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Understanding Boat Berthing Arrangements

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Berthing devours almost 40 per cent of your annual budget and is the area where you can save the most cash. It is easy to believe that if you wish to berth a boat, then it must be in a marina.

This is partly because the growth in marinas saw many of the cheap berths and moorings that were tucked away in the remoter corners of harbours disappear and partly because we have grown accustomed to the shoreside facilities that marinas provide.

It is estimated that there are around 450 000 to 500 000 boats in the UK and about 250 coastal marinas providing in the region of 50 000 berths. In other words, around 90 per cent of boats seem to be managing quite well without the expense of a marina berth. So, do not fall into the trap of believing that the only place you can park a boat is in a marina, There are cheaper options but you will need to consider:

  • Type of boat.
  • Type of sailing.
  • Harbour dues.
  • Club membership fees.
  • Travelling costs.
  • Berthing costs.

Type of boat

It is sensible to explore possible berthing arrangements before you buy your dream boat. What you learn can affect your choice of boat or where you decide to keep it. If you are buying a cruising yacht of 28-30 ft (8-9 m) your berthing options are narrowed to either a marina or permanent swinging mooring, But there are other types of boat that need special consideration:

Bilge keelers and centreboarders

If your boat can rake the ground, then a drying mooring becomes a possibility. Drying moorings are at the cheaper end of the market because they are only accessible two or three hours either side of high water. Since the tides have a nasty habit of clashing with sailing timetables, this sometimes leaves you the choice of going to sea in the small dark hours or staying at home. If you cannot accept this, then a drying mooring, however financially attractive, is not for you.

A variation on a drying mooring is a marina with a lock or sill holding back water and keeping the boats inside afloat at low water. Entering or leaving is still restricted to an hour or so either side of low water. Even so, the prices tend to be in line with those of any other marina.

Multihulls. Many marinas charge multihulls extra for their berth, sometimes as much as double their normal fee, which makes their usual scary price absolutely terrifying. On the plus side, multihulls are ideal for drying moorings or shallow-water swinging moorings.

Trailer sailers

Trailer sailers can be parked on the front drive but neighbours may object to having their view obscured by what seems to them to be a very large boat and there is the very real chance that a passing thief will hitch up your boat and tow it away, so you must invest in tow bar locks and wheel clamps for the trailer.

Some local authorities have rules about parking caravans in streets and driveways and may see no difference between a Buying Trailerable Sailboats: Condition Assessment and Risksyacht on a trailer and a hut on wheels. If they do agree, then they may levy a parking charge. Check this out before committing yourself to keeping your boat at home.

If parking your boat on the front drive is impossible you may be able to keep it on its trailer (with the mast up) in the club or marina yard. This may be in a designated trailer park or any vacant corner but either option is cheaper than keeping it afloat. With luck there will be cheap, possibly even free, access to a ramp to launch your boat when you wish to sail.

If keeping your boat at home or in the club yard is out of the question then it may be possible to come to an arrangement with a local friendly farmer to keep your boat in his yard or in a corner of a fallow field.

You may find it worthwhile asking around at your local industrial estate. In the current economic climate, small factory owners may be interested in earning some extra cash by renting you some space on their hard standing. You may be lucky enough to find secure parking for your boat as an added bonus.

With trailer sailers there are launching fees to pay each time you sail and also the bother of stepping and unstepping the mast each time, which tends to rule out a quick evening sail.

Dinghies

Sailing dinghies can be taken home and kept on the front drive or even in the garage, though it is often more convenient to keep them in the club dinghy park.

Sailing dinghies
For dinghy and open boat sailors, parking your boat on its trailer in the yacht club yard is probably the cheapest and most convenient form of berthing

The charges for this are normally modest.

Type of sailing

Racing. If you race, then it is convenient to keep your boat close to those of your fellow competitors. This suggests a club mooring and certainly rules out berthing your boat some hours’ sail away from the rest of the fleet or on a tide-restricted drying mooring.

Day and weekend sailing. Day and weekend sailors like to berth as close to the open sea as possible. This is a difficulty for a budget sailor as this type of berth is twice as expensive as one in a distant creek two or three hours’ sail upriver. But although upriver moorings are cheaper, the time it takes to reach open water makes daysailing impossible and weekend cruises difficult.

