Swinging Mooring Costs in the UK 2026/27: Moorings vs Marina Berths

A swinging mooring is usually the cheapest way to keep a cruising boat afloat in Britain. How much cheaper depends on where you are, what the harbour includes and how you get out to the boat. We read the 2026/27 tariffs from a dozen harbours, operators and mooring associations and worked out what a year really costs for an 8, 10 and 12 metre boat.

Every autumn the same sum gets done in clubhouses up and down the coast. The marina invoice arrives, somebody points out that the boat spent most of the summer tied to a pontoon it barely left, and the conversation turns to moorings.

It's a fair question. On the published 2026/27 prices, a 10 metre yacht on a deep water swinging mooring in the Dart costs about £2,070 a year including harbour dues. The same boat on an annual marina berth at Mylor, in the Fal, costs £8,010. That is a big gap for a boat that spends the same number of days at sea.

But the comparison is rarely that simple. Some mooring prices include the water taxi, tender storage and a winter berth ashore. Others are the bare rent of a buoy, with harbour dues, strops, lifting, tender space and car parking all added separately. Some harbours charge by the metre, some by length band and some by a fixed mooring class whatever your boat measures. And many of the cheapest moorings have waiting lists measured in years.

This guide sets the numbers side by side. Everything here comes from tariffs that the harbour authorities and operators publish themselves, read in October and November 2026. The sources are listed at the end.

The short answer

• Harbour authority swinging moorings for a 10 metre boat run from about £1,060 to £3,020 a year on the tariffs we read, once harbour dues are added. Fowey is at the bottom of that range. Poole, kept on a PHC mooring all year, is at the top.
• Same operator, mooring against marina: at Mylor a 10 metre boat pays £3,420 for an annual swinging mooring against £8,010 for an annual marina berth. Falmouth Haven charges £2,205 for a summer and winter serviced mooring against £7,465 for a marina berth. In both cases the mooring is well under half the price.
• The gap is smaller on the east coast. At Brightlingsea a 10 metre marina berth is £3,725 a year and a Bumpkin Bay mooring is £1,168, both before harbour dues. At Suffolk Yacht Harbour the annual pontoon is £5,052 including VAT against £2,100 for a summer mooring, and both include hardstanding.
• Check what is included. Mylor's mooring fee covers the water taxi, a parking space, tender storage and the option to go ashore at any point in the contract. Fowey's swinging rental includes harbour dues and the mooring licence. Dart, Brightlingsea, Poole and Chichester add harbour dues on top.
• Owning your own mooring is cheaper again, but you pay for the tackle and its upkeep. In Poole the annual paperwork on a private mooring for a 10 metre boat comes to about £522 including dues, before inspection and maintenance.
• Waiting lists are the real cost in some harbours. The Dart says its pontoon lists are "10 years plus". Salcombe only accepts waiting list applications from South Hams Council Tax payers and says allocation "may take many years".

How we did the sums

Mooring tariffs are harder to compare than marina price lists, so these are the rules we used.

1. Three boat sizes. We priced an 8 metre, a 10 metre and a 12 metre monohull. Multihulls usually pay more: Rye, Brightlingsea and Suffolk Yacht Harbour all charge 1.5 times the monohull rate.
2. Prices including VAT where the source gives them that way. Dart Harbour, Mylor, Falmouth Haven, Brightlingsea, Chichester and the Rye mooring fees are published including VAT. Suffolk Yacht Harbour publishes everything before VAT, so we've added 20%. Poole publishes both. Fowey's tariff doesn't say whether VAT is included, so we've shown its figures as published.
3. Harbour dues added where they are separate. A mooring fee and harbour dues are different things. Dues are what the harbour authority charges for using the harbour at all, and in most places you pay them on top of your mooring. Where an operator includes dues in its price, we say so.
4. A full year afloat unless stated. Some harbours sell a summer season and a winter season separately, and some only sell summer. We show what the tariff offers.
5. Rounding. Dart and Fowey both round lengths up to the nearest half metre. Rye charges per metre "or part thereof". A boat that measures 10.2 metres overall, including the bow roller, pulpit and any bathing platform, may be charged as 10.5 or 11 metres. Measure your boat the way the harbour does.
6. No guesses. Where a harbour doesn't publish a figure, we've left it out. Lymington Harbour Commissioners' resident mooring tariff is published as a PDF, but we couldn't open it in full when we checked, so it isn't in the tables.

