What is happening to Dry stack sailing at Universal Marina?

[PurpleKate]

Two friends of mine who both dry sail J105's from Universal Marina received the note below by email. Anyone got any background to what is happening? Universal has a fairly large and successful group of racers who dry sail from the Marina regularly winning Offshore JOG, RORC, SORC etc. Having been a berth holder for a while the racing fleet seems to grow which you would think would be welcomed, but now it seems the Marina is just sweeping them aside. Im struggling to believe it can be safety as other Marinas like Hamble Yacht Services are still offering dry sailing? Is a Marina really going to chuck out all its racers to put ecopods on the space?

Personally Im upset as I guess all my racing friends are going to be moving, I also hear from my friend big price rises are set for 2018. Maybe its time to move with them all...

Thoughts?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here at Universal Marina we are undergoing lots of new and exciting projects which are already
starting to take shape. Over the next few years the Marina will have an array of new features
including Eco Pods, Shepherds Huts, an Exclusive Retreat, fishing lake, and water sports facilities
to name but a few. To acknowledge our permanent berth holders, they will have their own exclusive
use lounge area and private showers. All exciting stuff!
We are writing to you now to inform you that as a customer on our ‘Dry Sail’ scheme, having completed our Risk Assessments for the coming year, due to the nature of your vessel unfortunately we will no longer be able to offer you the same facility. To explain in more detail, boats with deep drafts and soft hulls are far more likely to suffer from cradle failure than any other type and with the Dry Sail scheme having frequent lifts in and out during the sea
son, it puts us in a position of liability as this hull type is not designed for regular lift outs and it puts excessive load
on the keel itself.
You may notice that a few of the current Dry Sail customers will remain for next season; this is purely because of their combined weight distribution and design lending itself more suitably to lifting. In order to further the overall service provided at Universal Marina, we feel this is an appropriate opportunity to improve our company operations from a safety standpoint. Over the past years the Marina have been happy to accommodate the Dry Sail fleet, keeping an allocated number of berths vacant at all times to facilitate this, as well as sufficient hard standing area. However now it has become a potential operations / safety issue we need to respond accordingly.

 

[sarabande]

IIRC there was an incident earlier this year with the pickup crane having a bit of a contretemps with some infrastructure in the stack area. It's hard to imagine there not being some associated damage to boats.

I suspect the reasons for the change have been forced upon them by insurance and a critical risk assessment. Perhaps the area will be filled with merry shepherds huts, sybaritic glamping tents, and the sounds and smells of a mini Glastonbury. What a prospect to anticipate !

 

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDoo]

Certainly seems like they are planning a more 'diverse' business going forward

 

[flaming]

Our owner had the same letter.
We’ve been there for at least 7 years.

I don’t buy the safety argument at all. It’s a business decision that they don’t make enough money out of dry Sailing. Mostly, I think, because they have done away with the pens for dry Sailing and only use them for the dry stack mobos.
When we first started Sailing from there there was only us and about 3 others. Universal had only just started offering it I think, partly because we’d all just been evicted from Swanwick because of some development that never happened...
At first we were always in the pens right at the bottom of the ramp, but in the last few years they’ve been putting us in berths all over the marina.
I can see that if they have a waiting list for regular berths then they would rather do that, as it’s a lot less hassle, wish they could just be honest and say it’s a business decision instead of hiding behind H&S though...

 

[Strolls]

What a tone-deaf letter!

"It's really great here, all this cool stuff happening, we can't wait, by the way you're no longer welcome."

How hard would it have been to write, "we appreciate all our berth-holders, and we're glad you chose to stay with us, so we're sorry to have to tell you that, due to circumstances beyond our control, we can no longer host you here"?

 

[PurpleKate]

Agree Strolls, the letter is particularly badly written with no thought given to an appropriate way to break the bad news, It wasn't even sent by post just attached to an email that said Happy Christmas - see attached. It then ended with please move your boat by Jan 2nd. Needless to say my friend is not very happy with the whole fiasco. Somehow most of the regular staff have left Universal in the past few months.

 

[flaming]

Agree Strolls, the letter is particularly badly written with no thought given to an appropriate way to break the bad news, It wasn't even sent by post just attached to an email that said Happy Christmas - see attached. It then ended with please move your boat by Jan 2nd. Needless to say my friend is not very happy with the whole fiasco. Somehow most of the regular staff have left Universal in the past few months.

Where's your friend off to?

 

[Nico]

I suspect that there is an element of risk avoidance, or just hassle avoidance, but space might be an issue. Land is so valuable that marinas are tempted to see if they can put housing on their site. Port Hamble used to have loads of free parking and the ramshackle but fun Square Rigger. Then they developed those offices down the south end with flats on top and parking became much more restrictive. Mercury are developing round their site and reducing the car parking area. Shepherd's huts may not be quite in the same league but the pressure is on to "leverage their assets" or whatever the term is.

 

[PurpleKate]

My friend is trying Hamble Yacht services and Hamble Point who both offer dry stack. Latest I hear is Universal might allow the Sunfast fleet to stay if they can find a solution with the cradles.... or maybe just trying to protect some of the revenue as those guys go for 24lifts/year!

As for the regular berth-holders I got a note yesterday saying we are all to be remeasured, The note had a similar tone of consumer indifference. Apparently we've been audited and some naughty naughty berth-holders have been lying about how long there boats are!!!! So we all on the naughty step for now waiting to see how much our fees will go up by.

 

[savageseadog]

Is this apply to J105's only? I know that the J105's had keel structure weaknesses, perhaps it's that?

 

[j24jam]

I don't think it is just the J105's, we have recently tried to bring a 43ft yacht on a dry sail package to Universal, and they told us they are not taking in any more Dry Sail customers...

I call BS on the H&S excuse, its just another way to increase profit margins.

Universal is going down the pan. Been a happy customer for 5 years, and with two key staff leaving over the last year, think we will be off too.

 

[flaming]

Not just 105s. We've been evicted too.

Such a shame as there was starting to be a real buzz about the place.

 

[s.riley1972]

I agree, things have changed. This does sound like a nonsense to me, sure it has more to do with the space that needs to be kept aside both on the hard and in the water for dry sailors. Along with the parking required for dry sailors as they have so many crew!

Have similar feelings so started this thread:
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...o-Universal-Marina&highlight=universal+marina

 

[Honeymonster]

I am a Sun Fast 3200 owner and was a very happy dry sail customer at Universal. It was a lovely place to be with friendly attentive staff (many of who have recently left), and a buzzing social scene evolving. I was offered continuation of a dry sail contract, but the price jump was circa 70% over last year, so I have unfortunately voted with my keel and am moving the Hamble Yacht Services. The saving will pay for a couple of new sails ever year!!!