Cruising. Those who make one or two long cruises a year are not over concerned about ready access to the open sea and do not mind beginning them with a downriver cruise provided it saves them money.

Live-aboards

Live-aboards are a special case. Sea gipsies tend to follow the sun, moving from one anchorage to another and when they arrive in an anchorage, they will spend days, sometimes weeks, before moving on. Their boats are fitted out so that they can live almost independently of shoreside facilities. For them, berthing charges are limited to paying occasional harbour dues.

Others choose to live aboard and keep their nine-to-five job. Their boat is more a floating apartment than a seagoing vessel and they need access to shoreside power and water and somewhere to park their car. This points them towards a marina and marinas take contrary views on live-aboards. Some look favourably on them. Out of self-interest, live-aboards keep a watchful eye over the marina and can be relied upon to report any repairs needed to the pontoons or their facilities. More important they will be quick to notice any unusual behaviour and are, in practice, an unpaid security force. In marinas which see live-aboards in this light there is the chance of negotiating favourable rates.

Read also: Cruising in Comfort on a Sailboat

For their own reasons, other marinas discourage live-aboards by charging them higher rates (usually on the grounds that they make more use of the facilities) and placing restrictions on car parking and even the number of visitors they can receive and the times when these visitors may come.

If you intend to live aboard berthed in a marina then check this out before committing yourself to a particular marina.

Harbour dues

Some harbours have always charged leisure craft harbour dues in addition to berthing charges levied by marinas. More are following their example. Some clubs and marinas have negotiated a bulk discount. The saving is not huge but it is welcome.

Club membership fees

Some yacht clubs have berths on piles or pontoons which they offer to members at below commercial rates. The first catch is that you must first be a member and the second that you may have to join a waiting list until a berth becomes available.

Travelling costs

There are regional and national differences in berthing charges. Berths in the remoter parts of the country are normally cheaper than those in sailing areas close to large towns and cities. It is possible to berth a large boat in a distant marina or anchorage for the price of a boat half the size close to home but if you travel enormous distances to reach your boat then the savings quickly disappear in travel costs.

It is tempting to equate the price of travel to the cost of fuel but as any motoring organisation is happy to explain, fuel is only part of your running costs. If you take account of the wear and tear on the car, meals eaten en route and any ferry charges or road tolls then a rough guide to the real travel costs is twice what you spend on fuel.

Foreign berths. In some European countries, berths are cheap compared to the UK and the availability of cheap flights has brought them within economic reach. For some, keeping their boat abroad is no more costly than parking it in a UK marina but with the advantages of sunshine and exotic cruising grounds. Distant berths, whether at home or abroad, are, by their very nature, not conducive to day or weekend sailing.

Berths

Berths come in five varieties: marinas, piles, trots, swinging moorings and drying berths.

Marinas. Marinas first appeared in the United States during the 1930s and reached the UK just in time to provide the extra berths needed for the ever-increasing number of plastic boats that began appearing in the 1960s. Marinas are expensive but for your money you get ease of access to your boat, good security and a wide range of facilities, not all of which are free. Water is standard but power normally comes at a price. In some marinas you can also plug into cable TV and the internet. Marinas also have easy access to shoreside shops, cafes and restaurants.

Marina charges. Market forces rule: the more popular a sailing area, the higher its marina charges. In England, prices are highest along the south coast but even here there are variations. As befits its claim to be the home of yachting, the Solent area probably has the highest berthing charges.

Town centre marinas are often several hours sail upriver, far from any cruising or racing grounds. Consequently their charges tend to be less than marinas which have direct access to the sea. If you can accept that each sail begins and ends with a couple of hours chugging up or down a busy waterway, they may be a worthwhile option.

Boat festival
All marinas try to parkas many boats as they can in the smallest space available. Often the most demanding manoeuvres you make are entering and leaving your berth. It is no surprise marinas insist on every boat carrying several million pounds’ worth of third party insurance
Source: wikimedia.org

All marina charges are per foot or metre based on LOA, as measured from the very tip of the bow, including anchors on bow rollers, bowsprits and the pulpit overhang to the far end of transom hung rudders; it also includes rudders, outboard motors and anything else sticking out at the stern. Fractions of a metre are often rounded up. Your 10-metre boat can suddenly acquire an extra metre. Additional charges for multihulls are common.

