Mooring near Guildford UK

Looking at a big purchase for my retirement of a Hatteras 53 or 54 so looking for advice before hand

mooring advice

i live in Guildford, so looking for a mooring south of UK for

LOA: 54' 2"
Beam: 17' 6"
Draft: 4' 4"

This is for the 54 53 is only slightly smaller

Ideas please
2nd moving it i ve not done boating before except for the as a kid , when we went fishing back in the day so first it would need moving north to south uk any advice please

For a boat that size, you're looking at some where on the south coast between Fareham and Southampton for ease of access - A3 or A31 someone with knowledge of marinas will be along in a moment.

You say you've not done boating before so I assume at some point you'll be taking tuition. If the boat has to come from the north to the south, depending on where in the north, you might consider combining own boat tuition from a professional with a delivery trip.

There are a lot of other issues as well ..........................................

This is a big boat and you would need to figure out which areas are most easily accessible for you. Guildford is 50 minutes from Chichester which might be the furthest East that you want to go. Premier Chichester could take this size boat at a lower cost than the Portsmouth or Southampton/Hamble marinas but in the end it's what's important to you - how near to the Solent and your journey time down. I bought my boat from Loch Lomond and had it shipped down on a low loader - £1750 in 2021 - fuel and a skipper would probably be more but a great learning experience. My only concern would be the reliability of a new and unknown (to you) boat - there are bound to be little (hopefully not big) issues emerge as you put it through its paces.

From Guildford you could look as far west as Portland. A lot depends upon the type of mooring and how much time you are prepared to spend driving.

drjohn1969 said:

Looking at a big purchase for my retirement of a Hatteras 53 or 54 so looking for advice before hand

mooring advice

i live in Guildford, so looking for a mooring south of UK for

LOA: 54' 2"
Beam: 17' 6"
Draft: 4' 4"

This is for the 54 53 is only slightly smaller

Ideas please
2nd moving it i ve not done boating before except for the as a kid , when we went fishing back in the day so first it would need moving north to south uk any advice please

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Send me a pm , where it is , I might know the boat.

philipdawsonladds said:

This is a big boat and you would need to figure out which areas are most easily accessible for you. Guildford is 50 minutes from Chichester which might be the furthest East that you want to go. Premier Chichester could take this size boat at a lower cost than the Portsmouth or Southampton/Hamble marinas but in the end it's what's important to you - how near to the Solent and your journey time down. I bought my boat from Loch Lomond and had it shipped down on a low loader - £1750 in 2021 - fuel and a skipper would probably be more but a great learning experience. My only concern would be the reliability of a new and unknown (to you) boat - there are bound to be little (hopefully not big) issues emerge as you put it through its paces.

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Thanks i ve been in touch with premier and the best quotes was

Marina: Sovereign Harbour
Annual Quoted Cost: £8,800
Lift, Wash, Block-Off, Re-launch Service Berth Holder Cost: £1,280

Just looking for some within an hour , spend long weekends working on her so i can learn from others getting ready to retire and live on her,

Boathook said:

From Guildford you could look as far west as Portland. A lot depends upon the type of mooring and how much time you are prepared to spend driving.

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I am not to worried about the driving i do it for a living i ll look in to portland thanx . Google as so many marina s it difficult to find what ones are suitable at good prices.

Seastoke said:

Send me a pm , where it is , I might know the boat.

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Not worked out how to pm yet lol

drjohn1969 said:

Thanks i ve been in touch with premier and the best quotes was

Marina: Sovereign Harbour
Annual Quoted Cost: £8,800
Lift, Wash, Block-Off, Re-launch Service Berth Holder Cost: £1,280

Just looking for some within an hour , spend long weekends working on her so i can learn from others getting ready to retire and live on her,

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You may well find living on the boat problematic as many - if not most no longer permit overt living on board. Some have separate tariffs for limited number of liveaboards, some have limits on the number of nights you can stay on board and some specifically prohibit it. Primarily this is because they do not have planning permission for residential use and while they have often turned a blind eye in the past, Covid highltghted the number breaking the planning conditions so liveaboards have found it increasingly difficult to get a long term berth.

Im sure premier port Solent take boats that size. Less than an hour from you.

Tranona said:

You may well find living on the boat problematic as many - if not most no longer permit overt living on board. Some have separate tariffs for limited number of liveaboards, some have limits on the number of nights you can stay on board and some specifically prohibit it. Primarily this is because they do not have planning permission for residential use and while they have often turned a blind eye in the past, Covid highltghted the number breaking the planning conditions so liveaboards have found it increasingly difficult to get a long term berth.

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Would only be looking at the odd night a week at weekends saving traveling home and back the following day. I ll not be wishing to live aboad full time untill we go to lanzarote where we also have a property, i ve made enquiries regarding this and seems fine

drjohn1969 said:

Would only be looking at the odd night a week at weekends saving traveling home and back the following day. I ll not be wishing to live aboad full time untill we go to lanzarote where we also have a property, i ve made enquiries regarding this and seems fine

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Boatyards are happy with that use. It's roughly what I did when working plus some sailing. Now retired so spend more time on board and even more sailing.