None of this is a quote. Mooring allocation depends on depth, availability and the harbour master's discretion, and you may be offered a different type of mooring from the one you asked for.

What you are actually paying for

Before the tables, it helps to separate the four things that can appear on a mooring bill.

Harbour dues. A charge for using the harbour, usually per metre per year. In 2026/27 it's £24.49 per metre in the Dart, £26.45 per metre including VAT in Poole and £25.40 per metre in Fowey. Chichester and Brightlingsea charge by length band instead: a 10 metre boat pays £129.45 in Chichester and £69.58 in Brightlingsea. Rye's annual harbour fee for leisure craft is £30 per metre, and its tariff says VAT is chargeable on dues and that charges are shown excluding VAT unless stated, so budget £36 a metre.

The mooring itself. The rent of the ground tackle and buoy, or the licence to keep your own tackle on the seabed. This is the number most people quote, and on its own it can be misleading.

Access. A tender and somewhere to keep it, or a water taxi. Either way there's a cost unless the operator bundles it in.

Maintenance. Moorings wear. Chain, shackles, swivels, risers and strops all need inspecting and replacing. On a harbour mooring that's usually included, at least for the ground tackle. On a private mooring it's yours to pay for.

Harbour authority and operator moorings, 2026/27

These are moorings you rent. The harbour or operator owns and maintains the ground tackle and you pay an annual fee for the use of it.

Dart Harbour

Dart Harbour and Navigation Authority publishes one of the clearest tariffs on the south coast. All charges include VAT where applicable, and lengths are rounded up to the nearest half metre.

Harbour dues of £24.49 per metre are payable on top for boats of 4 metres and over. The harbour takes 25% off annual dues paid during March for the year starting 1 April, which on a 10 metre boat saves £61.23.

Worked out for our three boats on a deep water swinging mooring:

A shallow water swinging mooring (1 to 3 metres) brings the 10 metre boat down to £1,696.30 including dues.

Getting to the boat is the next cost. Dart Harbour says most of its moorings are reached by its own yacht taxi, which runs daily all year. If you'd rather use your own tender, an annual place in a Dartmouth, Kingswear or Dittisham dinghy rack (up to 3.4 metres) is £128.42, a drying walk-ashore pontoon berth for a dinghy is £154.95 and an afloat one is £241.62. All of these have waiting lists of their own.

Mylor Yacht Harbour, Fal estuary

Mylor is useful because it sells a marina berth, a swinging mooring, a dry berth and storage ashore from one price list, so you can compare like with like. All prices include VAT and there's a 6.1 metre minimum charge.

What makes Mylor's mooring good value is the list of inclusions. The annual swinging mooring includes "a fully serviced mooring afloat or berth ashore at any time during the contract period", parking for one car, the water taxi, tender storage ashore, mast storage and 25% off visitor fees in the marina. Owners without a Mylor mooring pay £154 a season for the water taxi, or £3.20 a trip per person, so the taxi alone is worth something.

Lifting is extra. Mylor charges £35.20 per metre each way for boats under 13 metres, including the tow to or from the mooring, and £11.30 per metre to pressure wash below the waterline.

That gives an interesting result. If you want the boat ashore for the winter, the annual swinging mooring is cheaper than buying a summer mooring and winter storage separately:

The annual mooring wins by £910. The marina berth, which also allows the boat ashore at any time, costs nearly twice as much again.

Mylor's price list doesn't mention separate harbour dues. Ask whether any apply to your mooring before you sign.

