Yarmouth Surcharge for Visiting Catamarans

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catalac08

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I just read the latest harbour newsletter which is full of theings happening, unfortunately dropping the onerous catamaran surcharge for visitors is not one of them. However a new Chief Exec/harbourmaster is due to replace the retiring HM and now may be a good time for catamaran owners who object to paying extra to make this point to them. The surcharge used to be 50% even for small cats with only a 14ft beam but the situation has worsened now where they just say that catamarans will be charged more, without even saying what the surcharge will be. Who would enter a marina and committ to an unamed visitor mooring fee?
Anyone interested can look at the Yarmouth Harbour website to see the mooring rates; the conact there is Tracey Cooper. Tacey.Cooper@yarmouth-harbour.co.uk
It may be that if enough interested cat owners make representation about this then they will have a rethink-or maybe not!
 
I'm not a catamaran owner and, whilst I sympathise to some extent, I suppose from a marina's point of view it's all about how many boats they can fit in. A Jeanneau Sun Oddessy 44 DS has a beam of 13' 10" (I've just looked it up!) and Yarmouth would charge £43.50 for that boat on a Fri / Sat night for a walk ashore finger pontoon. Presumably the beam of that boat would influence the size of the boat that they could put in the adjacent berth (or raft alongside). I don't know how long a typical catamaran with a beam of 14' would be, but is £43.50 more or less than a cat with that beam plus a 50% surcharge? If it's less, then I wholeheartedly agree with you that the 50% surcharge is unfair. With boats generally getting wider, I do wonder if there would be some justification for introducing a pricing formula applicable to all boats that takes into account both length and beam. After all, it's surely about the available space? When cruising in Brittany recently I was glad that my boat wasn't any wider as we'd have struggled to fit into some finger pontoon berths if it was.
 
Houleaux said:
I'm not a catamaran owner and, whilst I sympathise to some extent, I suppose from a marina's point of view it's all about how many boats they can fit in. A Jeanneau Sun Oddessy 44 DS has a beam of 13' 10" (I've just looked it up!) and Yarmouth would charge £43.50 for that boat on a Fri / Sat night for a walk ashore finger pontoon. Presumably the beam of that boat would influence the size of the boat that they could put in the adjacent berth (or raft alongside). I don't know how long a typical catamaran with a beam of 14' would be, but is £43.50 more or less than a cat with that beam plus a 50% surcharge? If it's less, then I wholeheartedly agree with you that the 50% surcharge is unfair. With boats generally getting wider, I do wonder if there would be some justification for introducing a pricing formula applicable to all boats that takes into account both length and beam. After all, it's surely about the available space? When cruising in Brittany recently I was glad that my boat wasn't any wider as we'd have struggled to fit into some finger pontoon berths if it was.
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an 8meter / 26 foot catalac is 14 foot beam
 
Houleaux said:
I'm not a catamaran owner and, whilst I sympathise to some extent, I suppose from a marina's point of view it's all about how many boats they can fit in. A Jeanneau Sun Oddessy 44 DS has a beam of 13' 10" (I've just looked it up!) and Yarmouth would charge £43.50 for that boat on a Fri / Sat night for a walk ashore finger pontoon. Presumably the beam of that boat would influence the size of the boat that they could put in the adjacent berth (or raft alongside). I don't know how long a typical catamaran with a beam of 14' would be, but is £43.50 more or less than a cat with that beam plus a 50% surcharge? If it's less, then I wholeheartedly agree with you that the 50% surcharge is unfair. With boats generally getting wider, I do wonder if there would be some justification for introducing a pricing formula applicable to all boats that takes into account both length and beam. After all, it's surely about the available space? When cruising in Brittany recently I was glad that my boat wasn't any wider as we'd have struggled to fit into some finger pontoon berths if it was.
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I can see the point of the marina wanting to charge for space eg on a pontoon berth but where berths are alongside and many visitor berths are, and rafting is not an option for any boat cat or mono due to space say for other boats to pass in the marina then the only fair criteria to charge is length. It is as much the blanket surcharge that seems to discriminate against catamarans that gets up my nose. Many modern mobos are as beamy as our little cat but they get no surcharge, we raft up and are often rafted against and consistently people rafted against us comment how easy it is to cross the deck of a cat. Now compare how easy it is to cross a motor boat in a raft up -almost impossible at the bows due to the high top sides and foredecks without anything to hang onto and a stern deck is also difficult to access. So motor boats do not facilitate good use of space by enabling rafting so why are they not surcharged?
The practice of multihull surcharges is now quite rare and on our recent cruise to the West Country and Scilly we were surcharged only once!
 
Yarmouth is a small and frequently crowded harbour. Do they surcharge you on the buoys outside? Mind you last time I was outside, the water taxi fares made it more expensive than a walk ashore pontoon.
 
A marina is enclosed within a defined water area and it costs a great deal of money to keep that water area operational. The only fair solution is to charge customers by area occupied. There is an argument that there should be an adjustment for draught as well - deep keeled racing yachts should pay extra for dredging beyond a "normal" depth.
 
Robih said:
A marina is enclosed within a defined water area and it costs a great deal of money to keep that water area operational. The only fair solution is to charge customers by area occupied. There is an argument that there should be an adjustment for draught as well - deep keeled racing yachts should pay extra for dredging beyond a "normal" depth.
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I would think wide boats in Yarmouth not only occupy more area, but require wider fairways to get in and out. That means less boats can be rafted etc etc.
Personally, unless it's winter, midweek, or forecast a full gale, I prefer to be on the moorings outside Yarmouth.
Yes it means water taxi for the evening ashore, but there's usually only two or three of us.
 
As a cat owner I don't like paying the extra when I am on the end of a finger, not taking any space between fingers but asked to pay extra.

It's not like I am taking up two berths.

Good luck and fair winds.
 
Sailfree said:
Fat people should pay more to fly - charge by weight - and cats should pay for the area of the marina occupied!
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One of the US airlines is already applying this (more to do with overflowing the seats) and it's not infrequent in parts of Med France and in Italy for a boat being charged by area (LOA x Beam).
Flying Aurigny from Braye to Soton, passengers used to be weighed as well as their baggage. But that was more to do with weight distribution in the Islanders. On one occasion my friends' 11 year old son was in the RH pilot's seat.
 
I don't seem to get charged any extra in a Cat, even in Yarmouth last month. I must admit though i do only give length when paying !
 
sailorman said:
so takes up little more than 1/2 a SO 44DS
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Compare like with like. How wide is a 44 foot catamaran? My guess is that one would take up half as much space again as the SO44. In the Med, where you moor stern to, catamarans, most of which are at least half as wide as they are long definitely reduce the capacity of jetties.
 
Our last boat was a Heavenly Twins cat, 27 feet long and 13 wide. Our present boat is 36 feet long and 13 wide. It would make no sense to charge extra for that cat and only one marina we visited did so. But the boat we'd love to have is a Lagoon 380, really love that cat. It's 38 feet long and 22 feet wide so it's not unfair to charge it extra - what length monohull would be 22 feet wide? What does the marina owner do when you radio in for a berth, excuse me sir, are you a thin cat or a fat cat :D
 
Lazy Kipper said:
What does the marina owner do when you radio in for a berth, excuse me sir, are you a thin cat or a fat cat :D
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Don't understand your point. The marina asks for loa and beam and then multiplies one by the other and then applies a standard cost per SqM, easy and fair.
 
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