West Mersea - visitor moorings

FullCircle said:
Yep. In fact, we had Full Circle and White Magic on one mooring rafted for free last Saturday evening at Fambridge.
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I gather they can be a tads relaxed about collecting the dosh at times! :)

Did you give Brigantia a wave on the way past? She must be feeling lonely being abandoned for three whole weeks (s'bugger but every two months Jane has to work three weekends on the trot, still it pays the bills, Ten days and counting to a whole week on board - yippee!)

PS. I've just worked out that it would be cheaper for me to pay the standard visitor rate for overnighting on the pontoon than the fixed price preferential rate for swinging mooring holders! I shall be having words with Toby!! Oh the joys of having a small boat :)
 
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Brigantia said:
I gather they can be a tads relaxed about collecting the dosh at times! :)

Did you give Brigantia a wave on the way past? She must be feeling lonely being abandoned for three whole weeks (s'bugger but every two months Jane has to work three weekends on the trot, still it pays the bills, Ten days and counting to a whole week on board - yippee!)

PS. I've just worked out that it would be cheaper for me to pay the standard visitor rate for overnighting on the pontoon than the fixed price preferential rate for swinging mooring holders! Oh the joys of having a small boat :)
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dont you do single handed then :eek:
 
sailorman said:
dont you do single handed then :eek:
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That's not the problem - I've got various people who'll crew with me (both sons, co-owner, brother, best mate and so on!). Problem is Jane doesn't drive and it costs a bloody fortune for taxis to and especially from work. When we've got over the initial financial damage of buying the boat I might be able to afford to do it occasionally but for now it's a non-starter

Not that this coming weekend will be wasted - there's the tender outboard to resuscitate, an old Honda genny to strip down and service and if all else fails there's plenty to do in the garden!
 
chinita said:
Tim

Two, perhaps three, Club Launches and associated full time boatmen - and even that is not enough to meet the demands of Members! No wonder the cost is eyewatering.

Surely there is more than one way to skin a cat.

How about the launches moving on a prescribed time schedule? How about Member pre-booking with the launch? It is not like they are off on a circumnavigation and don't know when they will be back! Tides are tides.

Just opening another can of launches is not the answer.

Alternatively, perhaps Members should just be a little more patient and put up with just one launch?

I obviously do not know the figures, but I suspect the Brightlingsea Taxi makes far more money between 6pm and 11.30pm on a Friday and Saturday night than the rest of the week put together and that the equivalent income in WM would be a massive subsidy to the WMYC.
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Contributors all:

A few comments on what seems to be becoming a liitle heated:

Serious:

With respect, none of you have any idea of the problems of balancing the wishes of our members, the economics of running our launches and indeed the time issues noted by Tim. We have -we see the numbers and the problems (and we suffer from them too!) I'd love a late launch...it dont work. And can I point out gently that the B'Sea taxi has had its problems

Its worth saying again -WMYC are merely the collecting agents because we run the launches- we own relatively few of the moorings and this decision is the owners collective wish. please do not make us the "wicked stepmother"

Jocular:

And a small "stir" in what is intended to be a concilliatory post - if our club is so horrible, how come so many clubs organise cruises and visits to us? !!

Proportionate:

Come on..its not life threatening....lets enjoy our cruising this summer. You are welcome here and we know we are welcome at your home ports! Cheers!
 
Just one thing that may be worth mentioning about Mersea.

Their club launch, YC 1, and particularly Geoff who man's it , and the other blokes on the launches are a tremendous advert for Mersea as a whole. Like a firm's reception area. The first bit you see. Very important.

Courteous, professional, interested, friendly , and sometimes long suffering are words that I would personally use.

Well done lads !
 
It's one thing to start charging - everyone who has posted here has agreed that's fair, no-one has suggested you only provide free moorings. But charges of £10 - £15 will most likely be counter productive, driving business away from the lucrative bar/food income. It's the disproportionate size of the charge, not the principle of charging. And the Mersea posters do sound a little "do a look bovered" - time will tell if it brings in more income or actually lowers overall receipts.
I suspect in the first year there will be a big increase in income as it catches the yachtsmen who don't read this forum; next year receipts may fall off dramatically as people avoid WM. Trouble is, once you've done that how do you let them know you've had second thoughts and decided to lower the prices?
 
elasticity

The economist in me now wants some way to model the elasticity of demand for moorings / visitors' berths.

How price sensitive are we? When you plan a weekend's sailing and think - "I know; we'll go to" [Brightlingsea / Mersea / Bradwell / Burnham] etc. what factors make your mind up.

For me it's

1. wind and tides
2. how much we like the destination
3. facilities (which I suppose influences 2)

can't ever remember thinking - we really like such-and-such a place and the wind's fair, but I resent the tenner / score for the berth.

So I'm not very price sensitive I think...
 
I have tried to avoid responding but just to comment on 'Black Kipper's do I look bovered' point. I personally feel the charge is too high and if I could have gone to the Club AGM I would have said so. But to expand something said several times before, this is something decided by 4 BUSINESSES (yes I am shouting) and one Yacht Club. So we were a minority voice. I can't tell you what our contribution was because I was not there but our moorings are the minority. There is one advantage in this. In previous years our launchman and woman were only able to offer our Club moorings. Now they can offer vacant moorings of the four businesses as well - but those businesses are offering them on a commercial basis. I presume that is the rate they wanted. There is a great spirit of collaboration between the Clubs, businesses and fishermen here at Mersea so yes this was a collective decision for which we are accountable. But that should not be taken as evidence that all of us are responsible for this. At least two posts on this thread are very un'East Coast Forum' in spirit.
 
