Unhappy with marina charges?

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absit_omen

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All these expensive marinas with flash eateries and drinkeries (presumably paying huge rents to aforementioned marinas) make a handsome profit by the non boat owning public gathering to enjoy their weekends gawping at the assembled craft. Food + Drink + Boats = winning formula.

If you are unhappy with your marina charges get everybody together and take some positive action. What a point would be made if all boats dissapeared over the next late summer bank holiday and boycotted their respective marina just for the day. The punters would arrive to a ghost town and pretty quickly move on to the next most interesting attraction. Thereby making the point that, whilst we may need the marinas, it is actually us that the punters come to see. It just would not be the same sipping a G&T gazing over empty finger pontoons.

Just an idea!

Sadly, this will not happen but it is increasingly the case that the tail is always wagging the dog and - certainly in the northern hemisphere - boat owners are regarded as more than fair game to rip off ("well, they must be loaded, mustn't they?").
 
Personally I avoid these rip-off merchants like the plague. The only marina we frequent is Moodies at Swanwick. Much prefer Folly, buoys at Limington, Newtown Creek, etc.
 
As a person who pays a fortune for their Marina berth I am always surprised how quickly any space is filled to the operators profit immediately the boat stays out for a night.

I was even more upset to find no refund while I was going away for 3 months yet knowing the marina would re-let my berth most nights. Minimum refund is 4 months -MDL!

It is supply and demand and while we all sit back and accept lack of development for roads, airports, new docks and new marinas we will pay heavily for what little we get.

On R4 this a.m. there was a re-union of the demonstrators against the M3 going through the downs. Now as a person who daily sat in traffic for a minimum of 1hr a day prior to it being built and also suffered delays when visiting a factory in N Wales prior to the Newbury bypass I object to a few individuals stopping what the majority want.

Now I want lots more Marinas but what hope for some in Langstone harbour?

Sorry for the Friday rant need to go sailing to get some tranquility back into my life!!
 
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Look into how much goes in direct and indirect taxes, I reckon about 80%

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80%? Let's see your calculations. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
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marinas with flash eateries and drinkeries (presumably paying huge rents to aforementioned marinas) make a handsome profit by the non boat owning public gathering to enjoy their weekends gawping at the assembled craft. Food + Drink + Boats = winning formula.


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Not to mention the noise created by aforementioned punters...or the state they leave the toilets in after their drunken debauches.

Liverpool answers above description. Just a pub with some boat parking around it! Much prefer my swinging (much cheaper) mooring in Conwy!
 
I am sorry but I have to take exception to your desire to see more marinas ,for example in Langstone. Poor old Langstone ...
AWB=ugly
Marina=ugly,not exactly an enhancement to an undeveloped natural area is it?
Marinas make money by selling the waterfront house/lifestyle/entertainment -you want to pave over Langstones perimeter with houses so that you(might) get a cheaper marine parking bay ?

The fact that marina berths are actaully available in many of the Solent ports suggests that price/supply/demand has reached a (unhappy) equilibrium.
Here's a suggestion .Lets build marine car parks in the most godawful decrepid,polluted, old dying docklands that one could think of,and preferably surrounded by tall trees....Trouble is I can't think of anywhere on the crowded south coast, can you please ?'' Sailfree''...
By the way my 'rant' is inspired by my efforts today to finalise a design well away from the coast that wont sell out a part of an urban conservation area for a quick buck or two ,so nothing personal,have a nice weekends sail !
 
What would be handy would be some of those housing developments they build inland a little bit with a sort of canal network to get your boat to the end of your own garden. you see them in spain and the USA. They even have boat lifits in the USA so the boat can be out of the water when you are !
 
Personally I'm fairly happy with what I'm charged at Brighton. Lots of upgrades been made to the facilities, new pontoons and repairs to the sea wall.

The shops, restraunts etc are a different company and Premier don't benefit from it directly.

Most Solent marina's are an entirely different matter though. Pay a fortune to be near the nautical equivalent of the M25.
 
It`s a pricing strategy that the marketing suits call "What the market will bear". i.e. if we bear it, they`ll charge it! [Probably the means by which most owners earned the money to buy their boats.]
 