Pricing schemes are complicated with different rates for day, week, month, summer or winter season or shoreside storage besides an annual rate, Discounts may be offered to members of local yacht clubs and there may be special deals on offer. These are not always advertised so ask before agreeing a deal. Berths are normally paid for in advance. For an additional charge, marinas may allow berth holders to pay their annual berth rental in monthly instalments.

Lifting in or out. For an additional fee most marinas lift out boats either for a refit or for winter storage ashore which is occasionally cheaper than lying alongside. Restricted yard space sometimes limits the time each boat is allowed ashore to a few days, and long-term winter storage ashore is not possible. If there are limits on time ashore then there may also be penalties if you exceed them.

Marinas in or near town centres are often heavily developed with shops, offices and flats and have no yard space at all. If you need to lift out, then you go elsewhere. If this is for less than a month then marina price structures usually see you paying for yard space wherever you choose to lift out, while still paying for a berth at the marina.

Marina charges

Marina pricing structures are so varied and complex, that direct comparisons between marinas, and deciding upon the best deal, is extremely difficult. The annual berthing fee is often just a starting point for additional charges that can add 20-25 per cent to your bill. As always, the devil is in the small print. Marina pricing strategies include:

  1. Rounding LOA to the nearest metre, 9,6 m becomes 10,0 m. This adds around 4,2 per cent to your annual fee.
  2. Rounding LOA up in metre jumps, 9,01 m becomes 10,0 m, which adds about 9 per cent to your annual fee.
  3. Pricing bands: 7-10 m is hard on 7 m boats and especially those rounded up from 6,01 m.
  4. A minimum starting LOA, say 10 or 12 m, which all boats under 10 m (or 12 m) pay regardless.
  5. Offers of six months afloat and six months ashore with each period priced separately with lift out and in added on.
  6. Charging for car parking.
  7. Some include electricity in the berthing fee, some charge at cost and some sell power at a mark-up.
  8. Live-aboards are charged extra or not allowed.
  9. Haul-out and power wash are sometimes priced separately. This normally adds 10-15 per cent to your berthing fee.
  10. Some lift out fees include blocking up; some do not; sometimes cradle hire is extra.
  11. Taking down and putting up masts on sailing yachts is charged separately. Mast storage is often an extra.
  12. Many marinas offer the option of paying by instalments, usually either in 3 or 10 instalments which raises the price by 2 to 10 per cent respectively. A few will offer a reduction on up-front payment.
  13. Frequently, winter storage ashore is charged in addition to the annual berth fee. Variations include three or four weeks free or placing a maximum on time out of water.
  14. There are often restrictions on the work that owners are allowed to carry out to their own boats before approved contractors, who usually pay the marina a fee for being an approved contractor, must be used.
  15. Ask what their prices were over the last two or three years to have some idea of how their prices will change. Most price increases are above the rate of inflation. In 2009 when the UK was approaching negative inflation figures, some marinas were raising prices 3-6 per cent.

Marina charges in the USA

Annual berthing charges in the USA are normally based on a monthly rate per foot of LOA. Occasionally rates are banded into, for example, boats under 30 ft and boats over 30 ft and then there is a long list of extra services which may, or may not, be built into the headline figure. These can include:

  • LOA may be boat length or ship length, whichever is the greater.
  • Power.
  • Water.
  • Pump out.
  • Trash.
  • Phone jack.
  • Cable TV.
  • Wireless Internet
  • Taxes.
  • Department of Natural Resources fees.

So, before comparing prices discover how much is added to the base fee to discover the all-up moorage charge.

Like everywhere there are up and down market marinas with prices to match. Typically they start at just under $2 500 to nearly $9 000 a year with an average of around $4 000.

Piles

A pile mooring involves picking up a line running between two posts and mooring fore-and-aft between the posts. In tidal waters the line is normally on a buoyed ring around the pile to allow for rise and fall with the tide. Access is by dinghy which you leave on your mooring when out for the day.

Piles are normally found only in sheltered waters but seen from the viewpoint of a small, overloaded dinghy, shelter offered by a pile berth is relative.

