How Moorings Available works
The hardest part of finding a mooring is finding out who has space. Marinas rarely say online, and when they do the page is often years old. So we ask them.
Where the list comes from
We start from OpenStreetMap, navigation authority lists and marina groups, then research each site from its own website: what kind of water it is on, the berths it has and for which boats, its published tariff, what the price includes, its liveaboard terms and facilities.
Where availability comes from
Every few weeks we email each site at the address it publishes for enquiries and ask what it has free. They answer with a one-minute form, or by replying in their own words, which we read and check before publishing. Each answer shows on the site's page with the date it was given. After six weeks an answer stops counting as current and we ask again.
Where a site's own website says it has berths or a waiting list, we show that too, marked as such and dated.
Categories
- Canals: Marinas, basins and linear towpath moorings on the canal network: mostly narrowboats and widebeams, priced per foot or metre a year, with a navigation licence on top.
- Rivers: Non-tidal rivers and river navigations such as the Thames above Teddington, the Severn, Nene, Great Ouse and Trent: marinas, boatyards and riverbank moorings for cruisers and narrowboats.
- Broads, lakes & lochs: The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, the Lake District, Scottish lochs and inland reservoirs: boatyard staithes, lake moorings and swinging buoys.
- Estuaries & tidal rivers: Sheltered tidal water such as the Hamble, Dart, Medway, Orwell and the Thames tideway: marina pontoons, swinging moorings, piles and drying mud berths.
- Coast & harbours: Marinas and harbours on the open coast, from walk-ashore pontoons with lock gates or sills to harbour walls and fore-and-aft moorings.
Prices
Tariffs are recorded exactly as published, per metre, per foot, per boat or in length bands, and the site works out a year's cost for the boat length you enter. Electricity, VAT and extras vary; each tariff says what it includes where the site does.
Corrections
If you run a site and something is wrong, get an update link. Anyone else: tell the site, and tell us.