Ferry Marina - Some Facilities Closing

[Hylander]

Where do they think this marina is based Monte Carlo?     We are talking the Norfolk Broads.    I dont know about anyone else but people with that kind of money to waste are few and far between and anyone with any real cash behind them would spend their money more wisely.   Hence reason they have money,  they look after it.

 

 

[ranworthbreeze]

17 hours ago, tjg1677 said:

Hello everyone,

Just a bit of minor news, Ferry marina, at the end of this season are permanently closing the swimming pool, fish n chip shop and laundrette. The swimming pool doesn't really bother me but the

fish n chips were quite good and the laundry was very useful indeed. Quite why they are doing this I dont know but I guess they will have their reasons - oh! and the moorings are going up too.

Just for information

trev.

Hi Trev,

When we used to be moored there we had membership to the facilities at the pool. They did the odd snack and a number of mooring holders used to chew the fat over a coffee on the seating outside. 

We tended to make use of the toilet & shower that used to be in the entrance to the launderette and the launderette itself (all of the machines never worked all of the time and were as old as the hills. Used the showers a few times within the pool complex, but you always received the evil eye.

Not much for your buck if the prices are going up with less facilities, parking is not great, security is piece meal and with no pontoon moorings is a bit of joke because of the flooding issues, wellies were always part of our boat kit just to get aboard the boat.

With regards to marina fees the Broads is still the cheapest anywhere, one of our owners left the syndicate in 2007 after buying his own boat, it was moored in the hull marina at £11000.00 per year.

Regards

Alan   

[JennyMorgan]

It does appear to me that there are two basic but distinctly different requirements for berth holders. Group ones just wants to be left alone, somewhere to moor up between voyages, no frills nor fancies, just a secure mooring. Group two isn't much into voyaging, infact rarely does so, and not only wants somewhere to moor whilst going nowhere but also all the plus-plus comforts of home and a chance to panda to grasping, avaricious marina owners. All in jest, don't you know!

[smellyloo]

Max Bygraves somes up the situation in his song "When You Come To The End Of A Lollipop".

The lollipop equates to your initial purchase of the boat.

Licking the lollipop equates to cruising the Broads with Gusto.

The last lick equates to ..... I've paid for my boat and mooring and really should go out.

The stick equates to ..... I cant be bothered to faff about taking the boat out .... I think I'll just use it as a holiday home.

I think there are many lolly sticks moored up in comfy mariners.

[JennyMorgan]

So very true!

[Mowjo]

23 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

It does appear to me that there are two basic but distinctly different requirements for berth holders. Group ones just wants to be left alone, somewhere to moor up between voyages, no frills nor fancies, just a secure mooring. Group two isn't much into voyaging, infact rarely does so, and not only wants somewhere to moor whilst going nowhere but also all the plus-plus comforts of home and a chance to panda to grasping, avaricious marina owners. All in jest, don't you know!

Peter! do you mean like our Lowestoft one where most of them sit on the back of their boats drinking G&T's and can't afford to take their boats out?? then go in the clubhouse to brag how much money they have?? and like any club there's always that one person you can't stand and just want to slap, before anyone says anything I've been in there and they do! and I nearly did slap him!

I think the vast majority of boat owners come in the middle these days! they just need a good mooring spot, with toilets/showers and electric, the clubhouses are each others boats, nice because you don't get stuck with someone you can't stand, think I'll stay at Broadsedge and complain when my moorings go up by £25 a year,,

[LondonRascal]

Perhaps my contributions at times to this Forum is akin to a few people sat around the camp fire – it’s a mellow evening, the fire is low, a soft crackly and those around sitting back in their folding chairs quietly chatting over things sipping their coffee – infused with some good rum.

Alone I come with an iron rod, poke the fire and glowing embers fly left and right before more wood is put on and within moments the fire is spitting, flames are leaping someone’s almost fallen out of his chair and I turn and wander away for a bit...

Having given this topic more thought and going over my own memories of the Broads I find it hard to sum up but suffice to say in the past it felt like it was more a place you came to holiday – usually for a week.  In the main your boats accommodation was much the same as the next you moored up with and there was a spirit of ‘being in it all together’.  You just made do and so far as I am aware with little complaint that ladies had to air dry their air and not have a hairdryer, or you just had to wait the full time to bake a potato with no cheating using a microwave. 