Falmouth Haven

Across the estuary, Falmouth Harbour's Falmouth Haven sells serviced moorings by facility length, with separate summer (1 April to 31 October) and winter (1 November to 31 March) prices. The winter price only applies if you've had the summer mooring; winter alone is charged at the summer rate. Prices include VAT and the fees include Falmouth harbour dues.

So an 8 metre boat pays £1,445 for the year, a 10 metre boat in an 11 metre facility pays £2,205 and a 12 metre boat in a 13 metre facility pays £2,650. A premium chain strop and a support buoy are included. A first-time allocation fee of £170 covers the first fitting of the strop and buoy.

The marina next door costs £5,990 a year for an 8 metre berth, £7,465 for 10 metres and £8,986 for 12 metres. The mooring is roughly a quarter to a third of the marina price.

The extras are where the bill grows. A tender berth (up to 3 metres, only available with a seasonal mooring) is £605 in summer and £435 in winter. Rope strops, if you'd rather not use the chain one, run from £105 for 16mm three-strand to £383 for a 24mm multi-plait bridle. Mooring holders get 50% off an annual launch and recovery permit and 25% off summer dinghy park spaces.

Fowey Harbour

Fowey Harbour Commissioners build their prices from three parts: harbour dues (£25.40 a metre), the mooring licence (£18.92) and the rental. The 2026 tariff shows the totals for you.

Lengths are rounded up to the nearest half metre. The tariff doesn't say whether VAT is included, so check before you budget.

At £1,060.70 for a 10 metre boat including dues, Fowey was the cheapest rented swinging mooring we found. Joining the waiting list costs £83.79. Renewals unpaid after 15 February pick up a 25% admin fee, and any still unpaid after the end of February are revoked.

Fowey also prices the jobs around the mooring. A strop service or repair is £151.97, and having the harbour remove, clean and store your strop over winter is £101.05. Winter storage ashore with craneage and chocking is £163.15 a metre, which doesn't include harbour dues, and towing to or from a mooring is £92.50.

Poole Harbour Commissioners

Poole Harbour Commissioners publish their seasonal swinging moorings by band rather than per metre. These run from 1 April to 31 October (Holes Bay moorings are annual), and winter moorings from 1 November to 31 March are charged at 60% of the summer rate, subject to location and insurance. Recreational harbour dues are £26.45 per metre including VAT.

If the boat comes out for the winter, the 10 metre summer mooring with dues is £1,984.46.

Poole is the most expensive rented mooring in our sample for a full year afloat. It's also one of the few harbours that publishes a straightforward price for winter on the same mooring, which helps if you plan to sail all year.

Chichester Harbour Conservancy

Chichester Harbour Conservancy maintains more than 600 moorings and charges a fixed annual price for each mooring class, whatever the exact length of your boat. Moorings are classed by depth (A is more than 0.5 metres; B is from 0.5 metres to drying 1 metre; C dries 1.1 to 2.5 metres) and by maximum boat length (class 3 is 6.01 to 9 metres, class 2 is 9.01 to 11 metres and class 2XL is 11.01 to 14 metres). All prices include VAT and run for twelve months from 1 April.

With dues, a 10 metre boat pays £2,407.33 on a premium deep water mooring at Itchenor or £2,281.70 at Emsworth. Nutbourne moorings, which are reached from the dinghy chains at Prinsted Point or from Thornham Marina within a few hours of high water, are a third cheaper: an A2 is £1,442.01.

Drying moorings cost much less. A C3 at Emsworth is £597.88, and the Conservancy describes the Emsworth Pool moorings as having good access for about three hours either side of high water for boats up to 9 metres that can take the ground.

Fixed pricing by class cuts both ways. A 9.1 metre boat pays the same as an 11 metre one on an A2, so a short boat in a long class pays more per metre than the headline suggests.

Timing matters here. The Conservancy asks for a non-returnable deposit of 20% of the annual fee in November, with the balance due by 14 March. If you're a current holder reading this in November, that deposit is due now. There's also an option to retain a mooring for a year at 15% of the annual rate.

