Where to go?

[KevL]

Ok so I'm a newbee to the list and to boating and this is my first question to the list so do go easy on me if I ask stupid questions from time to time.

A couple of months ago I bought a Bayliner 2556 which is presently moored at Conwy. Now whilst Conwy is a very nice marina it isn't exactly cheap or convinent so I've been looking for some where to put her next year that is a little closer to Manchester. I've been looking at Fleetwood which I can get to in about an hour and is cheaper but being new to this boating lark I can't help thinking that there are other places that I don't know about. What I'm looking for is somewhere my wife and I can go to relax if we don't fancy going out to sea and with some nice crusing ground to explore. Any suggestions or am I asking too much.

Kev

 

[byron]

Jeeze! I hope this isn't another wind-up my suspicions being drawn because of the Bayliner reference.

©2001

 

[Guest]

Bayliner AND Wales, all in one post. Too much.

 

[KevL]

Thanks!

I had hoped that I would get some help here, I don't know why you dislike Bayliners so much but having read an earlier thread I sort of expected a bit of stick. Please this is a serious question, all I want is some help here!

Anyway Fleetwood is in England so please has anyone got anything sensible to say or shall I just give up on this list because I own the wrong sort of boat!

Kev

 

[BarryD]

Hang in there KevL - I was rousted horribly at the start! I looked at Bayliners but still haven't chosen a boat. DF_Light is making things a bit tough for Bayliner owners at the moment. Just don't rise to the wind-ups.

Love to help but I'm a novice, and SWMBO wants South Coast moorings.

Barry D.

 

[byron]

Nothing wrong with a Bayliner Kev., They're excellent value for money. It's just this forum's weird sense of humour. Believe it or not some people in this Forum don't support West Ham. Don't take the critics serious unless you own a Birchwood ;-)

As regards your question - sorry mate I'm a suverner and the world ends at Watford for me.

©2001

 

[Guest]

Re: But surely Conwy is in Wales?

Apolgies if we've given you the wrong imprseeion, it's just that there's a wind up been going on for the past week by some chap who's tried to convice us he's paid twice the going rate for a Bayliner and... well.. if you want the details read further down.

It's not that we don't like Bayliners, its just that most of the rich blokes on this board have got big flash Fairlines in the South of France, Sealines in the Solent ,Princesses in Cornwall and Brooms in their back yards and tend to be a bit "stick in the mud" and not open to new ideas. Bear with them, they're well meaning old buffers most of them anyway.

Re your choicce of cruising ground, have you had a look round the local area. I don't know your area at all and can't give any advice, but what about Yellow Pages for Marinas? Go there and have a chat. Ask them where can you get to in an hour\day\wekeend. Is Windermere feasible for you? I know there's a lot of motorboats there and for the next 3 years no speed limit and the water's relatively flat. Or is that too far?

I'm sure others will come back with other ideas, just don't get upset at their twisted sense of humour.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Contact the RYA and ask for their publication listing all the marinas in the country. I come from Sumerzet so can't help any more than this.

 

[KevL]

Sorry if I flew off the handle a bit but the last thing I needed was to be told that I've wasted my money on a Bayliner - It seemed to give me what I wanted for the right price.

I've got a list of Marinas but I was after some first hand experience of what they are really like not just what you can see in the sales literature.

Thanks

Kev

 

[ArthurWood]

Hey Byron,
Did you know you have a town named after you in Georgia (USA)? I thought of you as I drove by it on I-75 last evening, with our 1987 19ft Wellcraft in tow. The boat has been lying in storage in Georgia for a few years, so we thought we would drag it down to Florida and play with it . I've never towed anything 540 miles before, but it was a piece of cake.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Arthur, we could do with some Florida sunshine over here right now. As our regular American contributor you may have seen that bayliners have come in for a bit of stick recently, what's your opinion of them?

 

[ArthurWood]

Longjohn - Oim from Zummerzet, too - Wellington to be egzact. Wur be ee frum?

 

[byron]

Wotcha Arfur

Fanks fer finking abaht me. Had any contact wiff Poo Poo Peggie lately? She keeps her boat somewhere in Georgia I fink. You must have her address you should have stopped off for a cuppa. She loves a cuppa Typhoo.

©2001

 

[longjohnsilver]

Taunton, although both brats go to wellington school!

Small world!!! What are you doing in the states.

 

[Guest]

Hi kevL.

The crinkly west coast is batered by the winds, and nicely covered with job-rich places like Manchester, not ideal for flat-water boating enjoyed by yanks in huge inland waterways and lakes.

