Berthing as a visitor to a marina - max size?

[Adetheheat]

Most boats people own are 11m or less. For larger boats say 14m is it in general easy to berth as a visitor to a marina or are marinas (in general) geared up for smaller boats?
I'm thinking ahead for when planet earth gives me tons of money to buy a new boat which I think I deserve!!

 

[johnalison]

It is a general rule that boats are half as big again than mine. When we had a 22’ boat, everyone else had 26. When we had 26’, everyone else had 30, and now that I have 34’ the starter boat seems to be 37. I therefore have no insight into the problems of large boats. I suspect that it makes sense to check ahead if you are much larger than average, say 50’ in today’s world. We once met an HR 62 that was happy just to swan in and out of Baltic harbours, so maybe it is just a matter of having the right chutzpah.

 

[Boathook]

Marinas seem to be geared up for boats upto 14m nowadays. Where they struggle is with the beamy cats.

 

[srm]

You have asked a "how long is a piece of string" type question.

Depends on the marina and the type of berths. A typical layout with a hammerhead at the end of each pontoon could probably handle around 60ft plus, but such berths will be very few. Some have berths available alongside long pontoons so the limit is likely to be a function of weight/windage loading rather than length. Bigger marinas usually have longer length fingers and wider lanes on some pontoons to take the bigger boats. You could find yourself having to use fixed piers so carry sufficient length of warps for the tidal range plus fender boards for sheet pile piers and don't be surprised if other boats then use yours as a mooring pontoon.

In Baltic yacht harbours its usual to berth bows on to a pier between a pair of wooden piles for stern lines so beam rather than length is a limiting factor, though in some harbours its your own stern anchor or possibly a line to a buoy that keeps the boat at right angles to the pier.

The marina I was involved in managing only had 12 metre fingers so you could berth a 14 m boat - provided of course that you can safely manoeuvre it into and out of the berth. I jokingly warned one skipper that I had a nice big steel fender on my bow only for him to ram it at full throttle as he tried to extricate himself from a berth in a fresh cross wind. My anchor carried out its secondary function admirably; all the damage was on his boat.

 

[ashtead]

All I c§an say is 10.8m is easier to manoeuvre around generally lighter in an AWB whe area at 12.8m we need more time and space to turn . An oyster 46 say would be lovely but berthing would be harder as a visitor than a 41footer in Solent maybe but you are more self sufficient with the genset and freezer etc

 

[ylop]

It is a general rule that boats are half as big again than mine. When we had a 22’ boat, everyone else had 26. When we had 26’, everyone else had 30, and now that I have 34’ the starter boat seems to be 37. I therefore have no insight into the problems of large boats. I suspect that it makes sense to check ahead if you are much larger than average, say 50’ in today’s world. We once met an HR 62 that was happy just to swan in and out of Baltic harbours, so maybe it is just a matter of having the right chutzpah.

Wouldn’t half as big again mean 33, 39 and 51’ respectively?

However I think the gist of your point is valid. Marinas want to cater for the market in people who have money, want convenience and where tenders are a nusciance (eg large crew). The trend is definitely that those will be bigger boats - 37’ - 42’ being quite common sizes now. The OP was asking about > 14m (that’s 46’ in old money). I’d expect most marinas to be keen to part such a skipper from his cash… but they may have limited number of berths that size so require a bit more forward planning - of course 46’ should be able to bash through most stuff so easier to plan ahead that a 22’er where your destination probably was much more weather sensitive?

 

[MontyMariner]

Marina hoppers normally phone and book in advance, so staff are ready for arrival.

 

[Refueler]

Marina hoppers normally phone and book in advance, so staff are ready for arrival.

That's the matter ... phone ahead ....

Too often marinas where they can cater for the larger boat - the number of berths are limited and often already taken.

 

[Mister E]

If you want a visitor berth then for smaller boats are generally more available.