The extras are modest and clearly priced: £75 a year to secure a tender under 4 metres to the Conservancy's chains, £140 for an annual car parking permit at Itchenor or Westlands, and £75 for the boathouse and lockers at Westlands. The Conservancy's Emsworth moorings come with a free water taxi for hirers about two hours either side of high water on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays from April to September.

Brightlingsea Harbour

Brightlingsea Harbour Commissioners publish summer and annual prices per metre for swinging, fore and aft and pontoon moorings, all including VAT. Harbour dues are charged by length band on top.

For our 10 metre boat:

An 8 metre boat on a Bumpkin Bay Middle mooring pays £989.98 with dues, and a 12 metre boat £1,483.08. The water taxi costs £2 each way per person, or 10 tokens for £15. The tariff marks the annual pontoon and marina rates as available on standing order payment plans, and the marina's 12 month instalment plan works out at £409.76 a metre, so ask how you'll be paying before you compare.

Suffolk Yacht Harbour, River Orwell

Suffolk Yacht Harbour at Levington publishes its prices before VAT, so we've added 20%. Its swinging mooring is a summer contract (1 April to 31 October) for boats of 6 to 12 metres, and both the mooring and the annual pontoon berth include hardstanding.

Boats with a beam over 3.75 metres are charged an extra metre of length for every 0.25 metres over, which can push a beamy modern 10 metre boat's pontoon price up noticeably. SYH takes 5% off a single advance payment on an annual pontoon berth, a swinging mooring or winter berthing when you pay by cash, cheque or bank transfer.

On these numbers the mooring and winter ashore costs a little over half of the pontoon berth. The gap is narrower than in Cornwall because East Anglian marina prices start lower.

Rye Harbour

Rye Harbour is run by the Environment Agency, which publishes its charges on GOV.UK. Annual moorings at Rye Harbour Road, Simmons Quay and Strand Quay west are £143 a metre including VAT, with a 6 metre minimum, and the Strand Quay pontoon is £220. Leisure craft also pay the annual harbour fee of £30 a metre, plus VAT.

Rye's conditions are worth reading even if you never go there, because they are typical. There are no refunds for part of a year. No mooring can be shared, assigned or sub-let without the harbour master's written consent. The harbour must be told in writing if the boat is sold. And every boat must carry third party insurance of at least £1,000,000.

The headline comparison

Here are the rented moorings for a 10 metre monohull, cheapest first. Totals include harbour dues and VAT where the source gives them, and are for a full year afloat unless the column says otherwise.

And the same operators' marina or pontoon berths for the same boat:

Harbour dues are left out of the second table because the same dues apply whichever berth you choose.

For a wider view of marina prices, our UK and Spain berthing cost comparison found annual marina berths for a 10 metre boat from about £3,850 in Pembrokeshire to about £9,560 at Lymington Yacht Haven including harbour dues. Even against the cheapest of those marinas, the harbour authority moorings here save roughly £1,500 to £2,800 a year, and in the Solent or Cornwall the saving can be £5,000 or more.

Owning your own mooring

In many harbours you can lay or buy your own tackle and pay the harbour for a licence to keep it on the seabed. It's normally the cheapest way to hold a mooring, and the least convenient, because the upkeep is yours.

What the paperwork costs

Poole publishes the clearest breakdown. A private swinging mooring needs a one-off registration fee of £36.41, an annual Crown Estate charge of £154 and an annual PHC licence fee by boat length, and the licence fee carries a 25% surcharge if it isn't paid by 30 April.

In Fowey a private mooring costs £44.32 a metre a year for dues and licence together, so £443.20 for a 10 metre boat.

On the Tamar, the Holes Hole Mooring Association shows another model. Its members' moorings are privately owned, and the association's annual charge for April 2026 to March 2027 is £320 whatever the boat's length or draught, covering the share of the mooring field and admin costs. Members must have their moorings inspected and serviced every year under the King's Harbour Master's licence for Plymouth, and most use the Weir Quay Sailing Club barge crew, which charges club members £97 a year for the inspection and any chain and shackle replacements, provided the mooring matches the club's specification. Joining the waiting list costs a refundable £100 deposit.

