Unwelcome at Southwold

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laurie the sailer

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My good ship Psyche was turned away from Southwold yesterday by a grumpy rude HM. In the office at levington later they said that was the second case in a week.
A formal complaint was lodged with the local council.
Won't be back there for a while, pity because I like it there.
Any body else had problems with Southwold
Have fun
Laurie
 
laurie the sailer said:
My good ship Psyche was turned away from Southwold yesterday by a grumpy rude HM. In the office at levington later they said that was the second case in a week.
A formal complaint was lodged with the local council.
Won't be back there for a while, pity because I like it there.
Any body else had problems with Southwold
Have fun
Laurie
Click to expand...

Was any reason given why you should not visit ?

Shame about the grumpiness .
 
Southwold does seem to have applied tougher Covid-19 restrictions than other places, including no loos and showers, and no rafting, which severely limits the number of visiting boats they can accept. Resulting from the no loos and showers aspect, boats without holding tanks are prohibited. At least one club has had its booking cancelled by the HM. I am surprised, however, at the HM's reported attitude in the OP; was it him or someone in his office?
 
We have just returned from a couple of days in Southwold. Both HMs were their usual friendly helpful selves. No mention of presence or absence of holding tanks. We had booked a few weeks earlier as we knew that capacity was limited. They can manage 3 yachts on the pontoon and about 4 on the staging, plus another 4 or so on the Walberswick pontoon. If they were full they would have to turn you away, but we have never in all the years we have been visiting found anything other than friendly helpfulness.
 
Conditions for visiting yachts are made clear on the Southwold Harbour website, including the requirement to book a berth in advance, no pumping out, no rafting etc. Boats were being turned away when I was there earlier in the week. You are presented with a form asking for daily estimates, in kilograms, of different classes of waste produced, including black and grey waste. Thank goodness nobody seems to take it very seriously. While we were there the Harbour Inn was closed so I didn’t get my much anticipated pint of Adnams on arrival ? Ventured up to the town once which was very busy. The harbour is a delightful place full of boaty activity and the best, freshest fish stall ever. Had a lovely time there despite lack of shoreside sanitary facilities. In the present circumstances, I think local communities have every right to impose whatever restrictions on visitors they see fit. We are privileged to visit and, as at Mersea q.v. , we just have to put up with it.
 
Further to my earlier post, they must have had quite an influx on Thursday. When we left on Thursday morning just after LW there were only 2 other visiting yachts, one on the staging and the other on the Walberswick side. They had been full on the Tuesday though.
 
Hi Folks, thanks for your replies. Thursday I tried to phone the HM but I had no reply, may of been out of the office. Friday 0430 Departed Lowestoft, 0630 entered Southwold, 1 motor boat on the pontoon who had been in Lowestoft the previous day, loads of space on the staging, had a look at a empty staging berth on the up stream side, thought that I wouldn't have a lot of water at LW, also children tend to crab up that end. Back down stream we went checking out the options. Tide still coming in, I know preferred moored direction is pointing up stream, I tried to reverse against the tide but made a pigs ear of coming along side the pontoon, so I spun the boat around and ferry glided the boat in against the tide. Thinking that if the HM lets me stay there the ill spin the boat around on warps, put kettle on and await HM.
0700 HM turns up, his opening comment was "go on then give me a clue", perplexed by the remark I didn't know how to react, he then repeated his remark, thinking he was making a joke, I blew a raspberry. He wasn't, I then said good morning to him, trying to save the day, he ignored my comment. He then went on to explain that i was on a club private pontoon, and had I not seen the signage, which he tried to show me the signs but failed. Asking had I booked in, I explained previous days failed phone call, he then said I was jumping the que, the place was half empty.
So I asked him where he would like me to go, reply, you cant stay there, I repeated my question, where would you like me to go, his reply somewhere else. with that he turned his back and walked off.
Im not a violant person but I could of punched him.
I contacted a nice man at the council and I have lodged a formal complaint. I love the place and wondered if it was just me having a bad hair day
Departed Southwold 0730, Arrived at Suffolk Yacht Harbour 1630. The office told me that that was the second complaint in a week against Southwold, hopefully things will get better.
Laurie
 
I am sorry to hear of your experience, not surprised that you complained, but as I have said it is very atypical. They do expect you to book ahead especially this year. The pontoon you berthed on, albeit temporarily, was it the one in front of the HM office? If so, the seaward end of that belongs to the Sailing Club, perhaps you were on that that bit? I cannot recall if there are adequate or indeed any signs though.
I am not sure why you felt that the preferred mooring option is facing upstream, virtually everyone I have ever seen there moors the other way, usually because they arrive during the flood and turn to moor against the tide. Obviously if you miss the tide and arrive when the ebb is running you have little choice!
Whatever the reason, the HMs treatment of you was inexcusable.
 