We are reasonably close to Guildford so know the A3 route south we’ll. leaving aside cost as clearly buying a mobo of that size you are a man of means it turns on ease of access to Solent versus journey and how much you like locks. You either accept the tedious drive to say Gosport which gives ease of Solent access (3 marinas we are at Haslar and it’s own yacht club to join with socials and other long term residents often seen) or tuck up at a locked marinaSay port Solent (easier drive) or Chi marina(lovely walks etc) leaving aside size issues and availability . So what are you seeking at weekends to do really, Gosport has attraction of shops,many supermarkets and a chandler plus good parking etc . You can catch the green ferry across to gunwharf for restaurants plus cinema etc.
Turning to Hamble with higher prices it’s a bit cut off really but might be attraction for you. Soton marina like ocean village can be rather soulless but plenty of mobo and space -there are a few restaurants but not really attractive unless west quay attracts .
If however you are not afraid of a drive and being retired so units of time I would look at yachthaven in Lymington as lovely location/walks/restaurants plus plenty of trips out by car/bus/train etc but again higher prices than Gosport. But a yacht club plus a sailing club with views and you might be attracted by country pubs etc you can walk to
Eastbourne etc doesn’t have a lot
Portland being another boatfolk marina is cheaper than Haslar but you can berth around (as other marinas do ) but that rather depends on whether you plan trips or the boat is more intended as a country cottage and the close location by say cycle or walking is greatest attraction when you arrive ? Portland is desolate unless Lidl is attractive but taxi to Weymouth. Also if at Portland and you plan trips out by boat where would you go ?
Maybe list what you want around your marina to see/do?

Ashtead thank you so much for your knowledge. Not really thought about doing locks so as I drive for a living it s no real problem driving as I enjoy it sorry to say, I am not a man of means as you mentioned so looking for cheap and cheerful I hate shopping so shops restaurant s are not important just want like minded people will to talk too and share there knowledge of boats n boating
I can t retire untill next year but if the right Hatteras come along I just want a plan to do. The main and only thing I would be doing is stuff to the boat and getting to grips with boating gathering as much knowledge as i can within that year to go over to my other home in Lanzarote.

drjohn1969 said:

I am not to worried about the driving i do it for a living i ll look in to portland thanx . Google as so many marina s it difficult to find what ones are suitable at good prices.

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Roughly speaking marinas prices are inversely proportional to their distance from the Solent. So on the South coast they will get Cheaper from Chichester then Brighton then Eastbourne then Dover / Ramsgate. Medway marinas are also significantly cheaper and you may consider some of those close enough - probably no longer drive than Royal Sovereign

bedouin said:

Roughly speaking marinas prices are inversely proportional to their distance from the Solent. So on the South coast they will get Cheaper from Chichester then Brighton then Eastbourne then Dover / Ramsgate. Medway marinas are also significantly cheaper and you may consider some of those close enough - probably no longer drive than Royal Sovereign

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Bedouin thank you for the information, could you name a few of the cheaper ones I ve tried quite a few and there ranging £650 pm to 1490 pm so need to figure out the cheaper area s

drjohn1969 said:

Bedouin thank you for the information, could you name a few of the cheaper ones I ve tried quite a few and there ranging £650 pm to 1490 pm so need to figure out the cheaper area s

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I'm afraid the word is cheaper - not cheap. That is a big boat that you are looking to buy and the mooring costs are going to be correspondingly high anywhere within reach of London. It is a long time since I looked at prices - and mine is a smaller sailing boat with a deeper draft (and a mast). I think that Ramsgate Marina was pretty much the cheapest out there - but there are several small "marinas" on the Medway that may be cheaper still

bedouin said:

I'm afraid the word is cheaper - not cheap. That is a big boat that you are looking to buy and the mooring costs are going to be correspondingly high anywhere within reach of London. It is a long time since I looked at prices - and mine is a smaller sailing boat with a deeper draft (and a mast). I think that Ramsgate Marina was pretty much the cheapest out there - but there are several small "marinas" on the Medway that may be cheaper still

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Yhea my mistake it was cheaper and not cheap i am figuring out nothing is cheap in boating

drjohn1969 said:

Yhea my mistake it was cheaper and not cheap i am figuring out nothing is cheap in boating

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Yes - I'm afraid you have just learned the first rule of boating. Big Boat on South Coast = Mega bucks.

I kept my last but one boat at Sovereign in Eastbourne for a couple of years. Benefits are that it’s very sheltered, locks are excellent, there’s quite a lot going on there, easy access to Brighton if that’s your thing. Inexpensive relatively. Drawbacks are there’s nowhere nearby that’s a nice place to go in your boat. Very long trek to the Solent.

Also FYI… Fishing boat fleet in the harbour are a bunch of c**** we left because of the aggression from the fishing fleet.