like to have the boat ashore for a few months in winter.

Out of interest, how much is Torquay Marina now for a six metre berth, and how much is an eight metre?
 
sprocker said:
6 metre this year was £2300. I was quoted an extra £1500 for 8 metre!!
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks. I guess it's all relative. If you've got a £100,000 boat and spend weekends at the marina I'm sure it's worth every penny.

Personally, living locally and running a boat that is worth slightly less than that (ahem), I'll live with the lack of facilities and the compromises.

Good that there are choices though, it's not the case everywhere.
 
Torquay Inner Harbour Cill Times App and website

I have a berth in the inner harbour now that the finger berths have gone in its a fantastic facility. Only issue really is the seagulls and their mess. There is a great mobile App for iphones and androids available via www.torquaycilltimes.co.uk website. It gives you the current status and the future Torquay Inner Harbour Cill times both opening and closing for each day
 
I don't find the Cill a problem, I live in Torquay and its never caused an issue. If I want the boat out in the morning and I know the Cill will be closed I just nip down and move it to a visitors berth by the outer harbour wall or to the small waiting Pontoon outside the inner harbour. My only issue is knowing when the cill will be open and closed. The Harbour produce a PDF but I felt that was a bit old fashioned so I have created an app for iphones/androids that can be downloaded via the apple app store or google play or indeed via the website at www.torquaycilltimes.co.uk
 
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