Where to leave a boat for a week or three between Penzance and Essex?

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steve yates

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Jojo is currently in Penzance harbour, at £15 a night. Seems to be that the price at least doubles (9.5m) as soon as she rounds the lizard.

I am bringing her to Essex, in weather Windows and between work. So my dilemma is, it looks like I could sail mon/tue/wed maybe some of Thursday, but that's my 50th birthday and if I don't get home for it I am in the shit. I need to go to Cumbria fri to work the weekend, but I could potentially give the following weekend a miss, in which case I could have next mon to the following mon clear.

I can either make a start and get her Mebbe to Weymouth area ish, then come back after the weekend and finish it. Or leave her in Penzance then have a clear week from the 13th, and if I don't reach Essex, I should get quite close, ramsgatedover/Brighton etc. Obviously, weather dependant. That leaves her there while I work the week of the 20th, then I can grab a few days to finish it off.

Two questions really,

Where are harbours/marinas between Plymouth and Brighton that you would reccomend to leave a boat, preferably not for £30 a night, if I went next week, or got stopped by weather the following week?

And which harbours/anchorages/marinas would you reccomend for overnight stops en route from Penzance to Essex? That are a mix of interesting, pretty, cheap, not too out of the way to slow down the delivery, got good pubs and ale? A combination of all would be 5 stars, but it needs to meet at least one of the criteria, that of not too far out of the way.

Thanks.
 
Sailing the South Coast involves coping with compromises, to do with scenicness, cost and comfort. There are memorable stops all along the coast, and as an occasional visitor, I would include Falmouth, Fowey and Dartmouth as the most memorable. For a convenient stop at reasonable cost, perhaps Weymouth Town, or Lymington moorings might suit, both with railway connections. I am not well versed in the other Solent harbours, such as Chichester, but there might be chances there. When we do the south coast we usually do a mixture of swinging moorings and harbours to keep the costs down, though there are anchorages such as Portland Harbour and Osborne bay.
 
Hi Steve,
Well almost anywhere. If you need a train to a mainline station within 100 mtrs that runs every 30 mins and a good pub and floating restaurant. no thrills but great classic boats as company, the elephant boatyard on the Hamble would offer as good a deal as anyone. safe and secure.

Best Wishes.

Steveeasy
 
What's the criteria for your sail along the coast? Get east as fast as possible? Or see things on the way?
 
Wicormarine at the top of Portsmouth harbour has mid-river pontoons at £1.50 per metre per day. Close to M27 and 10 minutes by taxi to Fareham Station.
 
Steve How much is it going to cost when you get the boat home? If it is still going to be an arm & a leg would it not be better to leave it where it is & wait until May when conditions improve & you can do it in one go? That way you will not end up stuck in an expensive spot for a couple of weeks worrying about how to move it on.
 
Daydream believer said:
Steve How much is it going to cost when you get the boat home? If it is still going to be an arm & a leg would it not be better to leave it where it is & wait until May when conditions improve & you can do it in one go? That way you will not end up stuck in an expensive spot for a couple of weeks worrying about how to move it on.
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My thoughts aswell... what is the rush to get it to Essex, except that that is where you will be moored on a permanent basis, and it's closer to home?

Looking out of my window, and at the TV reports, I wouldn't even be contemplating a long'ish trip along the UK coastline at the moment.
 
Sail Penzance to Plymouth anchor in the sound plenty of places, Plymouth to the Solent can be done in 18 to 20 Hrs or less I wouldn't bother with anything in between unless you decide to take a few hours out of the trip and stop at Dartmouth. Solent to Eastbourne easy in daylight from there it's all straight forward. It all depends on weather, if the weather is good 3 to 4 days with one long trip.
 
