travelling to boat and moorings

[Seajet]

I've travelled 43 miles each way to my boats ( sometimes more when I've had deep water moorings ) for the last 39 years, relatively happily as the roads are pretty good, scenic even.

Unless very lucky, I think anyone spending less than an hour's drive each way is doing very well.

If I lived in the Midlands, I'd definitely travel to the South Coast, it's nowhere near as crowded as some people think; I expect they've only seen the Hamble or Southampton Water, either of which would be enough to put anyone off !

 

[reginaldon]

5 minutes. I consider it a long and difficult journey if the level crossing halfway is closed for a train

I believe some people have to come a bit further...

Pete

Me too, less than 5 mins now as the branch railway line is no longer used, so gates permanently open.

I do have to go halfway down my road to see my boat, as the coast curves here.

Shouldn't gloat, but then Council tax is something else.

 

[Lakesailor]

Yes I agree about seeing the boat. In the winter I should be able to see mine as the shoreside trees are bare, but a thicket obscures my view!
I can see where it should be as I type but I "can't see the boat for the trees."

 

[Dabhand]

I can see most of Torquay Town Dock without getting out of bed. Unfortunately I cannot see my boat due to the lay of the pontoons, but I can see it, or at least a small part of it, on the Torquay Harbour webcam. My house is also visible on the webcam.
If the roads are quiet, especially in the early morning, then I can be at the harbour in a little over 5 minutes. If it is a sunny August Sunday after about 10am then it can take considerably longer, not that I would want to be at sea as late as that in the morning!

 

[whisper]

Well it depends!!

River mooring - 30secs. However that's only to see an ex hire tin dinghy, so it doesn't really count.
Proper boat 3hrs 45 mins.to 4 hrs. - but can see it every day 'cos of webcam.
When resident in the S.Hams the boat is approx. 1min away.
Agree with earlier poster who says it's only ok to have a long drive if your staying there for at least a week at a time. M5 can be too much of a pain to make a weekend trip worthwhile.

 

[prv]

Agree with earlier poster who says it's only ok to have a long drive if your staying there for at least a week at a time. M5 can be too much of a pain to make a weekend trip worthwhile.

I'm not sure it would be worth me having a boat at all in those circumstances . I didn't spend even one solid week on KS last summer, though I plan to this coming one.

In midsummer when evenings are light, I get quite a lot of sailing in after work.

Pete

 

[BrianH]

I'm hoping to get a boat soon and as i live in leeds will have over an hours travel to the coast in any direction for a mooring. I like the north yorks coast and spend a bit of time there.I've got my name down at Whitby as my prefered mooring site but the wait is considerable.As i will have a boat before i get a birth i hope to Hartlepool for a season or too.I have looked at the north east coast moorings and wonderd what people would recommend as an alternative until iget one at Whitby.

Interesting about the waiting list at Whitby - for the upper harbour marina, I presume.

A lifetime or two ago I used to live in Whitby and kept my boat on WYC administered moorings just below the bridge on the east side - one needed to be a member to get one. Then we put in moorings between the piers in the lower harbour and I kept my YW Buccaneer in a cradle there but believe a bad northerly storm wreaked so much havoc one year that it wasn't repeated.

how far do people travel to there boats on a visit

A lot different to the 5 minute stroll down to the harbour in Whitby ..... 700 km. It takes a leisurely half a day's driving from Switzerland to Italy, so it needs more than a weekend to be worth it - but when I get there it is well worth it.

 

[status]

Why Whitby? Yes it is pretty but awkward to get to by road and you can only get in and out 2hrs either side of high water (assuming you have a sticky up bit).

We are in Hartlepool now heading for our third season, in and out is HW +- 4.5. Car access is good (from the west mids (travel time 3hrs on Friday evening) I only do 3 miles to motorway and 1/2 mile to marina on anything less than dual carriageway) but parking is a bit of a pickle at the momoent (soon to be sorted we hope)

Alternatives - Seaham might be opening this year.
Hull - Nice friendly marine when we were there but v. restrictive in sailing possibilities.

