It's Doing My Noodle In..

[Cheesey]

But what was that place just before great yarmouth yacht station with the massively long moorings and has been deserted for years?

[BrundallNavy]

Marina Keys.

[Cheesey]

Was it a holiday park?

[deebee29]

I remember mooring there in the 80’s when it would get jam packed.

it’s a sad sorry state these days.

[Snowy]

 I also remember moored 4 abreast there, late 70’s early 80’s 

Hoping over boats and a right load of messing about if you was moored against the key and wanted to get out !

you would think someone would take on those moorings for private craft.

[thingamybob]

58 minutes ago, brundallNavy said:

Marina Keys.

I think that's right.

[Regulo]

It was a privately run mooring, I believe leased from the council. Had a bar and small cafe, and pump out station. Always a few quid cheaper than the YS, hence it's popularity. I think it was for sale a few years back for £175k, but it seems no takers. Not surprising, given the work needed to even make it safe, let alone usable. It backs onto a very nice park.

[Guest ExMemberKingFisher]

It is, or was Marina Keys, who remembers Line Azzurro?

I believe it is owned by Great Yarmouth Council and was recently for sale but had no takers. The old clubhouse did get sold / leased and is now used as offices.

The moorings have for some time had notices warning of shallow water at low tide. I believe there is a public right of way along there so security and the rise and fall of tide would make it not too good for long term private moorings unless pontoons and a secure gate onto them could be installed. Even then security wouldn't be too good from the river.

[Vaughan]

This is a classic example of something built as a concrete and steel flood bank, but not as a mooring. Hence they now say "shallow at low tide" since it was never meant for the mooring of boats. Sure enough, someone tried to exploit it for profit, and it used to be called the Port of Yarmouth Marina.

[ranworthbreeze]

What has always been needed at Yarmouth is some off river pontoon moorings that rise and fall with the tides, if only from a safety point of view.

Regards

Alan

[VetChugger]

I can recall "Line Azzuro" or some name very similar once trying a hire operation there. It could have been described as a "catalogue of catastrophes"! Some of the tales from  hirers were almost unbelievable!

[CambridgeCabby]

I was told (by the yacht station staff) that when work was done on the old buildings there the waste concrete and demolition was dumped in the river so there are many submerged dangerous obstacles 

[JennyMorgan]

Much could be told about 'Line Azzurio!' Water under the bridge now but it's a pretty grubby tale.

[Guest ExMemberKingFisher]

Just now, JennyMorgan said:

Much could be told about 'Line Azzurio!' Water under the bridge now but it's a pretty grubby tale.

As were their boats most of the time

[Chelsea14Ian]

I remember seeing there boats,many moons ago.Seem to remember  there boats were  fairly old.Dont think I would have liked picking up and dropping off a boat there .It is now not a very good advert for Yarmouth .

[Broads01]

7 hours ago, VetChugger said:

I can recall "Line Azzuro" or some name very similar once trying a hire operation there. It could have been described as a "catalogue of catastrophes"! Some of the tales from  hirers were almost unbelievable!

I remember them well. They'll go down in the annals of hire boating history for all the wrong reasons. They started out by taking over the former Kingfisher Cruisers boatyard (and their fleet) at Thorpe where Freedom now reside. Why they chose to move to Marina Keys as a base is beyond me. 

Marina Keys in its current form has to be one of the ugliest places anywhere on the Broads. It makes the Yacht Station look like a beauty spot. 

[JennyMorgan]

Well known as the Back Passage into Yarmouth!

[dnks34]

With the amount of concrete on display at Marina Keys I think the designers must have had the u boat pens at Lorient in mind, only for holiday cruisers. 

Great Yarmouth's biggest issue is the rise and fall of tide and the current.  It will always be its achilles heel unless a vast amount of money is spent on some regeneration scheme or other providing much improved and safer mooring facilities.  I just cant see anyone wanting to cough up the money for it.

[dnks34]

Scroll through for pictures of Marina Keys in unhappier times:

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/marina-keys-river-yare-great-yarmouth-july-2014.t91662

[grendel]

I like the photos of the toilet block with the paint stencil for the gents, then the silhouette of the cow, is that the cow toilet?