Daydream believer said:
Steve How much is it going to cost when you get the boat home? If it is still going to be an arm & a leg would it not be better to leave it where it is & wait until May when conditions improve & you can do it in one go? That way you will not end up stuck in an expensive spot for a couple of weeks worrying about how to move it on.
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It's going ashore at dauntless boatyard on canvey island, so will be quite reasonable. But yes, there is a logic to not doing it bit by bit. The most reasonable spots seem to be Portland/Weymouth, lymington and ramsgate.
And I like peters suggestions on big hops too.
I could probably have sailed tomorrow, but only have till wed, and as trains are still buggered, I can't actually guarantee getting there!
So I have 5 days free next week, and the last week of March. Hopefully be done by then if weather isn't too contrary, otherwise it will be finished during Easter. My main problem is now running out of free time and work getting in the way :)
 
SteveYou will not want to stop at Ramsgate for long. It can be expensive on a day rate. They do do deals, I believe, for long term but that is not what you want.(You would be better off in Boulogne & do a bit of wine & tobacco importing while you are there!!!)
 
I may have missed something but, if you live in Cumbria, why a boatyard on Canvey Island? You must have your reasons but, when I had a boat and wanted to work on it, Glasson Dick was a no brainer.
 
My partner is in Essex Richard, and she is ill, so I am mostly based brown there now. I still have my business in Cumbria now, so I travel up and down between them, most of the admin and processing work I can do from her office in Essex. My work is quite seasonal, winter is quiet, so it made sense to bring her down and do the work there, as it's 10 mins from the house. The 2 months to source and replace a knackered fuel tank put a big dent in that, but it is what it is. She will spend April in the yard, probably longer the way things are going :) She would normally go back up to Cumbria as my home when working in the north, but if it is a quiet year, we might just keep her here this summer.
 
steve yates said:
The most reasonable spots seem to be Portland/Weymouth, lymington and ramsgate.
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Few years now since I've sailed in the Solent but I don't remember anywhere in Lymington that wasn't extortionate except the town quay, which I've never thought of as being somewhere to leave a boat for a week. Fair bit cheaper at the Portsmouth end of the ditch and gets cheaper after that (albeit it's all relative).
 
Just a thought, public transport is awkward west of the Solent, hiring a small car one way is a lot easier and often cheaper! From Falmouth I've single handed day hopped Falmouth, Plymouth, Studland, Brighton, Ramsgate, Ipswich. However that was in the summer with long warmer days .. the leg from Plymouth to Studland was a long one taking something like 18 hours, ended up anchoring about 1am! It would probably be better to go Plymouth to Dartmouth then Studland at this time of year. On the Studland to Brighton leg I went through the Solent and Looe Channel and managed to work the tides to get a fair tide almost all the way, hower agai it would be easy to pop into Haslar to break that leg as well. Brighton to Ramsgate is again a long leg but carry the tide and it will go surprisingly fast , miss it and you'll be looking at the same bit of coast for a long time! You really need to work the tides from Portland on, before that you can almost ignore them (except Lizard) although you'll notice it rounding headlands. Good luck. The trains from Brighton and Portsmouth are pretty good if you need to leave the boat.
 
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lpdsn said:
Few years now since I've sailed in the Solent but I don't remember anywhere in Lymington that wasn't extortionate except the town quay, which I've never thought of as being somewhere to leave a boat for a week. Fair bit cheaper at the Portsmouth end of the ditch and gets cheaper after that (albeit it's all relative).
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I saw casual berths at lymington marina for about £130 pw, based on my 9.5m, same roughly with ramsgate. Ramsgate would only be if I couldn't make the last bit in time to match up with tides and lift out. It's an easy place for me to be driven to from essex and one day's sail to canvey from there. Looks cheaper than the essex marinas anyway :)

Ok, not exactly cheap, but better than the £30 a night that most seem to charge.
 
Have you considered getting it sailed round by a professional crew? They will do it as fast as is safely possible, minimising the number of nights that you have to pay for moorings en route. If you are also going to have to take trains up north and back, the costs could easily balance out. We have used Halcyon Yacht Deliveries on a couple of occasions when we needed a boat moved and it was not convenient for us to do it ourselves - we have always been pleasantly surprised by the price.
 
steve yates said:
My partner is in Essex Richard, and she is ill, so I am mostly based brown there now. I still have my business in Cumbria now, so I travel up and down between them, most of the admin and processing work I can do from her office in Essex. My work is quite seasonal, winter is quiet, so it made sense to bring her down and do the work there, as it's 10 mins from the house.
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Aha! Hope she gets better soon!
 
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