Where to keep a boat?

Orwell is great, IMHO.Try Kings Boatyard, talk to Gus. Or one of the other Orwell options,its a fine river. Blackwater is also good. I live in Harpenden BTW, and can be at Pin Mill in less than 2 hours, it is 96 miles of which 80 odd are motorway
 
We live in st Albans and can get to the Crouch in 1hr 20 mins. Better, it's quite possible by train, so when one of us has to work late in London, they can still get to the boat on Friday evening (I even arrived there from Beijing, once, but that took a bit longer!). You'd be ok for all tide access in Burnham Yacht Harbour, Essex marina (but that's more difficult by train because there's a river in the way!) or the moorings off Burnham. Compromise on access, and Fambridge and Bridgemarsh are possible, too. If the train access is of less interest, how about Paglesham?

When I was looking, I took all possible marinas/boatyards (found from Google, of course), then used the RAC website to find the driving time from home to each. I then dismissed any over 2 hrs (which includes some of the further ones with good roads, eg SYH, over nearer ones with worse links) and threw into the pot some wild prejudice (eg not on the Thames). Then we went round and visited the possibles, talked to the yard managers, and from there the decision was easy!
 
We live in a small village just outside Dunstable. We moved from South Wales where Harlequin was kept in Swansea marina. We looked all over the place. Brighton was second choice, but eventually decided on the Crouch. Burnham Yacht Harbour is about 1h 40min for us (probably less when they eventually finish the roadworks on the M1)

The Crouch is ok (The scenery is a little dull when compared to the South Wales coastline), only really busy during regatta week. Several marinas. Way cheaper than the south coast (on the Hamble a pontoon berth for Harlequin would be over £6k /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif).

oh, and a few friendly faces about as well /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

S.
 
I know. That was what I was trying to say - SYH is further but quicker than, say, Titchmarsh or Shotley. My sentence got convoluted.

We were in SYH for a few months and the drive up on Friday evening was fine - we almost always got to the Ship in Levington before they stopped serving food!
 
Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated.

I think we'll go for the Orwell - either King's (Pin Mill) or SYH. I don't envisage us being there long enough to make laying our own mooring an economical proposition.

Blackwater seemed nice, but chances of getting a mooring there seem slim.

Burnham may have it's good points, but it looks like we'd be dodging sandbanks most of the time. Also, open sea appears a long way off.

We've narrowed our list of 'possibles' down to two. It looks like we'll be making an offer soon.
 
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