How to Book a Visitor Berth in the UK

Marina pontoon berths are the most common in the UK. The boat lies alongside a floating pontoon or in a finger berth, with walk-ashore access, water and usually shore power. At busy marinas visitors may be asked to raft, lying alongside another boat rather than the pontoon: Cowes Yacht Haven, for example, is a rafting marina where visitors expect to raft or be rafted at peak times.

Harbour moorings are buoys laid by the harbour authority, reached by tender or water taxi. Alderney’s Braye Harbour keeps 70 yellow visitor buoys, and Salcombe has visitor buoys coloured by boat size: orange up to 10 metres and yellow over 10 metres. Some harbours also have isolated pontoons in mid-river, and many allow anchoring, with harbour dues charged at a lower rate.

Locked or sill-controlled marinas, such as Shoreham’s Lady Bee Marina or St Peter Port’s Victoria Marina, add a timing element: the berth may be booked, but it can only be reached when the lock or the tide allows.

Most marinas take bookings by telephone, by email or through an online form, and many also answer on VHF Channel 80. The arrangements differ widely between harbours, and each Old Sea Dogs guide sets out the procedure for that harbour.

At one end of the range, Shoreham’s Lady Bee Marina requires visitors to pre-book before locking in. At Brighton Marina, booking is strongly recommended and visitor rates can be booked online. Littlehampton Harbour Board strongly recommends advance booking for its visitor pontoon, by email, telephone or online form.

At the other end, Dover Marina states there is no need to book in advance, and visitors can pre-register using the port’s QR code to speed up check-in. Poole Quay Boat Haven recommends booking ahead in summer, but staff allocate the actual berth on the day of arrival over VHF Channel 80. At Ramsgate, marina staff allocate berths on Channel 80 in summer. In Braye Harbour on Alderney, the Harbour Office cannot reserve moorings at all, and in Salcombe moorings for boats arriving from the sea cannot be pre-booked, except overnight walk-ashore berths on Whitestrand.

Cowes Yacht Haven combines both approaches: a limited number of overnight berths can be pre-booked by telephone or email, and the remaining visitor berths are allocated on arrival for short stays, first come first served.

When booking, a harbour normally asks for the boat’s name, its length overall (LOA), beam and draught, the type of boat, the dates of arrival and departure and a contact number. Length and draught decide which berth will fit, and beam matters in finger berths and locks.

Length is defined by each harbour’s own terms. Newhaven Marina charges on length overall including any attachments, such as a bowsprit, davits or an outboard bracket, and Salcombe rounds the length up to the nearest metre. Larger boats are sometimes handled separately: at Ramsgate, craft over 15 metres LOA or 4 metres beam heading for the Western Marina submit a berthing request form.

Some harbours set insurance requirements. Guernsey Ports requires all vessels to carry at least £2 million of third-party insurance, and Salcombe Harbour requires visiting vessels to have £3 million.

Visitor charges are set per metre of length, per night or per 24 hours, and change with the season. Ramsgate’s 2026/27 rates are £4.15 per metre per 24 hours in summer (April to September) and £3.41 in winter, with electricity for one lead included. Newhaven Marina charges £4.30 per metre per day, and Littlehampton Marina £4 per metre on its pontoons. Sovereign Harbour’s visitor nights start at £4.50 per metre.

Moorings and anchorages are cheaper. Alderney charges £25 a night on a mooring, £10 at anchor and £40 for vessels over 14 metres. Salcombe’s harbour dues for anchoring are £1.15 per metre, with mooring charges that rise through the summer.

Short stays are usually charged separately. Ramsgate charges stays of under four hours at half the daily rate, Poole Quay Boat Haven offers short stays of up to four hours, and at Cowes Yacht Haven overnight berths run from 12:00 to 11:00 the following day, with a short-stay fee for earlier arrival or later departure. Long stays may need permission: in St Peter Port, visitors need permission to stay longer than 14 days or to leave the boat unattended for more than 24 hours, and in Salcombe stays of more than 14 days without a break need the Harbour Office.

Most marinas ask visitors to call on VHF on the approach. Channel 80 is the usual marina channel in UK waters, but some use their own: Sovereign Harbour works on Channel 17, Yarmouth Harbour on 68 and Brighton Marina on 80 or 37. In ports with commercial traffic, the port authority’s permission comes first. At Dover, boats call Dover VTS on Channel 74 from two miles out and only call the marina on Channel 80 once inside; at Ramsgate, Port Control on Channel 14 gives permission before the marina allocates a berth.

Some marinas name a default place to go if no one answers the radio. At Brighton Marina, visitors go to pontoons 10 and 11 and report to reception on the first floor of the West Jetty. Once berthed, the crew registers at the marina office, pays, and is given any access codes or cards for gates and showers.

The harbour guide for each port lists its own arrival steps.

Visitor berthing in France and Belgium works in a similar way, with berths charged per metre and allocated by the marina office; the marinas at Cherbourg, Calais, Boulogne and Dunkerque all work on VHF Channel 9. Port Chantereyne in Cherbourg charges from noon to noon and registers visitors at the harbour office with the boat’s papers. Arriving from the UK also means following the border procedures in the Crossing the Channel guide.