There were lots of boatyards – but they hired boats so you had plenty of moorings should the riverside be full.  If your boat had a minor problem and you hired from Richardson’s but were moored at Alan Johnson they would take a quick look for you no problem and people who owned boats seemed few and far between ‘oh look a private boat’ I would say and imagine how lucky they were.

So much of that has gone – so many boatyards have become a base for new homes to be built, or while the basin may remain it is taken up with rows of privately owned.  So much more than just waterside chalets – huge and massively expensive new builds pop up and places like Horning seem to half let out to holiday makers than locals living there.

The boats you see from the larger yards that are left are getting not only larger but accommodate fewer – they are floating palaces compared to what you could hire in 1990 and still the change goes on. 

I guess at the end of the day that is market forces in action.  There were periods were the hire industry really was in steep decline and bookings were down with poor summers and less visitors generally – big basins full of boats sitting still bring in regular income each year unaffected by the weather and demand – even if the owner sells the boat someone else will buy it before too long and need to moor it and on the cycle goes. 

Making your Marina more appealing than the next seems to be where it is headed – and popular locations like Horning and Wroxham now can attract some pretty premium prices with easy, local cruising grounds with no worries about bridges.  My idea of a ‘mega marina’ may be farfetched for now but I wonder if such might be so surprising an idea in another decade.

[Jim]

"Not much for your buck if the prices are going up with less facilities, parking is not great, security is piece meal and with no pontoon moorings is a bit of joke because of the flooding issues, wellies were always part of our boat kit just to get aboard the boat."

Flooding not ben an issue since 2009. All the quayheadings and pontoons were raised and completed by June that year.

 

[JennyMorgan]

Re that flooding:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/environment/horning_villagers_draw_up_plans_to_tackle_flood_problem_1_2007236

[tjg1677]

4 hours ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi Trev,

When we used to be moored there we had membership to the facilities at the pool. They did the odd snack and a number of mooring holders used to chew the fat over a coffee on the seating outside. 

We tended to make use of the toilet & shower that used to be in the entrance to the launderette and the launderette itself (all of the machines never worked all of the time and were as old as the hills. Used the showers a few times within the pool complex, but you always received the evil eye.

Not much for your buck if the prices are going up with less facilities, parking is not great, security is piece meal and with no pontoon moorings is a bit of joke because of the flooding issues, wellies were always part of our boat kit just to get aboard the boat.

With regards to marina fees the Broads is still the cheapest anywhere, one of our owners left the syndicate in 2007 after buying his own boat, it was moored in the hull marina at £11000.00 per year.

Regards

Alan   

Hi Alan,

 

yes indeed what you say is largely true but to put things in perspective, when I had my narrowboat, I paid £14.50 per foot per year. Full facilities, clubhouse , bar, electrics, water et al.

Dont get me wrong I dont mind paying for something if it is value for money but I am beginning to question if that is case now at FM and feel that I can get better value elsewhere.

I know Hull marina very well, it is a super posh development right in the city surrounded by yuppie apartments and hotels, very nice but 11K - really ??????

trev.

[Jim]

Under certain conditions it can flood Peter.  The moorings are much improved since raised whereas it used to be a regular feature as Alan pointed out!

[ChrisB]

I like Hull, Both my sons went to Hull University but @ £11K that beats St Katherines by Tower Bridge who's fees ranged from £700 to £800 per metre the last time I looked. Electricity was about £1000 on top.

Short term is quite a lot more however.

[LondonRascal]

I just had a look at St Katherine's in London, since it has been taken over by Camper & Nicholson Marinas and is having an additional 170 berths and the three basins refurbished.

Let's say you want to moor your 40ft boat there for a year - it will cost you £8.986.08.  That is inclusive of VAT.

Electric is not included in that price,  add on £1,019.00 for electric hook up (16Amp) (f you'd like 32 Amp it is available for additional cost.)

Car parking is not included either - that would be £4,200.00 a year including VAT.

Pump outs are charger per 500L which of all the above is the most reasonable at £25.00.

So tkae Broad Ambition to London and leave her there for a year, have a car parking space available and that would be £13,186.00!

You know the most crazy thing about this, the last time I was round there some of the smaller boats included a Wilds Calypso - its not all grand boats.

