Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Comparisons might be drawn with the proposed housing development almost opposite at Mercury
Edit - too slow!
Edit - too slow!
What has happened to Universal Marina?
- Thread starter s.riley1972
- Start date
Muddy32
Well-Known Member
Marinas seem now to be solely for making money, rather than providing a service to boat owners.
Take winter visitor rates for interest.
I am just back from a trip up to London.
Darthaven marina £14,60 per night water and elect provided.
Portland £17.40 ditto
Sovereign £35
Ramsgate £22.20
Queensborough £17
St Kats £35 + vat and elect expensive and +vat
I agree St Kats is unique and well looked after [except the power to the locks] but it is in the centre of London.
Visitor berths are mostly empty, no wonder. And I certainly will not go near premier marinas again.
Take winter visitor rates for interest.
I am just back from a trip up to London.
Darthaven marina £14,60 per night water and elect provided.
Portland £17.40 ditto
Sovereign £35
Ramsgate £22.20
Queensborough £17
St Kats £35 + vat and elect expensive and +vat
I agree St Kats is unique and well looked after [except the power to the locks] but it is in the centre of London.
Visitor berths are mostly empty, no wonder. And I certainly will not go near premier marinas again.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
They have probably got p****d off with the self declaration of length by customers, and have like many marinas decided to measure the overall length that the boat occupies. they have probably found that many boats are substantially longer than the declared lengths with the addition of things like davits nd bowsprits and may exceed the safe length for the berth they occupy. It is not difficult to measure the overall length once the measurer is trained how to do it. Our club changed to this way over 10 years ago as it treats all customers the same - and has recently also changed to area (L*B) for the same reason as average widths of boats have changed.
As always creates winners and losers. I gained changing from my 37 to a 33 with the same LWL because of the lack of overhang, but lost to the average 33' boat because of the greater beam. However the beam penalty was way less than £100pa so no big deal.
Don't agree with backdating though. change should be from a specific date. Wonder if they are going to refund the ones who have been overpaying!
Jim@sea
Well-Known Member
PuffTheMagicDragon
Well-Known Member
My marina in Malta charges according to the length that is on the registration certificate. Marinas that I have visited in Italy also accept the same, presented to them with the required insurance document when I register upon arrival.
The pulpit does extend beyond the bows, in line with the angled stem, but this has never been taken into consideration.
The pulpit does extend beyond the bows, in line with the angled stem, but this has never been taken into consideration.
Blue Sunray
Well-Known Member
I don't reckon that would be a problem, as I rather suspect any 'errors' in the owner's self-declared figures will be in the owner's favour - it's odd how things happen that way round, a bit of a statistical anomaly, hey?
KINGFISHER 9
Well-Known Member
sorry ... error!
Nigelb
Well-Known Member
I have to agree with the sentiment of the post, the yard appears to focused on developing a business park and squeezing as much revenue from the site as possible. As a consequence what was a hard a year ago in now tarmac and a car park and after two years in the water you can only secure a lift out for a couple of weeks. I don't think you can blame the staff, in my experience they have always been helpful. Like many have said before, it's a shame but perhaps inevitable, so we will be finding a new berth in the new year.
aslabend
Well-Known Member
but for the yard to back date any charges, they would have to prove that the boat has not been altered in the back dated period as they only have the measurement on that one day.
Blue Sunray
Well-Known Member
Possibly (if the length change was due to additions on one end or the other, I don't suppose many hulls grow intrinsically) but with the amount of CCTV and pictures of most marinas floating around that wouldn't be too hard these days.
doug748
Well-Known Member
My marina in Malta charges according to the length that is on the registration certificate. Marinas that I have visited in Italy also accept the same, presented to them with the required insurance document when I register upon arrival.
The pulpit does extend beyond the bows, in line with the angled stem, but this has never been taken into consideration.
Strange that your photo has now disappeared after it's first appearance..
On the subject of LOA. Some people on here have reported that they cheat, some use the nominal length of the boat perhaps backed up by registration information, and some people may even measure the boat themselves.
The usual method is to use the nominal published length - for my boat that would be 32 feet though I would not be surprised if the pulpit was never included in that measurement.
Some marinas, particularly in the Med, now take beam into consideration.
Apart from the cheats, it is difficult to imagine that, say, Nicholson 32 owners were actually trying to evade payment if it was found that these boats are actually 32.1 feet long. It is simply the convention used and accepted at that time. Nor is it believable that the marina actually loses anything, in terms of accommodation, from the convention.
Many red blooded folk, faced with a back dated request for a fanciful payment, would tell the people to push it up their 'arris and their berth with it. Just maybe the marina would be happy about this.
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solent clown
RIP
So happy to be in a small family run independant marina. I guess that is becoming a rarity nowadays
lw395
Well-Known Member
The length of a boat has always been open to interpretation.
