the marina price thread keeps coming back to the supply and demand situation. there are simply too many boaters and too few berths so the prices keep going up.
we are constantly being asked to take part in encouraging more people to take up boating and on the surface it seems like a worthy cause to introduce more people to our sport. notice though that those who urge us to do this are always those with a vested interest in increasing the level of demand for services.
so - should we continue to encourage newbies or should we put them off with tales of storms, colregs and meat pies??
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One hull good, two hulls better.
What we should encourage is a more active participation in boating.
How many boats are left idle month after month ? This goes for dinghies right up to large yachts and gin palaces.
If we had some sort of clearout it would free up some space for the more active amongst us.
But how do we achieve this ? I suppose one solution is to put up prices so the ones who don't use their boats will be put off and will either a) move boat or b) sell.
Unfortunately we don't want prices to go up do we so we are in a stalemate until the marina charges bite too hard and that's not what we really want is it?
I think the supply and demand thing will eventually take hold mainly to the detriment of the casual user.
It would be a great help if we could remove from the marinas all the boats which never go anywhere. A kind of 'TowAway' scheme where they are removed to a compound and can't be released without commitment to be used in the future.
Then all of us who use our boats regularly, and the active newcomers too, would have loads more capacity available, ie increased supply and reduced demand. The property developers, ie marina barons, would need to drop their price and we would all be better off.
Simple, innit?!
<hr width=100% size=1>Tide and time wait for no man.
Couldn't agree more. It's a version of the 'oh dear Wrexham is losing its football team' arguement. Who gives a stuff whether one town or another has a football team? Who gives a stuff whether new people take up sailing? None of it matters. Get out of it, newcomers, I say. Ban sail training. Stop all those RYA instructors instructing.That's just a plot to sell plotters every September. Put red deisel up to £20 a gallon, that'll get rid of all those berks in bloody great power boats. Stop people laying moorings everywhere I want to anchor and stop every tin pot town wanting a marina. In fact, while we're at it, we should go Darwinian and ban the RNLI, or at least get them to require a view of that nice Mr Blairs ID cards before they carry anyone back to shore.
So we stop rich people spending there money the way they choose because we don't like what they do with it. Careful; we have a new Home Secretary and a desperate need to divert media attention.
Agree entirely with the end. Not so sure about the means.
Too many boaters?
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