[addicted]

44 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

I just had a look at St Katherine's in London, since it has been taken over by Camper & Nicholson Marinas and is having an additional 170 berths and the three basins refurbished.

Let's say you want to moor your 40ft boat there for a year - it will cost you £8.986.08.  That is inclusive of VAT.

Electric is not included in that price,  add on £1,019.00 for electric hook up (16Amp) (f you'd like 32 Amp it is available for additional cost.)

Car parking is not included either - that would be £4,200.00 a year including VAT.

Pump outs are charger per 500L which of all the above is the most reasonable at £25.00.

So tkae Broad Ambition to London and leave her there for a year, have a car parking space available and that would be £13,186.00!

You know the most crazy thing about this, the last time I was round there some of the smaller boats included a Wilds Calypso - its not all grand boats.

 Cheap at twice the price! So you' ll be booking in next week will you? When we lived in North London., St. Cat's used to be a favourite Sunday outing  (by car) I hasten to add! Breakfast at the Savoy then a roam round St. Cat's. Perfect!

Regards,

Carole

[BroadScot]

You have just reminded me why I always stay well out of the city centre when visiting London ! 

Iain

[ScrumpyCheddar]

That's crazy high prices...  we will stick to the wonderful broads..  

[ChrisB]

Where can you find accommodation twix The City and Canary Wharf for £13K? pa!

Actually it is a bl*/$dy bargain!

Deduct an annual season ticket from Princes Risborough, live on the boat Monday to Friday and it stars to make a lot of sense.

[ChrisB]

58 minutes ago, addicted said:

 Cheap at twice the price! So you' ll be booking in next week will you? When we lived in North London., St. Cat's used to be a favourite Sunday outing  (by car) I hasten to add! Breakfast at the Savoy then a roam round St. Cat's. Perfect!

Regards,

Carole

Regular haunt for us as well even though we lived in Chalfont, Bucks. 

[tjg1677]

On ‎19‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 6:00 AM, Chelsea14Ian said:

So how much  do they charge  per  foot?

They charge per metre and it is ( I think ) going to be £240 per metre next year.

[BroadScot]

19 minutes ago, tjg1677 said:

They charge per metre and it is ( I think ) going to be £240 per metre next year.

Less than two metres you could hire a 35ft cruiser for a week! 

[LondonRascal]

Just as an aside, I used to work 'round the back' in Thomas Moor Square for AT&T back in the day - oh how things change.  Safeway became a Morrisons which became a Waitrose, the pub under the building has gone, the pub under another office building on Highway has gone, even the good old lap dancing club has been shut.

Vast changes around the Marina too - the hotel once rather nice is looking a bit tired inside (but the loos are still nice) the commodity exchanges have almost all gone and large areas devoted to eating and drinking have arrived. Still the worlds largest single piece of Perspex survives, made for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey which Stanley Kubrick promptly rejected in favour of the black monolith.

 

 

[ChrisB]

In or around 1975 I had an office in Bethnal Green Road at the Shoreditch end. I also traded in Billingsgate when it was closed to all but bone fide traders and was situated in Upper Thames Street. The Tower Thistle was new as I remember going to St Kats in 1967 to see Gypsy Moth and it was derelict. In those far off days the first of new flats had just been built and they could not sell them, too far East! I had just bought a four bedroom town house in Chalfont (Met line direct Liverpool Street) for £16000. Some of those flats asking price was £25000, nearly £30000 for a three bedroom. Now you are looking at in excess of £2.5m vastly outstripping any other areas of the country. Personally I think the regeneration of the area has been great. Some years later following a change of career I was appointed by a Bank to rescue a company struck down by the failure of Olympia and York. Canary Wharf had a very rocky road to where it is today.

[TheQ]

Some friends were teachers in London at about a similar time, when their house went up to such silly prices they sold up and moved to Northumberalnd and bought an entire Farm. with no Mortgage!!

[BroadScot]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Some friends were teachers in London at about a similar time, when their house went up to such silly prices they sold up and moved to Northumberalnd and bought an entire Farm. with no Mortgage!!

The rest are on Skye, Mull and the Isle of Arran! 

[TheQ]

Gone are the days when you couldn't buy land in the Hebridies if you weren't a crofter...