Typically there is lwl, loa and the length on the SSR cert.
LOA does not conventionally include the pulpit, or a transom hung rudder. Or even a whopping great bowsprit.
LOA has generally been the scale for arbitrary charging regimes. If I pick up a buoy in Dartmouth, I will pay based on LOA. It's like paying road tax based on cc.
Alongside a wall, should we expect a discount for our sloping transom allowing the pulpit of the next boat to overlap?
There is 'normal practice' of a 'normal' pulpit not included, then there are people pushing the limits with anchor brackets and davits etc.
I think it's fair enough for a marina to say they charge on any basis they publish, but backdating seems dodgy.
Typically there is lwl, loa and the length on the SSR cert.
LOA does not conventionally include the pulpit, or a transom hung rudder. Or even a whopping great bowsprit.
LOA has generally been the scale for arbitrary charging regimes. If I pick up a buoy in Dartmouth, I will pay based on LOA. It's like paying road tax based on cc.
Alongside a wall, should we expect a discount for our sloping transom allowing the pulpit of the next boat to overlap?
There is 'normal practice' of a 'normal' pulpit not included, then there are people pushing the limits with anchor brackets and davits etc.
I think it's fair enough for a marina to say they charge on any basis they publish, but backdating seems dodgy.
KINGFISHER 9
Well-Known Member
Where I keep mine, Port St.Cyprien, they take hull length ... no anchors or swim platforms included ... which is great because mine's got an enormous swim platform.
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Nothing more sinister than Photobucket have just spotted that the poster was using his account for hosting images for display on the forum and have put a stop to until he pays them something like £500!
Most of us have gone elsewhere instead
Blue Sunray
Well-Known Member
Odd comment that, given that marina contracts tend to be very specific about the basis on which length is calculated. Still I suppose a few cheats would get irritated and defensive when found out.
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PuffTheMagicDragon
Well-Known Member
That's correct! I am only waiting to know of an alternative site and I WILL go elsewhere.
PuffTheMagicDragon
Well-Known Member
That, I think, would be fair. My boat, a Centurion 32 (LOA 9.75m) from 1973 pays the same amount as a modern 32-foot power boat that would have one and a half times the beam of my boat.
mlines
Well-Known Member
It seemed to us that any sort of boat orientated business spirit has disappeared.
We took their 6 month summer drystack deal last year as we have alternative storage options for the winter. At the end of the six months we fancied an extra month. Now I fully understand that they want long term customers and not part timers however, it was the end of the season and the drystack had plenty of space. They would not offer me an extra month even though I was prepared to offer the market rate (£380 per month next door at Premier) - to me that is just throwing away the opportunity for money. (Premier gladly took our money so we moved next door for a month).
So on the day we left you would have expected a business with any sales sense to ask us if we would like to come back next year, what date would we be arriving, would we like to look at winter options, early payment discount for next year.....No - instead we retrieved our spare keys and they said "Bye" (Not even "did you enjoy your time with us").
Next door was a different world. We were only there for a month but they could not have been more welcoming. Needless to say we have just entered into a full year deal with them from April, the full year being cheaper than the extended summer deal that we were looking at on a monthly basis. Looking forward to the season start.
We have now noticed that Universal has put up their prices and withdrawn the summer only drystack option, so you have to stay for a year. This means they are no longer cheaper than Premier which was the incentive previously. As Premier offer discounted fuel and inclusive Sea Start, I would suspect that there will be a number of Universal boats that were on the 6 month option looking to move elsewhere like we have.
We took their 6 month summer drystack deal last year as we have alternative storage options for the winter. At the end of the six months we fancied an extra month. Now I fully understand that they want long term customers and not part timers however, it was the end of the season and the drystack had plenty of space. They would not offer me an extra month even though I was prepared to offer the market rate (£380 per month next door at Premier) - to me that is just throwing away the opportunity for money. (Premier gladly took our money so we moved next door for a month).
So on the day we left you would have expected a business with any sales sense to ask us if we would like to come back next year, what date would we be arriving, would we like to look at winter options, early payment discount for next year.....No - instead we retrieved our spare keys and they said "Bye" (Not even "did you enjoy your time with us").
Next door was a different world. We were only there for a month but they could not have been more welcoming. Needless to say we have just entered into a full year deal with them from April, the full year being cheaper than the extended summer deal that we were looking at on a monthly basis. Looking forward to the season start.
We have now noticed that Universal has put up their prices and withdrawn the summer only drystack option, so you have to stay for a year. This means they are no longer cheaper than Premier which was the incentive previously. As Premier offer discounted fuel and inclusive Sea Start, I would suspect that there will be a number of Universal boats that were on the 6 month option looking to move elsewhere like we have.
