What is the worst marina/ harbour you have ever been to?

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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We are now into our 5th year of living aboard and cruising and have visited well over 300 places in our boat.
For me Ramsgate is still the worst place I have ever been. :black_eyed:
What's yours?
 
Here we go again - every couple of years with an anti-Ramsgate thread.

Ramsgate is one of my favourite marinas and certainly one of my favourite harbour towns to visit with the varied and good restaurants and bars. Although my boat was only there for a season we still go back to Royal Harbour B&B for the odd weekend. Of course it's a working port and a trippery town too, with many pubs I wouldn't enjoy but lovely architecture, friendly marina staff, easy to provision there, walk to Broadstairs, and most of all, it isn't Dover.

I'd love to understand why Ramsgate is so uniquely bad.
 
Bradwell. Horrible location, ran onto the mud on the way in although there was supposedly enough water for us, ridiculously tight berths and approaches. I have never been anwhere with so many instructional notices - 'No cleaning bait in the wash basins' being one that remains in my memory. Says something about the clientele perhaps.

Boulogne not amongst our favourites either. Big flow of water through the pontoons at some states of tide, accompanied by a horrendous sewage smell from the water above the weir.

Conversely, we like Ramsgate a lot. Have berthed in the inner and outer harbours and dried out for a scrub near the slip on the NE side.
 
I'm perhaps fortunate in never having been to a really dud harbour. Some have been less pleasant, though: Carrickfergus is a boring marina surrounded by a dreary housing development (nice people, though) and Portpatrick would be fine if it was free or dirt cheap but charges marina rates for stuff-all facilities.
 
If I were a marina owner I'd be watching this thread with bated breath ready to track down anyone who has anything to say about my pride and joy.
 
savageseadog said:
If I were a marina owner I'd be watching this thread with bated breath ready to track down anyone who has anything to say about my pride and joy.
Click to expand...

They don't have time to look at things like this when they have just hit a double bogie on the 11th. Berth holders views come well down the list of things to do.
 
Nostrodamus said:
We are now into our 5th year of living aboard and cruising and have visited well over 300 places in our boat.
For me Ramsgate is still the worst place I have ever been. :black_eyed:
What's yours?
Click to expand...

Bit unkind for Ramsgate, there are many much worse! It is a municipal venture and therefore attracts hard hats and hi viz!

I like Boulogne the pong seems to have been less offensive recently. If you can miss the cloggy migrations then it's a nice place.

Joint first goes to Newlyn and Dumbarton. Both have unique features that make them what they are.
Howth is a contender for being up them selves.

St Malo, bas sablons, on the visitors pontoons (semi derelict) gives the impression of being inside a tumble drier.
 
Much like Jumbleduck I can't say I've ever been to a really bad one. Looked at St. Malo visitor's pontoons from the ferry terminal once and decided to give it a miss.
 
Oh dear.
Well, a marina is just a yacht harbour, a place to park the boat, and the quality varies.
I don't go to marinas to visit the marina, but to visit the place attached to it.
Ramsgate is fine. Nice friendly club and two great Thai restaurants.
Bradwell can be tricky but nothing out of the ordinary for an East Coaster. It's got an excellent pub and fine walks.
Boulogne harbour (hardly a marina) can be a bit pongy but hey, the town is great and full of excellent places to eat.
And so on.
 
I like Ramsgate.

I disliked Conyer on the Swale a lot. They had 'deep' water berths that gave you 90 minutes either side and 'regular' berths that didn't float our 2'6" at all on neaps!
 
Ramsgate has got plenty of British character, I always look forward to visiting.

Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne is a terrifying post-apocalyptic nightmare from a J.G.Ballard novel, a meaningless money-farm surrounded and overlooked by vile tower-blocks, and staffed by plastic shiny-toothed zombies whose hands whip out with the speed of a lizard's tongue catching a fly when the presence of a credit card is sensed.

What are those "bunkerbuster" bombs called again?
 
Povoa de Varzim, not because the marina was bad or the town was but because of that damned fog horn (air raid siren would be more accurate), sounding every minute of every hour of every day we were there, whether it was foggy or not
 
Of all the harbours visited during an Atlantic Circuit, Falmouth/Carrick Roads takes the prize for the worst welcome and trumped up charges. Antigua, a very close runner-up.
 
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