 

[Seven Spades]

Ok honestly apart from the obvious depth of keel problem. I can tell you that whilst marinas have fewer berths for large boats the demand is lower. the result is that we usually are able to get in when smaller boats are being turned away. There are exceptions, we have never been able to pick up the only large vessel buoy in Newton Ferris for example. The biggest downside is that you are sometimes put "on the wave breaker"(Loctudy) or a longer walk from the action.

 

[Adetheheat]

Thanks all. So anything up to 14m is acceptable for most marinas

 

[PaulRainbow]

My boat is 14m and we never have a problem finding a berth, but we do usually book ahead by about a week. That said, we'd book ahead if we were only 10m.

 

[westernman]

We are 15.3m LOD, 20m LOA. We have never had to book ahead.
[ Western end of the French med, and the eastern end of the Spanish med and Balearic islands]

 

[ashtead]

Would be great if all marina had a proper booking system though . Some places on the Solent seem to be booked months in advance though. A marina berth aggregator site maybe ? I believe at yacht haven if a permanent bertholder you get a token payment if the berth is used in absence but surely an idea for other operators.

 

[MAURICE]

I've owned my Moody 44 for 15 years now. I've had no problems in the past getting a visitors mooring on the South coast in the UK. I've been in the Med now for the past 12 years and most of the boats here I would say are in the 40 foot 12M range with again no problems for visitors moorings. I am in the process of sailing her back and was astonished to find how much the prices of UK marina fees are. I'm stopping off at N Portugal and quite honestly may be staying a bit longer.
Maurice

 

[chriscallender]

If you want a visitor berth then for smaller boats are generally more available.

My experience, alebit a long time ago now was sometimes the opposite. Maybe it depends what "small" means and how busy the marina is, but I used to find if you phone up in advance to book a berth a day or 2 in advance for a 21 footer you will be told the marina is full because (I think) they mainly have 35 or 40 foot finger berths and would rather hope to get one of those to come along as a visitor than accept half the money for a smaller boat taking up the same finger. Maybe the trick is not to attempt to book in advance and hope they have something left when you arrive, then getting payed for 21 feet is better than nothing for them. As long as you have somewhere else in mind to go.

Chris

 

[Wansworth]

We are 15.3m LOD, 20m LOA. We have never had to book ahead.
[ Western end of the French med, and the eastern end of the Spanish med and Balearic islands]

Do you retract or joust

 

[lustyd]

Would be great if all marina had a proper booking system though . Some places on the Solent seem to be booked months in advance though. A marina berth aggregator site maybe ? I believe at yacht haven if a permanent bertholder you get a token payment if the berth is used in absence but surely an idea for other operators.

The Solent is a weird place. They don't book all of the berths so always appear full if you try to book. If you turn up on the day though you'll very rarely be turned away. It's also not useful to turn up early because until about 2-3pm they don't know what they can assign so will still say they're full. Turn up at 6-7 though and they start allocating empty berths of bertholders as they assume they're out for the night.
This is why people have such contrasting views on the topic. The planners tend to end up never going anywhere because they can't book, and the chancers assume they can go everywhere and usually succeed.

In terms of bigger boats, there are two scenarios I've seen. In places like Port Solent, half the marina is "big berths" of (I think) 13m+ and they allocate based on size so not an issue, everyone else gets a <13m berth. They may even have three sizes, I can't remember. Really big boats go on hammer heads. Elsewhere, larger boats often get a hammerhead which is slightly more than double length anyway.

The important thing is that I've noticed larger boats are usually the inside of a raft, and that might become tiresome.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Had a 36ft boat in the Croatian part of the Adriatic, only had one occasion in 12 years where we couldn't find a visitors berth when we wanted one and had to anchor out of town - this was one of the most popular towns (Mali Losinj) in the middle of August when we arrived late .... 6pm.

 

[westernman]

Do you retract or joust

I joust.
Retracting is a PITA.