Allocation of Moorings

Allocation of Pontoon Berths

The following represents the current policy of TCC Council regarding the allocation and use of pontoon berths. This has developed over the years since the pontoon became available. The changes in the type and size of craft and in the ‘behaviour’ of the membership require any such policy to have some flexibility. For example, over the last 10 years or so, there has been an increase in the number of members who leave for temporary locations outwith the Club or who sell and take a ‘sabbatical’ and, while maintaining full membership, state their intention to return and request that their names be added to the waiting list on leaving.

It is the Club’s policy to maintain a degree of flexibility in the area of mooring allocation in line with providing the best overall service to its members. For example, it could be appropriate to accommodate a long-established member who has become more infirm or is disabled in some way by making an Island Pontoon berth available as soon as one becomes available. The Club Council ratifies all such decisions made by the Moorings Convenor. It is also the Club’s policy to consider members who are not active in the Club and who make little use of their boats as unsuitable for a Pontoon berth. In what follows, the term ”mooring” should be taken to mean all Club wall moorings, drying moorings and fore & aft moorings in front of the Clubhouse. The term “berth” or means Pontoon berths.

Any boat-owning member must have occupied a Club mooring (currently for 5 years) to qualify for acceptance on the waiting list for an Island Pontoon berth. The 5-year period may be broken. For example, a member who removes his boat from a Club mooring and does not pay for a mooring fee may be placed at the bottom of the waiting list again for a Club mooring on payment of the appropriate fee, as set out in the Rules. The member must maintain full membership.

If any Member’s boat would be deemed unsuitable for a Club Mooring by the moorings committee, (probably as a result of the member changing his boat), then it can not be considered for a Pontoon berth.

For a member who relinquishes his pontoon berth, the following applies. The member may, on relinquishing his berth, request to be added to the bottom of the waiting list for a Club Mooring provided that he intends to return. The applicable date is that when a written application to go onto the waiting list, together with the Berthing Rights Fee deposit as set out in the Rules, is received. In his absence, the member would progress normally up the waiting list for a Club Berth. On his return, as soon as the member reaches the top of the waiting list and could be offered a mooring, the member can then request that his name be added to the Pontoon waiting list. It is expected that the member would take up the mooring offered if suitable for his boat,

A member may allow other boats to use his pontoon berth in the winter when his boat is ashore, provided the berth is suitable. The member temporarily occupying the berth must be a current Club mooring holder and have paid for his mooring. The Pontoon berth holder is not permitted to receive payment and must tell the Moorings Convenor before the empty berth is occupied; this is to enable the Marina to be informed where necessary.

Pontoon berths vacant in the summer, may, with the absent pontoon berth holders knowledge, be temporarily allocated by the moorings convenor to members on the waiting list for a pontoon berth. A berth left vacant for part of the summer, may also be used by the moorings convenor to ease the pressure on the landing pontoon and to help those members on drying moorings waiting for the tide. They would be expected to move at the next suitable tide.

Any member allocated a Pontoon berth may be asked to relocate to an alternative pontoon berth deemed suitable for his boat in order to accommodate continual changes in boat sizes on the pontoon.

Member Leaving Mooring

Once a Member has paid for his mooring, and the fee passed to the Marina, then should the member leave, he is not automatically entitled to a refund. However, the Convenor should request the new berth holder(s) pay what he is due to the original occupier. The details of the process are covered in a separate guideline.

Dinghy Storage

The new mooring holder should be made aware of the necessity to have identification on his dinghy. This number will be allocated to him by the Clubhouse Convenor.  The new mooring holder will be given a location either in the dinghy cage, on the hard or elsewhere as appropriate. Usually this will be the location of the previous berth holder’s dinghy.

Dinghy Carousel

It is normal to allocate slots on the carousel to berth holders who have ‘hard’ dinghies, applied to use the carousel and, in the opinion of the Moorings Convenor, are sufficiently infirm that they would find difficulty in using the slip and the winch system. There some dinghies on the Carousel whose owners do not conform to the requirement. This is because, when it was installed, there was no big demand to use it and so they were allocated places on request. However as these members retire the allocation criteria will be applied.

Dinghy Identification

In order to identify members with two dinghies and those which are essentially abandoned, the Club requires that all boat owners to mark their dinghies with a number. Numbers were required because many members objected to marking their dinghy with their boat name for security reasons. The numbers are recorded in the database and so it is possible to maintain this identification system. A new boat-owning member would be asked to mark his dinghy with the number allocated by the Council.

It would be possible to extend this ‘number system’ to apply to cradle identification and so allow any unmarked cradles to be disposed of.