What maintenance costs

Ground tackle does wear out, and harbours expect proof that it has been checked.

• Annual inspection. On the Hamble, Hamble Ferry charges from £180 plus VAT for an annual mooring inspection with a certificate for the River Hamble Harbour Master and insurers. On the Tamar, the Weir Quay club fee above is £97 including standard replacement parts.
• Strops. Falmouth Haven's rope strops run from £105 to £203 for a single strop and from £180 to £383 for a bridle. Fowey charges £151.97 to service or repair a strop.
• Inspection timing. Holes Hole says servicing usually happens around the big spring tides near the spring equinox, when deeper moorings are easiest to reach. Poole requires that its winter moorings are made available for servicing.

Salcombe's Moorings Policy shows what a harbour expects tackle to look like. For a 6.1 metre boat on a foreshore mooring it specifies 6 metres of 13mm chain and 2.5 metres of 19mm chain on a block of over 75kg. Holders of privately maintained moorings there must confirm every year that the mooring has been maintained.

We didn't find a published all-in price for buying and laying a new private mooring, which varies with the seabed, the depth and the boat. Ask a local mooring contractor for a written quote, and ask the harbour first whether a new site would be licensed at all.

When renting makes more sense

Owning saves money if you keep the mooring for years and the harbour lets you. In practice many harbours don't let private moorings change hands freely. Salcombe's licences are personal and can't be transferred or sub-let. Rye needs written consent to assign a mooring. On the Tamar, Holes Hole notes that most members inherited or bought their moorings from a previous owner, and that their Port of Plymouth licence is non-transferable. If you sell your boat or give up sailing, you may not be able to sell the mooring with it.

The costs that don't show up in the mooring fee

Getting to the boat

Every swinging mooring needs a way out to it, and this is where the cheapest moorings can stop looking cheap.

A couple using the Brightlingsea taxi every weekend from April to October will spend about £180 at the token rate. At Falmouth Haven a tender berth for the whole year adds £1,040 to a £2,205 mooring. A rigid dinghy, an outboard and the fuel are costs in their own right.

Salcombe's taxi is a good example of the seasonal limits. In 2026 the full service runs from 08:00 to 23:00 every day from 3 April to 20 September, weather and operations permitting, but from late September to March it drops to four pre-booked trips on weekdays only. Plan for how you'll reach the boat in March.

Lifting and winter storage

Very few moorings are as useful in a southwesterly gale in January as they are in July. Many owners lift out for the winter, and that changes the sums. Mylor's lift is £35.20 per metre each way including the tow, Suffolk Yacht Harbour's is £27.08 per metre plus VAT, and Fowey charges £163.15 per metre for winter storage including craneage and chocking.

Our guide to winter boat storage costs has worked examples for yards around the country. If you're comparing options for next year, look at the boatyards on Jack & Anchor near your preferred mooring, since a mooring close to a yard with a good hoist saves on towing.

Insurance

Mooring holders need third party cover, and the minimum varies by harbour:

• Rye requires at least £1,000,000.
• Salcombe requires £3,000,000 for all craft using the estuary, and says failure to maintain it means withdrawal of moorings and launching.
• Holes Hole requires £3,000,000 plus evidence of wreck recovery and removal cover, in line with the King's Harbour Master's rules.

Insurers may also ask about your mooring, its last inspection and whether the boat is left afloat over winter. Have the details to hand when you get boat insurance quotes.

Payment dates and penalties

Mooring fees are mostly due in advance and deadlines are strict.

Use it or lose it

Harbours with waiting lists don't like idle moorings. Salcombe's policy reallocates moorings that haven't been used for two years, and lets holders be absent for 12 to 24 months at half the fee. Poole and Chichester both ask that moorings are available for servicing. If you're planning a long cruise away, check the rules before you go.

Waiting lists

The cheapest mooring is no use if you can't get one. Here is what the harbours themselves say.