Leighb said:
I am sorry to hear of your experience, not surprised that you complained, but as I have said it is very atypical. They do expect you to book ahead especially this year. The pontoon you berthed on, albeit temporarily, was it the one in front of the HM office? If so, the seaward end of that belongs to the Sailing Club, perhaps you were on that that bit? I cannot recall if there are adequate or indeed any signs though.
I am not sure why you felt that the preferred mooring option is facing upstream, virtually everyone I have ever seen there moors the other way, usually because they arrive during the flood and turn to moor against the tide. Obviously if you miss the tide and arrive when the ebb is running you have little choice!
Whatever the reason, the HMs treatment of you was inexcusable.
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Hi the way it has been explained to me that there is a big pond above the moorings. Out going water flow is greater than the in coming. The pontoon I was on belonges to the sailing club, only markings are on the gate telling Joe public private from the shore side.
I am a member of a yacht club that welcomes visiting boats.
Laurie
 
Easticks28 said:
" Thursday I tried to phone the HM but I had no reply, may of been out of the office. Friday 0430 Departed Lowestoft, 0630 entered Southwold, "
Did you not read that bit ?
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By 'call up', I think Cantata was referring to the use of VHF - that always gets a fairly instant response in the working hours from the harbour masters.
This year we booked in advance because of the stuff going on - all worked well.
The harbour masters at Southwold are great and sorry for Laurie's experience (we followed Psyche into the Ore on the previous Saturday and saw them at Orford) but normal rules of just turning up (but calling up on VHF!) are not presently in place.
 
Easticks28 said:
" Thursday I tried to phone the HM but I had no reply, may of been out of the office. Friday 0430 Departed Lowestoft, 0630 entered Southwold, "
Did you not read that bit ?
Click to expand...
Didn't notice your arrival time, no, sorry, so a VFH call would probably have not been answered. In working hours, if they are fully booked you would have been turned away at the time of that VHF call.
But I share others' experiences with nothing but helpful friendliness from the two in the HM's office over the years so your experience is totally alien to me.
It's all a timely reminder to everyone that you can't just turn up at a harbour or marina anywhere at the moment - call up well in advance and if you can't get hold of them, go somewhere else.
 
Phoned in July, could not get a mooring when it fitted our time table, list of T&C’s was off putting. Pity it was a lovely place to visit 10 Years ago, now just sounds like somewhere to avoid.
 
We can usually help out if you have no luck with the HM.
In fact I think we helped out the OP with a mooring over the weekend.
So give us a shout at the boatyard, during the week if possible as at the weekend we are usually playing on our own boats so might be more difficult to get hold of.
Currently the managment of the harbour is going through some turbulent times even without the covid situation.
Would like to expand here but frankly it would take too long and I'm not sure I would be helping the situation by publishing my take on the current issues.
That said, if you drop me a PM I can expand a little.

I think I counted seven or eight visiting yachts moored on the river today and we have a 52' princess for a couple of days.
 
This tale simply adds to my sense that the all pleasure has been taken out of cruising by the over raction of everyone with a little bit of authority they can throw about.

Why is there no rafting?
Why are the showers closed?

It’s easier to say "not allowed, I am in charge" than to work out how to provide a service in difficult times. Perhaps if the HM had to compensate the pubs and restaurants for the trade lost, he might take a different approach. But it doesn’t affect him.
 
Tomahawk said:
This tale simply adds to my sense that the all pleasure has been taken out of cruising by the over raction of everyone with a little bit of authority they can throw about.

Why is there no rafting?
Why are the showers closed?

It’s easier to say "not allowed, I am in charge" than to work out how to provide a service in difficult times. Perhaps if the HM had to compensate the pubs and restaurants for the trade lost, he might take a different approach. But it doesn’t affect him.
Click to expand...
Sadly the Harbour Inn and the cafe were also closed. I believe the pub may be opening this week. In any case the whole place was seething with day trippers and people from the caravan site. No shortage of punters, us yachties would only add a small percentage of potential custom.
 
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