Sawley

We have so far had a look around three marinas and now it’s the turn of Sawley marina as we continue our search for a possible Winter mooring.

Entering the marina we were greeted by this boat which is called Kyla II freedom of Scotland. It’s an impressive boat for more reasons than simple good looks. It is a complete one-off finished in 1973 at cost no object on Clydeside by a company called McGruer. They built wooden boats for more than two hundred years. A boat in the water needs a certain amount of depth called draught, around here there is never more than about four feet, this boat needs six feet.So what’s it doing here? Well it’s here for a lot of work during a complete (cost no object again) refit as it’s a Heritage boat maintained and preserved just the way a Listed building is, original as possible. It has Mahogany planking over naturally shaped Oak frames. And with a revolutionary (in it’s day) fin keel, the only one seen on a wooden yacht, common enough now on moulded boats but a brave idea then. All done, they say, by hand, involving no machinery. Altogether this yacht is unique so take a long look, from here she goes back to the Clyde for more work then on a tour of European boat shows and into the Mediterranean, Monaco, Malta, Greece. No strain at all since she’s done the Caribbean a few times. 

First impressions of the marina were very good and we had a walk around the Chandlery to start with . As well as a well stocked Chandlery they also stocked a few basic provisions such as Bread ,Milk etc. etc. which is ideal if you live a board and run out of anything .

After having a very friendly chat with the Lady in the office we were given a security key which we signed for and it allowed us to go anywhere we wanted to in the marina.

This is yet again another well kept marina and it is a lot cheaper than any of the other ones we have visited . Although it’s one of the biggest inland marinas in the country we got a feeling that it would be a good place to over Winter . It has a bus stop right outside the gate which takes you in to the centre of Nottingham and with coal and Tesco deliveries it seems perfect. as with the other marinas the livaboard boaters here were very friendly. We were told roughly were we would be mooring and we checked to see that it had good Internet and phone signal which it did.

There were a couple of things that were mentioned to us and that was that it’s on the flight path to East Midlands Airport and you can also hear the never ending drone of the M1 Motorway in the distance. There was also a clay shoot just out the back that operated on Sunday mornings. To be honest I think you would soon get used to all of those so I cant see it being a big problem.

One thing I was surprised at was that all the pontoons are fixed and not floating . Being on a river where levels can go up and down you would expect them to be floating .

All was going well and it was fast becoming top of our list for a Winter mooring until Carolyn saw this sign in the marina. We went back to the office and Carolyn asked about the risk of flooding in the marina. The Lady explained that the marina hasn't flooded for many years and that if it did the staff would be on duty 24 hours a day .She also said that if and when the pontoons went under water they would come out with small boats and pick people up. I just wished I had taken a picture of Carolyn’s face as this marina went from top of our list for Winter moorings to the bottom. Even though there are flood gates outside of  the marina between the River and the lock it seems that the mighty river Trent comes up through the fields opposite the marina. I would be more than happy to over Winter here and if it did flood I think it would be a good bit of fun , but at the end of the day if Carolyn is uncomfortable with it we will have to look at mooring somewhere else.

                                                                                                         Happy Days