Camber Slip Write Up

[Neil Harvey]

Originally Posted by Nasher

Nick

Please tell me you don't park on the slip for 30mins

Now that really would piss me off if I turned up to launch.

Nasher

Would me too. Park in the car park, or if not enough room (always been OK when I've been there) then round the corner as Nasher showed on his pics. Get ready, then onto slip, launch and away

[Biggles]

30 Minutes. Seems about right to me. You drive 50 miles. So have to let the bearings cool down. Then you have to get everything sorted on the boat. The slip is big enough to allow you to do this to one side and there ain't no where else to do it unless you pay or break the law. Must admit it would be ignorant if you did all that right next to the water but the bit where the bent poles are gives you room to sort yourself out. And if your not doing that are you knackering your bearings just to be polite and clear the slipway or doing it all in the car park where you should pay for two parking tickets. Bet your not. And for good measure the road is full of yellow lines so you can't do it there. So whats your procedure for getting ready at the Camber. Legal answers only please. Not too sure if you can do it all legally off the slipway but I'd like to know.
As good as it is that slip needs a bit of help from the authorities. The fact they have taken up 90% of the trailer park shows you what they think of leisure boaters.

NR.

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by Biggles

30 The slip is big enough to allow you to do this to one side and there ain't no where else to do it unless you pay or break the law.

I think that's the crux of it-we were parking elsewhere and not paying to use the carpark so we didn't kit up there. Had we been using the carpark it probably would have paid to do it there. It would also have helped if there was room anywhere to kit up with the trailerpark so reduced and boats with for sale notices dumped on the road to the carpark.

As it was, we didn't get in anyones way as there wasn't anyone else there at the time.

[Tim M]

Nick I realise you're trying to be a law abiding upstanding citizen but you really can bend the rules a tad when getting your boat ready down there. I personally turn up, pull over in the main car park. Get everything ready. When ready I drive over to the slip, in the centre of the road, until the wheels of the trailer have passed the metal strip that goes over the road. This I have find gives me the best position and amount of space to be able to reverse easily. If the gate is open I simply pop in my 2.50, open it, reverse, put the boat in, tie it alongside the slip, drive the car to the top, turn left, go through the "no entry" signs, stop in front of the trailer park, park trailer, then either park behind the fish market, or take the car home and walk back depending on how long I'm going to out in the boat. I leave the gate open in the hope that it is still open when I come back. Even if someone has closed it the fishermen often open it again.

Conclusion: By not buying a parking ticket for my car and trailer while I'm getting ready, parking behind the fish market, and then leaving the gate open, a session at the camber typically costs me either nothing or £2.50. I have used the slip three times today for various ribs, and it cost me nothing. You can get a permit to park down there but you need to be a resident. Alternatively ask a member of the sailing club if they can get you a couple of day permits at £1.50 a pop.

[Nasher]

Nick

Apologies, I thought you meant you had parked actually on the slip.
The area alongside at the top can be useful and I’ve used it after recovering to strap the boat back down etc.

As Tim says, being a commercial fishing area there is a lot of slack about parking up whilst sorting the boat out ready to launch, on a busy weekend I once saw a queue to use the slip, which ran along the road back towards Ken Browns, which is worth noting so that ‘slip etiquette’ is not breached.

I’ll admit that I have never had to put any money in the slot to open the gate, so must have been lucky.
At weekends I also have access to a gated car park five minutes walk away that is big enough for me to drive in and out with the trailer on the back, so have only paid for parking when launching during the week.

Nasher.

[Sarah G]

Hi there

Well we did our first launch from Camber Slip on Thursday. That went really smoothly - the car park allows a maximum of 3 days at £8 per day. The trailer park officially has sufficient spaces for 4 trailers but that depends on how well they have been parked. The gate to the slip was open the entire time as the fisherman were there when we arrived and when we left.

Retrieving on Sunday was a little more hairy as there were a lot of fisherman, ferries, ribs, etc. but we did it in the end.

Thanks for all the pictures, when we arrived, we could see what we were looking at - if that makes sense.

We had a great crossing to Cowes and back - managed to get up to 33 knots - it was great.

Sarah

[John Kennett]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Personally I'd rather just pay a bloke in a little hut the money. That would also give someone a job.

But then you'd be moaning that it cost £25 to use the slipway!

Even if you were daft enough to pay 4 lots of £2.50 to use the slip then it would still be reasonable value for a good slip in an excellent location.

John