Marmalade said:
The economist in me now wants some way to model the elasticity of demand for moorings / visitors' berths.

How price sensitive are we? When you plan a weekend's sailing and think - "I know; we'll go to" [Brightlingsea / Mersea / Bradwell / Burnham] etc. what factors make your mind up.

For me it's

1. wind and tides
2. how much we like the destination
3. facilities (which I suppose influences 2)

can't ever remember thinking - we really like such-and-such a place and the wind's fair, but I resent the tenner / score for the berth.

So I'm not very price sensitive I think...
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When I started sailing in my first 'proper' boat, the answer to that question would have been 'very' as finding another £10-£20 each weekend on top of all the other boat running costs would have made a significant dent into the household finances. Consequently we tended to avoid marinas. One of the blessings of being on the East Coast has been that it has been possible to spend weekends away without having to budget for all the berthing/mooring charges associated with being based on the Solent.

12 years on and the answer is probably not very price sensitive but picking up a mooring at WM now feels to me as about the same cost as the the two adjacent Marinas and Brightlingsea which are all about the same distance from the Colne Bar Buoy. About three weeks back rather than pay for a second night at WM I moved on so the cost must have had some influence on my choices.
 
I just hope the rate charged by these five businesses is not noticed by other commercial suppliers of visitors moorings in the area - Aldeburgh for example - or it might just become the norm (for which I will truly thank the good businesses of W Mersea). As a (now former) occaional visitor I only hope the high charge results in a fall in income and the introduction of some common, East Coast, sense.
 
Moonfire said:
As a (now former) occaional visitor I only hope the high charge results in a fall in income and the introduction of some common, East Coast, sense.
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Ahh, but as explained above 4 of the 5 mooring owners are Businesses, presumably boatyards?, the putative loss of income will be mainly to the YC and local pubs/restaurants, but the Businesses will see an increase in income. They MUST do as the prior income was nil.

So unless the Businesses were pubs etc. I don't see the negative feedback working.
 
Leighb said:
Ahh, but as explained above 4 of the 5 mooring owners are Businesses, presumably boatyards?, the putative loss of income will be mainly to the YC and local pubs/restaurants, but the Businesses will see an increase in income. They MUST do as the prior income was nil.

So unless the Businesses were pubs etc. I don't see the negative feedback working.
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But note that (according to tillergirl) before the launchmen were only able to offer the YC moorings - now they can offer the other moorings too and pass the cash on. Of course, I wouldn't suggest for one moment that the YC boatmen would preferentially direct visiting 'customers' to YC owned moorings....
 
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To be honest, I get the impression the YC won't be that bothered by a drop in visitors; the new mooring fees make up for a chunk of the lost bar and food income and they get far fewer visitors using their facilities.

I don't understand is why they felt forced to charge the same as those businesses, surely there's a win/win if they charged £5 a night fixed but asked that visiting yacht crews visit the bar/restaurant, pointing out they are charging half or less than local businesses for the mooring? I'm sure the revenue would increase, but like I said, I don't think they mind very much.
 
As an ex-WMYC member I'm a bit torn by this, I have to admit.

One question I would ask though is what is the situation now if someone pulls in to a Mersea mooring "under duress" as it were, as we did a couple of years ago when we had an engine problem. We decided to go to Mersea because we could easily sail onto a mooring and then call our favourite local Mersea marine mechanic to help us out. Everything proceeded according to plan and off we went, our mechanical friends wealthier by a reasonable tip it has to be said.

If this were to happen to us again, though, would we also be charged a half-day mooring rate for the privilege? I am a bit concerned because I wonder where it will end - Crown Commissioners charging you to anchor in "their" rivers springs to mind....
 
I wish a few more people had actually read the news item on East Coast Pilot

"The money will go to a single fund to help with costs of channel buoys that meet Trinity House standards. Without these charges, all but three lit marks would have been removed this season. Additionally, some buoys will be sponsored.
Once buoyage costs are met, the fund will be held and developed in order to meet future waterfront development costs. This foresees such things as a moored barge which will have to be established and manned, providing pump-out facilities, and diesel and water.

A scrubbing grid on the foreshore to meet 'green' requirements may also possibly be introduced at some point."

The Yacht Club will not get a share to offset its 'loss of income'. Would you like to retract Moonfire?

Saguday - I'm with you. I would hope that in a duress situation there would certainly be appropriate help and the right attitude. Dare I say though, that if you were towed into a Marina and stayed a couple of days, you would probably not be surprised to be charged for berthing?
 
Chinita - no I regret I didn't. That's got nothing to do with 'loss of income'. I appreciate it is promises to the future and we will have to see if thaqt happens. If the predictions are right, there won't be money for those improvements.
 
I never mentioned loss of income; but there are too many if, buts and maybes in the news item to convince me that anything will actually happen. I might be less cynical if I knew who is to hold the fund and is there any formal accountability for its use?
 
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