Stuart

 

[alanlib]

I'm hoping to get a boat soon and as i live in leeds will have over an hours travel to the coast in any direction for a mooring. I like the north yorks coast and spend a bit of time there.I've got my name down at Whitby as my prefered mooring site but the wait is considerable.As i will have a boat before i get a birth i hope to Hartlepool for a season or too.I have looked at the north east coast moorings and wonderd what people would recommend as an alternative until iget one at Whitby,also how far do people travel to there boats on a visit.

Hi, I went through this myself last year. I live near Leeds & got 6.5m boat (sports fisher type) last December & applied for a berth in Whitby. Because it was said the waiting list was long I looked at a other places Hartlepool & Hull were the most probable (Scarborough is even harder Whitby to get a mooring)

Anyway as it happened I kept ringing & pestering the marina office and managed to get a berth in Whitby on one of the drying pontoons from 1st April 2010, I then kept asking about a change to a wet mooring which I got in October.

The thing about Whitby marina is that the deadline for re booking your existing berth isn't untill about the 20th January & then it takes the marina about another month to organise the berthing arrangements so you cannot find out if a berth is available until mid March.

It does pay to keep ringing the marina though.

If your boat can take a drying pontoon I think you have a good chance of a place.

Hope this helps

Alan

 

[Searush]

When I lived on the Wirral, my boat was on the Dee & less than 10 miles away. Sailing on an evening tide was a delight, but everytime we went out for a cruise, we went straight to Conway which was a 10 hour passage. So I moved the boat there full time & lost the evening trips. But cruises became muchh easier as we were in the heart of a great cruising area already. Journey time about 45mins unless traffic was bad.

I then moved to the Midlands & we put the boat in Scotland, journey time about 3 hours, but one of the world's best cruising areas. This made weekends virtually impractical. So back to N Wales. Don't understand why people think there is a weather problem, but then SWMBO & I can't cope with 30deg plus temps so 25C suits us fine. Journey time now is around 2.5hrs.

As already stated, suck it & see, it IS easy to change & you get the benefit of seeing new cruising grounds.

 

[little shack]

To be fair i do like Whitby as a place but i haven't been to hartlepool as yet and would probably like that just as much and as you say easier to sail from no pesky bridge.Thanks for all your replys,it does amaze me the lenghts people will go to sail.

 

[status]

To be fair i do like Whitby as a place but i haven't been to hartlepool as yet and would probably like that just as much and as you say easier to sail from no pesky bridge.Thanks for all your replys,it does amaze me the lenghts people will go to sail.

Come join the Hartlepool Massive...

I am sure there are one or two of us around, I just havent worked out who they are yet. (Forumites that is, boaters are fairly obvious on the marina!)

Stuart

 

[NickRobinson]

Hartlepool-

Hi all

I had three months in Hartlepool this summer, including the Tall Ships.

It was a home coming as I was born there but never sailed to it. Friendly staff and boaters.

The Marina is well located and seems secure (in all ways) but tired, especially the shower blocks, hot water is a pure lottery!

Car parking is a lottery as people hang on to passes rather than return them to ensure having a pass.. causing, you guessed, a shortage of passes!

When it's busy the lockies who also work trip boats prioritise their mates so it can get a little skewed.. (even the RNLI on a shout had to wait while the trip boat went through first!)

Nick

 

[Victoria Sponge]

It can take us between three and four hours to get to the boat. However, we were talking to someone at the weekend, who lives five minutes walk from his boat. On chatting it became clear that we use our boat far more than he does.

 

[jswindel]

I drive just over 2 hours each way from the Cotswolds to Poole most summer weekends. I am probably out more often than anyone else at the marina, about 23 times last year I think. Avoid the motorways, which might be fast, but often are stationary, and above all avoid Bournemouth, which is a nightmare at weekends. Stick to ordinary roads and it is always just over two hours, whatever speed you drive at. If I set out at 6:00 am on a summer's morning, I am out by Old Harry rocks before most people within walking distance of the sea have had breakfast.