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Look into how much goes in direct and indirect taxes, I reckon about 80%

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80%? Let's see your calculations. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

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Harbour Dues/ light dues
Business Rates
Lease or Rental Money to Crown Estates/Local Authority or whatever.
Planning gain works, ie affordable housing or roads.
PAYE for staff
Corporation Tax on any profits
VAT on everything

Have I forgotten anything ?
 
Hardly calculations, but.....

The marina will reclaim the VAT it pays. It will have to hand over VAT on it's income.
Will it pay harbour dues? Maybe a small amount for its own boats, but not much.
I don't know what you mean by "Planning gain works"
Strictly speaking staff PAYE is paid by the staff, though the marina will have to pay some NI.
With a half reasonable accountant Corporation Tax will be greatly reduced, often to zero!
Lease/rental payments are not a Tax, they are what you have to pay for the use of the property. It may well be that the land is privately owned, or they may even own the freehold themselves.



In short, I am saying that your 80% figure is ridiculously over the top.
 
If you are a marina operator on the South coast then you are the owner of a scarse commodity. So your pricing approach is simple - price at the level that will give you the maximum income from that commodity. Anything less is being charitable at best or silly at worst. And lets be honest - which of us really wouldnt do the same if we suddenly inherited a marina?

The really fascinating thing is the punters willingness to accept the charges and do nothing more positive than moan. Demand seems not to be at all price sensitive, but when you compare the cost of a 40 ft tart-trap and marina mooring with the cost of a weekend cottage with a waterside view you begin to see why.

There are lots of cheap moorings available. There are lots of marinas away from the Solent.
 
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I was even more upset to find no refund while I was going away for 3 months yet knowing the marina would re-let my berth most nights. Minimum refund is 4 months -MDL!

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One months written notice should allow you to 'suspend' your MDL berth. Thats what I'm doing until my new boat turns up and didn't seem too bad.

Rick
 
Have to say that some of the E Coast marinas are actually quite good value, though tend to be either too far from the sea, behind busy locks or too limited by tidal access for my liking.

Personally I find they're a bit like having a picnic in a car park anyway - amenities (fuel, water) useful occassionally but not somewhere I want to spend a night for reasons others have mentioned. Exception has been Holland where facilities & food are mostly better & cheaper.

I had concerns at first over getting kids & gear to & fro to a swinging mooring, but they love the dinghy & playing on the beach after sailing. No contest.
 
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Hardly calculations, but.....

The marina will reclaim the VAT it pays. It will have to hand over VAT on it's income.
Will it pay harbour dues? Maybe a small amount for its own boats, but not much.
I don't know what you mean by "Planning gain works"
Strictly speaking staff PAYE is paid by the staff, though the marina will have to pay some NI.
With a half reasonable accountant Corporation Tax will be greatly reduced, often to zero!
Lease/rental payments are not a Tax, they are what you have to pay for the use of the property. It may well be that the land is privately owned, or they may even own the freehold themselves.



In short, I am saying that your 80% figure is ridiculously over the top.

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Harbour dues are certainly part of the picture, I know that in Conway of whatever the marina charges are per year, £700 or so per boat goes to the harbour board. I would imagine it to be at least that on the south coast.
Here we go with the hoary myth that employees pay tax, they don't it's the employer or perhaps more correctly the customer. The Marinas output VAT vastly exceeds the input VAT. The vast majority of Marina sites are on publicly owned land, the rental or lease of which I would view as a tax. Either way a hell of a lot of money goes to the government.
 
Unhappy with marina

I dont have a problem with the pricing structure of marinas............. just the poor service that seems to come with many of them.

I know, I know,... yours is the best in the land.

One note asked " wouldnt we do the same if we inherited a marina"

Cost wise ..........................Yes

Service standard wise .........Never

Tom
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Re: Unhappy with marina

our experience as occasional visitors to marinas is that service is generally pretty good and sometimes excellent-last weekend we visitied premiers marina at chichester yacht basin-very helpful welcome and good berth and facilities- on radioing to get out through the lock sunday am - given a locking number (bit like ticket at supermarkets) and then briefed by staff member in launch on where exactly to moor in the lock and mooring lines passed down and collected by more staff-will go back again.

likewise st peter port and st helier- staff friendly and welcoming every time ,
 
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