Dart. The waiting list page says its pontoon moorings "all have a long waiting list of 10 years plus", that the Kingswear trots are faster at "normally around 2 years", and that Dittisham deep water swinging moorings typically take 5 years. It suggests joining a short list to get a berth quickly and a long list for the berth you really want. Applicants pay a refundable deposit plus a non-refundable registration fee for each list. Local people living within 2,000 metres of a walk-ashore mooring, and boats with no internal combustion engine, can be moved up the list by up to two years. The Dart also requires holding tanks on boats with marine toilets, immediately for boats over 12 metres and by 2028, 2030 or 2032 for smaller boats.

Salcombe. Waiting lists are only open to South Hams District Council Tax payers, and the guide says allocation "may take many years". The harbour has 166 resident deep water swinging moorings.

Fowey. A waiting list registration fee of £83.79.

Holes Hole, Tamar. An informal list with a £100 refundable deposit.

Chichester. The Conservancy describes Sweare Deep vacancies as "rare" and publishes an availability page. Unlet moorings are offered at a discount of 10% a month from 1 June, which is worth knowing if you can wait until midsummer.

If you need somewhere this season, it's worth joining more than one list and looking at harbours a little further from home. A drying or shallow mooring is often available much sooner and costs far less. In Chichester a C3 drying mooring at Emsworth costs about a quarter of a premium A2 at Itchenor, and in the Dart a mud berth is £48.60 a metre against £182.58 for deep water.

Who a swinging mooring suits

A mooring is a good choice if:

• You sail most weekends from April to October and don't need shore power on board.
• Your boat has solar or enough battery capacity to cope without a plug for weeks at a time.
• You're happy with a tender or taxi in all weathers, including getting family, crew and shopping aboard.
• You have a yard nearby for winter storage, or you choose a contract like Mylor's that includes going ashore.
• You're prepared to wait for a good mooring, or to start on a drying or shallow one.

A marina berth may be the better buy if:

• You use the boat for short visits and want to step aboard with no tender.
• You rely on shore power for heating, a fridge or batteries.
• Crew members have mobility needs. Dart Harbour's waiting list form asks about access requirements for this reason.
• You want to work on the boat in the berth, with water and power alongside.
• The boat is large, heavy or windy enough that you'd rather not leave it swinging through autumn gales.

The money in this guide is real. Over five years at Mylor, a 10 metre boat on a mooring rather than the marina saves £22,950 at 2026/27 prices. At Brightlingsea the saving is about £12,800, and in the Dart against a Kingswear Island pontoon with services it's about £9,250. If a mooring works for the way you sail, it's one of the biggest savings available in boat ownership.

If you're buying a boat to keep on a mooring, factor it into the purchase. A boat that will spend the winter swinging needs sound deck cleats or a samson post, good fairleads and a well maintained hull, and a pre-purchase survey is the right time to ask about all three.

Sources

All tariffs were read in October and November 2026 for the 2026/27 season unless stated.

• Dart Harbour and Navigation Authority, Schedule of Charges, Leisure, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027
• Dart Harbour, Waiting List
• Mylor Yacht Harbour, Services and Charges
• Falmouth Harbour, Falmouth Harbour 2026 Fees
• Fowey Harbour Commissioners, Schedule of Charges 2026
• Poole Harbour Commissioners, Recreational Charges 2026/27
• Chichester Harbour Conservancy, Maintained Moorings and Mooring Charges 2026/2027
• Chichester Harbour Conservancy, Harbour Dues and Charges, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027
• Brightlingsea Harbour Commissioners, Leisure Schedule of Charges from 1 April 2026
• Suffolk Yacht Harbour, Marina and Berthing, Scale of Charges
• Environment Agency, Rye Harbour: navigation charges 2026 to 2027
• Salcombe Harbour Authority, Salcombe Harbour Guide 2026
• Salcombe Harbour Authority, Moorings Policy
• Holes Hole Mooring Association, Annual Moorings
• Hamble Ferry, Moorings

Header photo: Boat moorings on the River Dart by John C, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.