Country? Berth cost, Boat Length or Berth Length?

[Seymore]

Originally Posted by sailabroad

Are there many other countries that charge per Berth Length?

Generally in the US marinas charge by boat length.

Cooper River Marina in Charleston, South Carolina charges by slip length. They have about four docks, A to D. Dock A has about 15' (4.5m) slips, and the slip length goes up in 5' (1.5m) increments, so that Dock D has 35' (llm) slips. Your boat cannot overhang the dock and cannot stick out more than 5' past the end of the slip.

For longer boats there are T-docks.

Copper River Marina is a municipal county marina.

It's a good system. The charges are reasonable, but I've forgotten what they are.

[Dave22q]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

So, if you had to come into a marina and the only available slip was the T-Berth, rated for 200', would you think it fair that you are charged 6 times what you would normally pay for your 33 footer?

If late in the day I would try to bargain. Would you think it OK if you were kicked out with no notice because a larger boat needed your slip and would pay more? "Fairness" cuts both ways.

[boatman61]

Places I have been where there is only a long T berth left I tie up at one end and pay for my boat length..
If I tied up in the middle then they could be entitled to charge me more.. although if they did try to charge me the length of berth I would object strongly and block any other boat they wanted to berth there.
Usually its just a one or two night thing before an appropriate berth becomes available.
Fortunately marina owners are realistic and will divide a T between several boats..
Hair splitting is for the internet.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

So, if you had to come into a marina and the only available slip was the T-Berth, rated for 200', would you think it fair that you are charged 6 times what you would normally pay for your 33 footer?

If you demand the full 200' and refuse to share it...yes, you should be charged 6 times as much. In practice, it may be more as often there is a price break where larger slips pay a higher per foot rate.

Some of this comes back to who benefits.
- If the marina doesn't have a 33' slip and puts you in a 50' slip until a smaller one comes available, a strong argument can be made you should be charged based on boat length as the 50' slip is for the marina's benefit (they get to charge for an otherwise empty slip).
- If you ask for a 50' slip because you aren't comfortable squeezing into a smaller slip, it's for your benefit and should be charged based on the bigger slip.

Since the OP doesn't fit in the smaller slip, it's for the OP's benefit that he is put in a larger more expensive slip and thus should pay accordingly.

Of course, this is all discussion of fairness. As long as the marina spells it out before they charge you, they can charge whatever they want and you have the option to go elsewhere.