I wd suggest that you reserve a few quid and a bit of time to get boat hoiked around and about, by road on a truck, and do bits of a season here and there. For exploring, you'll needa bit of a tender, and decent anchor. Anglesey is lovely, but vicious tides. Windermer - or is ther a dreadful speed limit - check it out.

More than one boaty hereabouts from your area travels all the way downto plymouth, many of us kee pthe boat abroad. However wonderful somewhere is, there's always somewhere else - hence boat not cottage. Spose with many of these of these places you aren't just wanting a nice view - you ARE the view.

For ourseleves, we had boaty times in Nwales, then scoast, then swest uk, and channle islands, each miles better than the last. Then we had a boat taken to S France and stayed in dropoff marina for a week it was so fabulous. Then we found that the dropoff marina was manky in comparison with others - proving the nomadic nature of boating and boaties I spose.

happy boating

 

[kimhollamby]

Hi Kevin,

Was last on that stretch of coast in 99 - we hopped from Conwy to Liverpool but then skipped past Fleetwood and made the next port of call Whitehaven right up in Cumbria. This would be a good alternative to Windermere, big development there and a reasonable hop to Isle of Man and not so very far away from Scottish West Coast for hols. But I'm guessing that Whitehaven is just as much of a chore on the roads for you as Conwy.

Best bet...drive to the closest ports to you and take a good look. Motorboat owners in particular are a pretty sociable bunch, wherever you meet them and I'm sure locals would help you with the right decision.

Do check out Liverpool too - tide restricted, but very busy marina and plenty to do within a mile walk of the berths.

Finally I'm sure your on top of this one but if your boat is petrol powered you are going to need to check out availability - not generally that good outside of major marinas.

 

[ArthurWood]

Byron - No, no contact with Peggie for ages. She does keep her boat on Lake Lanier, N of Atlanta, where we used to boat.
She's probably had a problem, as have many others on the lake because of lack of water. It was over 12ft down from normal levels and many people's docks were on land!

 

[ArthurWood]

I lived for the first 19 years of my life at 24 Foxdown Terrace, facing Wellington School playing field. Went to Huish's and left in 1959. Two of my brothers live in Wellington. After 30 years with Hewlett-Packard in the UK, Europe and the US I retired to FL four years ago and now I do whatever I want whenever I want,( unless my wife wants to do something different)!! Just been up to Atlanta to do a 70 mile charity bicycle ride for MS research. It should have been 100 miles over two days, but we had to do 70 in one day because the place we were to overnight at closed because of the terrorist attacks. There's more to life than boating and I've raised over $20,000 over the past 6 years of doing this bike ride. However, the first thing I did when we got back today was to wander down to the marina to see if the boat is is OK. It is, but the marina still stinks of rotting fish after the second dose of red tide while we were away. I thought tropical storm Gabrielle which came through a couple of weeks ago had blown it all away(together with a lot of trees and boat canvas) but it came back.
Two kids at Wellington - can't be bad! Of course, we grammar school lot used to fight the Wellington School lot at every opportunity!

 

[ArthurWood]

Longjohn - re Bayliners, I think they are good value for money. People say they are not seaworthy, but I've never heard of one breaking up. We almost bought a 19 footer as our first boat and if the salesman hadn't messed us about with the price I would not have bought the Wellcraft which we still have after 15 years. I think the bigger Bayliners, although not up to Euro standards aesthetically, provide a lot of boat for the money. I really like the 4755 Pilot House, for example and the older 3855; rather staid, but they look like boats and there's tons of living space and all mod-cons. The problem I see with most Euro boats is the amount of living space per $, pound or whatever. My 37ft Sea Ray has as much living space as most 42 ft Euro boats. It just doesn't look so flashy. You pays your money etc. But then, if you can only use your boat a few times per year, space may not be important. We use ours every week, year round and have done since we bought it new 7 years ago. There was a kind of winter in Georgia and we would sometimes get up in the morning, whilst anchored in a cove on the lake to find the boat covered in ice. That's unlikely to happen in SW Florida, I hope.

 

[byron]

I agree Arfur, I looked at a 4755 Pilot House going very cheap and was sorely tempted, problem was its height, it will not come up the Thames which meant I would have to pay for a berth instead of parking free at the end of my garden. It was a whole load of boat for the money though and very very impressive inside and a good looking boat too.
Incidentally as an ex-HP man does the name Mick (Micheal) Conners ring any bells?

©2001