BLUEMOMENT

A couple of weeks ago we overheard a gentleman calling a well known west coast marina. It was obvious he was not local as he couldn't pronounce the name. Many, many calls on 16 eventually elicited a curt response 'call us on channel 37' to which the (Swedish) caller responded 'I don't have 37, it's not an international channel'. No reply from the marina on 16 but a kind local called him back with advice. He was hoping to haul out in order to attend to a faulty feathering prop. We were appalled at the lack of courtesy and indeed surprised that what is essentially a sales function was so badly handled. A haul-out, a few days' storage and relaunch must be worth a good few hundred quid, if I was running a marina I think I'd try to make sure my staff were a bit more friendly and adaptable.

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Craobh use 37, but they also use 80 - so if it was them I am a bit surprised. I have to say that while I have found them grumpy in the past, they were the very soul of courtesy when I was in there recently with a skippered charter.

Sounds more typical of another marina further north. Doesn't bode well.

I was recently visiting Bangor Marina, and what a welcome! Loads of info, speedy service, couldn't fault anything.
At one stage I asked, "what time does the diesel berth close?". "Its open 24 hours, just pull up and someone will be there immediately. I did, they were.
Another was Glenarm. Even a council run place was great. The guy came and took my rope and handed over keys and info, and wouldn't take money saying, Oh we can fix that tomorrow. (We left early so left the fee in the box).

Great service like these means an intention to go back, and the possibility to tell a few others.
Poor service as described means not going back and telling everyone you encounter.

Had the same experience in Glenarm from Billy. Stayed on after his finish time to help us with berthing as he knew we were coming.

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Billy is a star. We love Glenarm.

- W

mm5aho wrote:Sounds more typical of another marina further north. Doesn't bode well.

I think we are on the same page. The clue to the caller's origins was calling up 'Dunstaffnagay Marina'. A few days later we heard the same boat talking to a fellow Swede (in Swedish) so no doubt the Nordics will all be going to Kererra or Craobh if they need service. Indeed from what I have been hearing I would need to be pretty deparate to go to Dunstaffnagay myself. Pity.

I'm not a big fan of Dun...gay either but might this not be down to Ofcom or whoever rules the airwaves? I think that many marinas are not licensed for 16 but only for M1 and/or M2. So, using as they do ordinary sets, they are easily able to listen to 16, but they can't legally transmit. Could the curt response have been hoping to help without getting noticed by the coastguard?

It would make more sense if shore stations all used 16 for calling. Does that cost more for their licence?

Derek

cpedw wrote:I'm not a big fan of Dun...gay either but might this not be down to Ofcom or whoever rules the airwaves? I think that many marinas are not licensed for 16 but only for M1 and/or M2. So, using as they do ordinary sets, they are easily able to listen to 16, but they can't legally transmit. Could the curt response have been hoping to help without getting noticed by the coastguard?

It would make more sense if shore stations all used 16 for calling. Does that cost more for their licence?

Derek

It would be interesting to know the answer.

I have M1 / M2 on my main VHF, but not on my H/H which I would be using to call a marina.

Flicking through some of the pages of Welcome Anchorages, there are a number of places quoting Ch16 as the contact, some quote a working channel too, but not all.

Ash

The only relevant thing I know about this licensing is that channels M1 and M2 are not part of the international channel system. And that in the UK, a marine radio operators license is not required for those channels but one is required for the international channels.
So if the shore based marina person used Ch16, they should be licensed. But license not required to operate on the marina channels. It could be a sneaky quick reply on Ch 16, encouraging the boat to call on Ch M. But the foreign boat not having ch M gets stuck, and the unlensed shore based person doesn't want to increase their contravention of the rules so doesn't answer.

Or maybe I'm being too charitable?

That mentioned place used to be good, but I suspect the main driver of that "good" moved next door to another job.

mm5aho wrote:The only relevant thing I know about this licensing is that channels M1 and M2 are not part of the international channel system. And that in the UK, a marine radio operators license is not required for those channels but one is required for the international channels.
So if the shore based marina person used Ch16, they should be licensed. But license not required to operate on the marina channels. It could be a sneaky quick reply on Ch 16, encouraging the boat to call on Ch M. But the foreign boat not having ch M gets stuck, and the unlicensed shore based person doesn't want to increase their contravention of the rules so doesn't answer.

It's probably more about costs. Being a sad b4stard I studied the Ofcom pages and there is quite a difference in cost between a Marina Licence which allows only M1/M2 and a full 'International' shore station which involves a payment per channel. Doesn't justify the curt tone however.