Lack of ready access is an excellent security measure but leaving attractive items like liferafts, MOB systems and anchors on view when you are not aboard is unwise.

Pile moorings are being phased out by many harbour authorities nowadays.

Trots. A trot is a pile mooring where the posts are replaced by buoys. Just like a pile mooring, you pick up a floating line and use it to moor fore-and-aft between the buoys. As the buoys rise and fall with the tide, boats can move around more on the trot mooring than a pile mooring.

Sovereign Harbour
Some trots are made up of parallel lines of boats. This multiplies the chances of hitting another boat and makes going on and coming off your mooring more demanding than a single line of boats
Source: wikipedia.org

Swinging mooring. A swinging mooring is where boats moor to a single buoy and how they lie is determined by the wind and the tide. They tend to be further from shore and are more exposed to wind and seas than piles or trots. In some conditions, reaching and boarding your boat can amount to a cruise in its own right.

Drying berths

A drying berth is a fore-and-aft mooring that dries at low tide. They are best for multihulls or bilge or lifting-keel yachts chat can safely take the ground.

Yacht harbour
Swinging moorings are always remote and peace of mind requires excellent ground tackle. In hilly countryside, katabatic squalls have been known to carry boats and their ground tackle out to sea
Source: wikipedia.org

In soft mud, long-keeled yachts may sit upright using legs, but this is not a good idea as a long-term solution, particularly if the bottom is uneven, for as the tide falls one leg may sink further into the mud than the other, causing the boat to heel. Over successive tides this heel can increase to a point where the boat is lying on its side.

Drying berths are only accessible when there is enough water to reach them by dinghy and are found in:

  • Small drying harbours.
  • Drying areas of large harbours/ports.
  • Remote creeks and inlets.

There may be a secure dinghy park where you can leave your dinghy between cruises. If not, you may have to take it home between sails, and long-term car parking may be a problem.

Finding a berth

In the more popular sailing areas, your chosen marina may be full and have a waiting list.

Boats in the harbour
Marinas tend to squeeze out berths tucked away in odd corners and dead ends of harbours but these secluded and cheap berths are still there if you take the trouble to look

Otherwise, finding a marina berth is just a matter of negotiating the best price and handing over the money.

The budget option

Berths on piles, trots, swinging moorings and mud berths are normally let by the year and tend to be run by harbour authorities, local councils, yacht clubs or, occasionally, individuals. Finding one usually requires some detective work that begins by exploring the remoter creeks and corners of harbours and rivers.

You are looking for small clusters of yachts where you least expect to see them. Having found them, the next task is to find out who administers these berths, what they cost and how you can be allocated a berth.

Their cheapness makes them popular and there is often a waiting list. Get your name on any waiting list as early as possible. When you do get a mooring, do not give it up to save some money while you haul out for the winter, for in the spring you may find yourself at the back of the queue for moorings.

This means that you may be adding the cost of a winter berth ashore to that of your mooring. Berth holders often come together to form an association or club to look after their interests and have either communal arrangements for winter berths or will advise where to find the best deal.

These berths are charged per mooring not What size of boat do you need? What hull material?boat size. Work afloat is limited to tasks which can be carried out using hand- or battery-powered tools. Using heaters or dehumidifiers are out of the question. Loading up for a cruise is best done at an alongside berth for which there may be a charge.

Comparing berthing costs

As a rough and ready rule of thumb, a pile, trot or swinging mooring is about 15-30 per cent the cost of a marina berth. Berth for berth, yacht club berths tend to be the cheapest of all and some clubs have pontoon berths with facilities rivalling any marina.

Waiting lists for club berths are inevitable and every club has its Byzantine points system to allocate berths without fear or favour. Length of membership rates highly and if you are serious about buying a boat and want a club berth then joining a suitable club and putting your name on the waiting list for berths as early as possible is a wise move.

Author
Author photo - Olga Nesvetailova
Freelancer
A creative freelancer with the ability to study source literature and create relevant material. The sea has always attracted me with its unbridledness, mystery, and a love of creativity helped me express my most interesting thoughts and reflections on paper, therefore, now I am doubly interested in studying the world of shipbuilding and writing useful materials for sailors.

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