Wicor Marine for swing mooring - comments ??

CPD

CPD

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This would be my first swing mooring. Does anyone have any comments (positive or otherwise - feel free to pm if preferred) regarding their facilities etc ?. Boat is deep fin Beneteau First 345. They seem like a friendly bunch on the phone ......
 
WIcormarine swing mooring

I was on a swinging mooring at wicor for 2 years and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I left when I had my outboard and chart plotter stolen. Not a problem that I could blame on wicor marine, merely a risk related to swinging moorings.
Moved to a Gosport Marina , twice the cost but hopefully won't incurr similar losses. It leaves a very bad taste in your mouth when you are a victim of theft!
 
Surely the difference in cost between swinging Wicor and Gosport would pay for several outboards and a couple of plotters every year.:p
 
I went back to Wicor this "summer" after 5 seasons on marina berths in the Netherlands.

On the plus side being at Wicor means that you don't have to drive down to Gosport for Gosport Boat Yard moorings or the various marina berths, as a negative carting the outboard and other paraphinalia along the jetty and then going out to the boat gets to be a real pain. The ferry service was short lived and has been discontinued. At low water springs the dinghy channel is very shallow and I think Wicormarine don't claim all tide access to the jetty any more (from their website - "The berths are accessed from the shore by dinghy at most states of the tide."). The trip to and from the harbour mouth gives you time to really get ready for sea or tidy up after a trip.

As you have already noted, Scott and his team are very friendly and welcoming and keep a good eye out for whats going on. In my first season there (2002) I was on a pontoon mooring and, ahead of a forecast gale, they moved my boat from the windward side of the pontoon where it would have bounced around in the wind to a spare swinging mooring so that it would lie to the weather.

However, a quick glance at the layout of the moorings will make it clear that it is virtually impossible to keep a 24 hour security watch, although I think some berth holders did organise overnight watches at some point.
 
I've been at Wicormarine for 6 years.
A very well organised, efficiently run yard with well maintained jetty and moorings

It has better/quicker access for me coming from the M3 than anything Gosport way.

The minor inconvenience of having to go to the moorings by dinghy is offset by the costs.

It seems wherever you are thieves will take their pickings these days, but night watches and improved security at the yard have meant that very few problems have arisen lately.

40 mins to the East Solent from moorings.
It's very rare that Low springs and high pressure result in a short wait to get to the moorings from the jetty which has a regularly dredged channel
 
We have been there (on one of the Island Pontoons) for 4 yrs and are very happy. Scott and team are very helpful and "customer focused" - I guess when you own the company it is good buisness to keep the punters happy!

From my observations there seem to have been significantly few thefts this year compaired to last, possibly as a result of improved security both by Wicor (cameras on the jetty etc) and the Boat owners (overnight patrols, more locks etc). The tea leaves seem to target Raymarine electronics, so our NASA instruments are at far less risk, and to be frank, small outboards are at risk most places.

It is a shame the ferry service has stopped, but I don't think it was paying its way and TBH we didn't use it much, as we would generally be arriving back after it stopped running. We don't find the dinghying out much of a hardship, and recon on being on board within 20 mins of parking (25 mins if there are no trollies in the yard, and somebody has to walk to the end of the jetty to get one). It beats sitting in trafic getting to Gosport.

Never had a problem parking in the sailing season, and there are no problems with your crew parking there as well, but the yard does get rather congested over winter.

Final thing to bear in mind is the moorings and pontoons are in a pleasant location. A few times each season we go down to the boat partially to check she is okay, but mainly just to sail the Tinker for a bit before having dinner on board, and sitting admiring the view before tuning in. We would be far less likely to do that if based in a marina.
 
We are at the end of our second season at Wicormarine.

As others have said, crime levels have fallen to a point where they can be described as "no worse that average" Whilst you can't eliminate risk, there are a good number of things you can do to make your boat less attractive.

- The boatyard and facilities are well thought out
- There is a personal touch (Scott was v helpful when we were blasting & coppercoating)
- I quite enjoy the jetty and dinghy thing ...and its a pleasure when out there
- We have never had to wait for the tide at the jetty
- The pontoon moorings can test your parallel parking dep't on wind and current

Oh ... and it's occupied by real people that fix there own boats and sail the A2£e off their boats
 
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